Dramatix- ANZAC Presentation!

E nga mana,
E nga reo,
E nga karangatanga maha,
E nga Totaranui kua hinga atu ki te po, moe mai moe mai ra i roto i nga ringa mahana o te Atua. Ma te Atua koutou e manaaki, e tiaki i tenei wa!

'They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them"

On Wednesday 17 April Te Pouahi 15 attended a very special presentation on WWII and the effects that it had on the countries involved. This presentation was presented by a very talented group of actresses and actors, young and old. It was set at Founders Park. When we arrived at Founders Park we were greeted by two people, a sergeant and a nurse. They instructed us all on what we were about to embark upon and that in the days of the war children were, 'seen and not heard'!
From that very moment we all knew that we were about to go on an adventure. 
We were then lead to the Granary and split into two groups. We were told that during wartime tamariki were sent to live in rural settings. Sometimes the farms/homes that they were sent to were owned by their whanau. However, more often than not they were of no relation to the tamariki. 
Tamariki often found that this was to become their new home permanently as their whanau never returned from the war. Sadly this was the case for many, many tamariki. Te Pouahi 15 tamariki thought this was very sad. 
We were then given morse codes and we had 'to 'crack the code' . All tamariki were very engaged and did a marvelous job. Some of the tamariki thoroughly enjoyed this task in particular and had said to me and the parent helpers that attended, that they may have found their true calling in life- to be an official code cracker!

A gentleman then came to fetch us from the Granary and led us to another building close by and we entered into,'The Blitz'. The Blitz was the name for the German bombing of England during the Second World War. The German word ' Blitzkreig' means 'Lightning', and it must have truly been like a terrible storm overhead, when the bombs were falling.

The Blitz  began on September 7 1940 and on the first night alone 2000 people were injured or killed. During The Blitz 32 000 were killed, 87 000 were seriously injured.

I have inserted photos from both The Granary activity- 'Code Cracking' and 'The Blitz'. I apologise for the poor quality of some of the photos. However, they were taken in very dark surroundings.

All tamariki, parent helpers, Moritz and I really enjoyed this excursion and it was a remarkable way of teaching the tamariki about the hardships and the horror of war!