Battle of Passchendaele digital technology competition for senior students

By Education Gazette editors

Issue: Volume 96, Number 8

Posted: 15 May 2017

Reference #: 1H9d7q

In commemoration of the Battle of Passchendaele, secondary school students are invited to enter a special digital technology competition that runs from May to July this year.

Senior school students are being invited to enter a very special curriculum competition. Ten students will win a trip to attend the 100th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium later this year.

The Ministry of Education is working with the sponsors, Fields of Remembrance Trust and the Passchendaele Society, to deliver the competition for students in New Zealand schools. Students need to be aged between 16 and 19 years on 2 July 2017 and can enter individually or in a group.

Using digital technology, students are asked to produce a curriculum resource for year 7–10 students about the Battle of Passchendaele. The winners will travel to Belgium to attend the National Commemoration Service on 12 October 2017 at the Tyne Cot Cemetery near Zonnebeke in West Flanders.

The Battle of Passchendaele on the Western Front was the scene of one of New Zealand’s darkest days in battle. In just one day on 12 October 1917 there were 2,700 casualties, including the loss of 846 lives.

“We are delighted to be working with the Fields of Remembrance Trust and the Passchendaele Society to bring this competition to New Zealand students during this commemorative period."

Our youth are our future and it’s important as they go into their future, that they remember the past, the sacrifices made for their freedom and for peace. This will be the trip of a lifetime for 10 young people and a great educational opportunity,” says Apryll Parata, Deputy Secretary, Parents Information and Community Intelligence.

“The response from schools and kura to our four year commemorative programme in partnership with the Fields of Remembrance Trust and now the Passchendaele Society has been brilliant.”

Tyne Cot Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery in the world. It contains the graves of 520 New Zealanders. Those New Zealanders missing in the Battle of Passchendaele are listed in the New Zealand Memorial to the Missing at the cemetery.

As well as the commemoration, the students will visit the Passchendaele Battlefields and surrounding areas and the Flanders Fields Museum. They will attend the New Zealand Memorial and Garden Opening on 12 October. There will be a stopover in Paris on the way to Belgium and a stopover in Amsterdam on the way back where they will visit Anne Frank’s House.

More information about the competition, including entry and consent forms, judging criteria and a poster is available on the Ministry’s website(external link)

The competition runs from 8 May to 2 July 2017. The winners will be announced on 24 July 2017.