It has been a few years now since the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee established its program of linking schools in Australia with those in Greece to create international connection and help student learning through building awareness of the Hellenic link to Anzac. The program is going from strength to strength.
Recent weeks has seen the expansion of the program to the students and staff of South Oakleigh College, a school with many students of Hellenic heritage given its surrounding community. The school is proud of its teaching of the contribution of Hellenic and Classical civilisation to the modern world as well as the Greek language, of which the latter is taught from Years 7 to 12. In a recent meeting with Committee Vice President and program coordinator Ms Christina Despoteris, Principal Helen Koziaris committed the school to working to link its community with a secondary school on Lemnos.
Discussions are also underway to hold photographic exhibitions and presentations on the Hellenic link to Anzac at the school’s excellent exhibition and auditorium facilities. Students and staff aim to participate in the annual commemorations held by the Committee at the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial at Lemnos Square in Albert Park and at the Shrine. Ms Despoteris looked forward to the day when we might welcome students from the school on Lemnos as part of a study tour to Greece, and welcome those from Lemnos to South Oakleigh.
The program includes the use of skype sessions where students from both communities can interact and take part in common learning activities, encouraging students in both English and Greek language skills. Focusing on areas of mutual interest, the students are also made aware of the connection between the Hellenic and Australian communities through the bonds formed across both the First and Second World Wars but also in the waves of post-war migration.
READ MORE: Lemnos and Gallipoli remembered at Lemnos Square, Albert Park
The Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee has been visiting Melbourne schools to present complementary copies of their new book – Lemnos & Gallipoli Revealed – to selected secondary schools to both promote awareness of Lemnos and its role in Australia’s Anzac story as well as to expand our Lemnos Gallipoli Sister-School Program.
The program has been in operation for a number of years, beginning with the linking of Melbourne’s Alphington Grammar with the Voula Secondary School in Athens. As part of his involvement, Alphington Grammar hosted a special Anzac Day presentation on Lemnos in its great hall in 2016. This was followed by students and staff from Voula visiting their sister-school in Melbourne and conducted various educational activities, including a major excursion to Melbourne’s icon Shrine of Remembrance and the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial in Albert Park. In the latter, the tour group was led by myself, explaining the role of Lemnos in the Gallipoli campaign and the Hellenic origins in the design of the Shrine. And what visit to Melbourne would not be complete with a visit to the cafes and cake shops of Oakleigh’s Eaton Mall. The Greek language school of the Dandenong Greek Orthodox Community is also involved in the program, having already conducted a number of skype sessions between its students and those of the junior school at Mudros on Lemnos.
No linking of schools in Melbourne and Greece would be complete without involving Albert Park Secondary College. The school community there has been actively involved in the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial, the school’s Principal Steven Cook and students having participated in every annual commemoration held at the Memorial. The school is proud of its connection to Melbourne’s Hellenic heritage, with the area being the gateway to the settlement of many migrants from Greece after the Second World War. Linked with the senior school at Mudros on Lemnos, Albert Park have already held skype sessions with students and staff of both schools participating. Principal Steven Cook will take part in the annual commemorative services on Lemnos next year in April, as part of the Victorian delegation which will include Melbourne’s icon Shrine Guard.
READ MORE: Jim Claven’s ‘Lemnos and Gallipoli Revealed’ captures the ANZAC spirit
Discussions are also underway with St John’s College in Preston to join the program. Oakleigh Grammar has also developed an association with a high school in Thessalonik. It has also been a regular participant in the Committee’s annual commemorations at the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial and has hosted presentations and photographic displays on the Hellenic link to Anzac. Principal Mark Robertson recently invited me to present to the school assembly on Lemnos and Gallipoli, to mark the gifting of my book ‘Lemnos & Gallipoli Revealed’ to the school library.
A similar arrangement is underway with St John’s College. Following our presentation of the book to Co-Acting Principal Dr Derek Sherwood at their senior school assembly, discussion was held on including Lemnos and its role in Anzac in the school curriculum, participation of the school community in annual commemorations held by the Committee in Albert Park and establishing a sister-school arrangement with a school in Greece.
Ms Despoteris said that these activities can be very important to educational development of the school communities involved. “The connections between Australia and Greece stretching from Lemnos in 1915 to the post-war waves of migration provides a perfect subject on which to build new relationships between Greece and Australia with students and into future generations,” she said.
Schools interested in participating in the Lemnos Gallipoli Schools Program should contact Ms Christina Despoteris via email – christinad25@live.com.
- Jim Claven is a historian, freelance writer, Secretary of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee and author of Lemnos & Gallipoli Revealed: A Pictorial History of the Anzacs in the Aegean 1915-16. He can be contacted at jimclaven@yahoo.com.au.
