ANZAC Day 2026
On Friday, our School community will pause to remember at our whole school ANZAC Service. Over the weekend, some of us will attend dawn services, ceremonies and twilight services with family and friends.
Others will march, or watch, or simply take a quiet moment.
However we mark the day, we do so together and that matters – as it is a time for us to reflect and remember.
Of the many thousands who have served our country in times of both conflict and peacekeeping, many never came home. Those who did were forever changed. From that experience, from loss, not victory, our nation found something worth holding onto. Courage, mateship, endurance, and an unwillingness to leave anyone behind.
These are fine examples for our daily lives. More than a century later from the first ANZAC landing at Gallipoli, those values still resonate. Not because war is glorious – it isn’t. But because people who served showed us what ordinary people are capable of when they look after each other.
That is the ANZAC lesson I hope our students carry with them.
Not just the landing. Not just the legend. The quieter truth underneath it: that service matters. That showing up for the person next to you is the most important thing any of us can do.
ANZAC Day also asks us to remember what came after. Many who served carried wounds that weren’t visible. They came home to families who loved them but didn’t always know how to help. The generations that followed inherited both the strength and the silence. Part of honouring their legacy is making sure we do better. That we check in, that we ask the hard questions, and that we never mistake silence for strength.
At Pittwater House, we are fortunate to be a community that values care as much as achievement. Our students learn every day that being brave doesn’t mean being tough. It means being honest, being kind, and being willing to stand up for others and for yourself.
This Friday and over the weekend, I encourage every family to mark ANZAC Day in whatever way feels right. Attend a service. Watch the march. Share a story with your children about a family member who served. Or simply take a moment to reflect on what it means to be part of something bigger than overselves.
The men and women we remember this week were not superheroes. They were teachers, farmers, shop assistants, students. They were ordinary Australians who did extraordinary things because the moment asked it of them.
We remember them not with fanfare, but with gratitude and with a promise to live in a way that honours what they gave.
Lest We Forget.