“It was freezing cold,” teacher Robert Dart said.

Despite having two pairs of socks, extra layers and a blanket, he said he was still shivering.

“And you just think, solider fought in those conditions 100 years ago, pretty much to the hour that it was all happening, and we were sitting there frozen – you couldn’t complain,” he said.

“That was incredibly moving.”

The 22 students and three teachers capped off their three-week cultural and language trip to France by attending the dawn service at Villers-Bretonneux with 8000 others.

With extra security for the service this year, the students had to leave at 11.30pm to be there on time.

Students and teachers wore poppies knitted by year 11 student Meg Reuel’s grandmother, and wreaths made from the knitted poppies were laid at the memorial during the service.

“To be called out in a ceremony like that and lay a wreath at the dawn service on behalf of the family and behalf of her school was a big deal,” Mr Dart said.

“They walked past Prince Charles when the laid the wreath which was a bit special as well.” Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe were also there.

Students and teachers had each researched a fallen ANZAC from the south-west who was buried in a cemetery in the Somme region.

While in France they read the story of their ANZAC graveside in either the Villers-Bretonneux, Heath, Adelaide or Pozieres military cemeteries. 

“It’s always emotional when you’re in a cemetery, but I think the students were taken by surprise about how many graves there were, and to know that you researched this person last year and read it in France was quite a moving thing. It made it very real,” Mr Dart said.

As well as visiting museums and tourist attractions around Paris, the year 10-12 students also visited their sister school College Jacques Brel, a junior high school in Villers-Bretonneux, Piccardie. Students also got to look at the new $100 million John Monash Centre before the official opening.