Rank and file pupils in Hub 4 at Hadlow School this term formed a Anzac Dad's Army and nurses' corps that were brought to life with a parade inspection at the school.
Pene Jackson, Hadlow School teacher and ex-Women's Royal New Zealand Naval Service sailor, said she was rapt with the 55 pupils comprising Learning Hub 4 and the drive and enthusiasm with which they had approached lessons about World War I ahead of Anzac Day.
The boys had "conscripted" themselves into a fighting unit they dubbed Dad's Army - echoing the title of a long-running late 1960s television series - and the girls in the hub formed a volunteer Anzac nursing corps.
On Tuesday, the group formed parade ranks in a classroom and welcomed Masterton Mayor Lyn Patterson as a special guest and, as a guest speaker, returned serviceman Trevor Thompson, who was a lance corporal in the New Zealand Army and had also served in the Territorial Forces.
Mr Thompson, who speaks te reo Maori, spoke to the hub about the formation and history of the 28th Maori Battalion, initially formed in World War I as the Native Contingent, and, alongside Mrs Patterson, inspected the assembled troops.
