The Year 6 children have been busily creating their Peace Poles this half-term which stand proud at the school's pupil entrance. The children created the poles in response to a challenge set by the Dioceses. As classes, children planned the detail they would put onto their pole in a way which considered the key message of 'May Peace Prevail On Earth'. Each class then put together their pole - this task was made more complex by having to remain distanced from one another as they did so! The children are incredibly proud of their creations and have enjoyed discussing what peace means and what symbols they can use to reflect it. Through our lessons, the children also explored the links between peace and our school values. 

Last week, the children also had an opportunity to take part in a virtual Leaver's Service hosted by Winchester Cathedral. It has become a tradition at St. Mary's to take part in the service and of course it was impossible to host the event as usual this year. Instead, the cathedral put together a short clip which was uploaded to Youtube. A link to this clip has been posted below if you wish to watch it yourselves. St. Mary's, and our peace poles, feature in a clip about the different schools that took part in the challenge. Furthermore, we have attached a copy of the Diocesan Education newsletter which is primarily focused on celebrating the work of school's during the coronavirus pandemic. Many peace poles feature and there are also references to the Banksy-inspired artwork that Year 6 created linked to celebrating everyday heroes in our society. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLExBr-v_PM&feature=youtu.be