Students need to be aged between 16 to 19 years on 2 July 2017 and can enter individually or in a group.
The Ministry of Education is working with the sponsors, the Fields of Remembrance Trust and the Passchendaele Society, to deliver the competition for students in New Zealand schools and kura. This is a continuation of our four year commemorative programme in partnership with the Fields of Remembrance Trust and now the Passchendaele Society.
Using digital technology, students are asked to produce a curriculum resource for year 7 to 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 2700 casualties, including the loss of 846 lives.
Tyne Cot Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery in the world. It contains the graves of 520 New Zealanders and a memorial to those missing in battle.
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.
It is the trip of a lifetime for a group of students and will be an invaluable educational experience for them as they retrace the steps of those who fought for us in WW1 in Passchendaele and Flanders Field.
The competition runs from 8 May to 2 July 2017. Winners will be announced on 24 July 2017.