YEAR 5 pupils across Thurrock are busy completing innovative art: decorating hares, with a conservation theme.
All Thurrock Primary Schools were recently invited by Essex Wildlife Trust’s Thurrock Thameside Nature Park (TTNP) team to enter a competition, on a Year 5 class basis, to decorate giant wooden hare silhouettes.
The hares will be judged by a panel selected from the locality, with the winner announced at a prize-giving ceremony at TTNP in early June, when all participating schools will be represented. First prize is a free Habitat Encounter Day at TTNP, for Year 5 of the winning school. All 47 silhouettes will later be erected at the Nature Park, to form a ‘Hare Art Trail’, to show off the children’s designs.
The idea of the project is to strengthen Essex Wildlife Trust’s links with the local community, raise awareness of conservation with the general public – the Brown Hare, which can be found at TTNP, is in worrying decline and is a key species in the English Biodiversity Action Plan – and to use a variety of educational tools to enthuse and excite Thurrock’s children about wildlife and the open spaces on their doorstep.
It is the brainchild of Adrian Pritchard, who is an education volunteer for Essex Wildlife Trust at TTNP. Together with Robin Grace, another volunteer at TTNP, he has designed and cut out the 1.25m high x 2.5m wide plywood silhouettes of a running hare, which were delivered to schools at the end of January.
Essex Wildlife Trust is delighted that so many schools have accepted the challenge: 24 schools, involving 47 classes, spread across Thurrock, from Bulphan in the north to Tilbury in the south and Corringham in the east to Aveley in the west. In all, approximately 1,300 pupils are participating.
Schools are busily finishing their designs before the Easter break, when Adrian and his team will collect them, ahead of the judging.
Terry Morris, Essex Wildlife Trust’s team leader at TTNP, said: “This is a wonderful project and one Essex Wildlife Trust is proud to be involved with, especially with so many local children participating. I would like to thank Adrian Pritchard, who has devoted a huge amount of time and enthusiasm to the project. We are all very excited to see the finished hares.”
Anthony Peltier, chair of Thurrock’s Primary Headteachers Association, said: “This creative opportunity, for Year 5 pupils across our schools was one that could not be missed. It incorporates literacy and art, allows the creativity for our children to flow through and I am sure will result in some amazing designs coming to life in our schools. We are all looking forward to walking the trail of silhouetted hares created by 1,300 Thurrock pupils.”
