Dorothy Gardiner, a local sculptress and artist in residence, started this project in 1999 with the Junior children.� The work undertaken formed a significant part of The National Curriculum for Art and Design and gave the children the opportunity to work on a far larger scale than had hitherto been possible.

The plaque was designed to be constructed from individual panels so that as many children as possible could have a �hands on� experience of sculptural techniques.� After much discussion about appropriate materials, size, position, and content, the project was begun.

It was decided that the panels would depict aspects of the school, our two local churches, significant village buildings and monuments and the environment in general.� With Dorothy�s guidance, children sketched in the environment, took digital photographs and researched secondary historical and geographical sources to collate a resource bank of images.� Using these images as starting points, groups of children began to design and sculpt the original clay panels.� When all the panels had been prepared, the children helped Dorothy to throw on the plaster to make the moulds. �

This undertaking, being on such a large scale, took the best part of an� educational year and resulted in a wide range of children of all abilities gaining a great deal of enjoyment and the experience of taking part in an exciting and challenging arts project.��

During the holiday which followed, Dorothy and her band of helpers; staff, children from the school, their parents, ex-pupils and many others, even passers-by, undertook the painstaking and intricate task of removing the clay from the moulds.� Once all the clay had been removed they were cleaned and left to dry.

A firm called Jesmonite agreed to sponsor the school for the final casting and provided us with a quantity of their� �fibre glass type� material.� This was used to cast the centre panels but unfortunately, due to the firm undergoing problems, we were unable to obtain sufficient material and the remaining panels had to be finished in GRP filled with slate powder and aluminium sulphate.� This, although it seemed a bitter blow at the time, resulted in an effective colour contrast.�� The entire casting process was carried out by Dorothy, members of her adult sculpture class and parents of the children at the school.

Finally the whole structure was fixed to the school wall by Clive Freeman, one of our parents and a local carpenter and builder.

This was achieved in September 2001, almost one and a half years after the project started.

Making� the Plaque

The completed plaque

What we said about the plaque

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