Schools to join forces in tribute to soldiers

Students from across the Great Southern will pay tribute to the Anzacs as they parade through the streets of Albany on the eve of Anzac Day next week.

The Combined Schools Parade will include 2015 students from 32 schools marching down York Street to the Anzac Peace Park, where the Combined Schools Anzac Commemorative Service will take place on Friday, April 24.

The service, to be led and performed by Great Southern students, will feature poetry, speeches, wreath laying, a choir performance and guest speaker Air Chief Marshall Sir Angus Houston.

Albany Senior High School student Michael Taylor, who will deliver the keynote address at the service, a first person account of a soldier's journey from Albany to the battlefields of World War I, said being part of the parade and the service was a great privilege and an important legacy.

"Everyone should remember the Anzacs," he said.

"It's such a big part of our history and it is up to the youth of Australia to continue this story."

Great Southern Grammar student Isobel Guille, whose great-great-grandfather was Minister for Defence during WWI, said Anzac services were a way for her and her family to pay tribute.

"We have nothing left of my grandfather, nothing to show, so this is a way to remember him," she said."

"It's a big thing, what they did, and I want to acknowledge them."

Event chairman Alan Dowsett said the school service and parade would be a fitting complement to the city's Anzac Day commemorations.