A COMPETITION was launched for year nine students at St Augustine's Catholic High School as they continued to commemorate the centenary of the start of the First World War.

To mark the centenary year of the commencement of the First World War a project for thousands of state school students to visit battlefields in Ypres and Somme in April 2015 is among the educational initiatives that commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great War.

At St Augustine's, the history department launched a competition to decide which two students should go. Students were asked to design and made a permanent reminder of this poignant date in history.

A huge number of students, who have been moved by events in school, including a whole school memorial service on Armistice Day, embraced the idea and submitted their entries.

Judges had an unenviable task of deciding the overall winners.

Dominika Janke and Madi Farmer, with outstanding entries of a striking canvas silhouette and a depiction of the famous 'In Flanders Fields' poem by John McCrae against a beautiful image of a poppy, were eventually chosen.

These entries will be displayed permanently at St Augustine's as a commemoration. The girls will also take part in the four day trip to the battlefields of the First World War in France and Belgium in the new year.

The headteacher and staff said they were equally impressed with the designs created, and the way the students approached creating a memorial for this hugely important date in history.