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MILDURA South Primary School students are walking 100km in honour of Australia’s Kokoda veterans.

Students completed their first laps of the school on Monday and will continue walking every lunch time until November 10.

School psychologist teacher Maurie Milani said the experience gave students a snippet of what it was like to be a soldier on the Kokoda Trail during World War II, while also benefiting their learning.

“It is the means and the vehicle by which we develop leadership in the kids,” he said.

“And it works with our positive education philosophy: Kids who feel better about themselves do better.”

The school’s Kokoda Track Experience begun in 2019, but was disrupted by COVID.

Students are split into teams and have to complete tasks during their walk, such as putting up and packing down a tent, carrying person on a stretcher and radioing in to homebase.

Mr Milani hoped the teamwork aspect of the experience would strengthen the students’ relationships.

“The thing (the students) realised (on Monday) is they said ‘we never do anything as an entire group at lunch time. He does his thing, she does her thing, but now here we are, we are developing a sense of camaraderie as a group’,” he said.

“Over the next couple of weeks, the trek will get harder, rain, hail or shine, so I hope they (further) develop that sense of comradery.”

Each student is allocated a soldier to learn about and walk in honour of and Mr Milani said it was important to remember and commemorate them.

At the Remembrance Day ceremony at the end of the 100km, the students will read out the name of their soldier.

“They all walk up to the microphone and they announce who it was the walked for because there is a classic saying amongst veterans, particularly for those killed in action, A, don’t forget their name, B, don’t forget to call out their name,” he said.

“When we did this in 2019, we were told by RSL veterans that it was probably the first time their names had been read aloud since World War II.”

Mr Milani said as far as he was aware, Mildura South was the only primary school that ran an experience like this and was one of only a few schools that had their own war memorial.

Article written by: Sarah Buchecker

Article provided by The Sunraysia Daily
https://www.sunraysiadaily.com.au