War graves link for students

Graves of Stratford soldiers in Clermont, France were covered in poppies earlier this year by students of Stratford High School's sister school Collge Jean Fernel.

In a joint project with the New Zealand and French ministries of education, the "Shared Histories" programme was developed to commemorate World War 1.

Stratford High School was one of the first 10 schools in New Zealand to be a part of the programme and was paired with College Jean Fernel.

Teacher Margaret Bullen says it has been fantastic working with French school, "our students have already learned so much".

Margaret and teachers from Collge Jean Fernel agreed their project would focus on "local loss". With the help of the Stratford Genealogy group, the Year 10 students from Stratford High School researched and found the names of soldiers from Stratford and surrounding areas that were sent to the Western Front.

"The students were very enthusiastic with the research project, many even made connections to distant family members," Margaret said.

Ben Johns (15) says that he learned a lot through the local research. "I never really realised how involved New Zealand was in the war." Jake Vincent (14) found it interesting to hear how closely the French and New Zealand soldiers were. "The French looked after our soldiers over there, and where they had to bury soldiers they did it with care and respect."

Stratford High School sent all the research to the students at Collge Jean Fernel who then searched through the Longueval War Cemetery in the Somme and placed poppies on the sites of those names recognised by Stratford High School. A joint poppy wreath was also laid on behalf of both schools with personal messages from the students.

Students from both schools have also sent letters to one another about themselves and their interests as well as teaching one another about aspects of the war.

Teigan Parker (14) says this project has been eye-opening because she didn't know anything about World War 1, aside from the battle at Gallipoli. Alexa Richards (14) agrees. "I had no idea that so many New Zealand soldiers were also sent to the Western Front."