About the project

After applying in late 2013, our school has just been awarded funding from the Federal Government to produce a 15-20 minute film about WWI and the meaning of ANZAC Day in a local context as told and shown by the children.  This film will involve our entire school community and will become a piece of history in itself.

The grant funding will allow two local  film makers, Linda and Helen who are part of the school community, to produce this film to a high professional standard.

Significantly, our CLG Primary School site was originally part of the Mitcham Army Camp, used for WWI training (including Light Horse) from 1915 to 1920: a significant WW1 training camp for South Australia.  The camp extended through the majority of present-day Colonel Light Gardens.  This direct connection will feature largely in the film using historical photographs, maps and documents with imaginative re-enactments by the children.

During 2015 children across all age groups will take part in WWI age appropriate activities. Activities will be developed in consultation with teaching staff that will provide appealing audio and visually interesting material.  For example, making and learning about poppies for Remembrance Day, making and learning about ANZAC biscuits, reading stories, re-enactments of army training, writing historical fiction or poetry, performing relevant music, artwork, exploring maps and making models , among many fun ideas!

The older children may research Gallipoli and other battles relevant to Mitcham Army camp soldiers, being a child, a soldier, a mother, a doctor or nurse, a POW from the era; and tell their subjects’ perspectives either from a real (with family connections) person, or construct a story around real soldiers from the local area, and researching WWI and its impact on Australia and the world but most significantly, the local people.

As a widely multicultural school the film is likely to include family perspectives of children from other countries involved in WWI, therefore being inclusive to all families, making their stories also “local” stories.  Children may present personal family photographs and artefacts.

These activities will be filmed and key shots from each activity will be creatively and professionally edited together including artwork and music to create a poignant but endearing and delightful documentation of WWI and the ANZAC story.  The film will be honest, imaginative but respectful, not necessarily literal or told as a linear account, but inventive and textural.  It will also reflect the educational approaches and technologies of today’s classrooms to cement the film in 2015.

The film will be entirely narrated across the age range of children, in their own words, as children will develop their own perspective on the War without having preconceived ideas or much prior knowledge.  A film featuring, researched, and narrated by children for children will be relevant, engaging and entertaining as much as educational.

Through the activities and filming the children will come to appreciate that history is always being created and that they themselves will be historically interesting in 25/50/100+ years!  They will become aware that the local CLG and wider South Australian community involved in WW1 were ordinary people just like them, who were caught up in extraordinary circumstances during a particularly challenging period.

The film will be a beautiful method of permanently commemorating the ANZAC Centenary for Colonel Light Gardens Primary School, the local wider Mitcham area and specific to South Australia as a future historical piece, reflecting the historical significance of CLG Primary School site to South Australia in WWI. The film will also provide a valuable resource for any primary school in Australia.

It will be filmed during the 2015 school year and screened in March/ April 2016.