The annual Year 6 Leavers’ Celebration Days have taken place at Winchester Cathedral, which have also seen the creation of a magnificent art installation. See the fantastic photos here.
Over 150 ribbons have been hung in the North Transept with more than 2,000 cardboard creatures of land, sea and air attached. Each of these was handmade by pupils from across the Diocese of Winchester who also wrote a short prayer on their creations.
The Leavers’ Celebrations saw pupils gather at the cathedral over five days to mark the end of their primary school education and transition to secondary school.
The artwork was designed by the Diocese of Winchester’s Education Team as part of this year’s schools project called TriWonder. During the year, pupils have taken part in activities, workshops, artwork and music to learn more about creation and the world around us. Each year the project culminates with an art installation at the cathedral.
Diocesan Education Advisor Sue Bowen said, “The Diocese team support over 150 church schools throughout Winchester and Portsmouth Diocese and every year our annual project inspires children, both in our schools and wider diocese. This year we had the TriWonder Project, where the children looked at animals across air, sea and land. The idea of the project was to really focus in on God’s creation, so the children, whether in rural schools or in middle of a city, could look at nature in focus. So it might even have been the weed coming through the crack in the concrete or the spider running up the window. They looked in intense detail at how magnificent God’s creation can be.”
The installation was erected over two days using a cherry picker and the children were excited to see the culmination of their work.
10-year-old Milly, from Abbotts Ann Church of England Primary School, said, “It’s mesmerising. The creatures all have individual personalities. It was fun to write a prayer and know it will be up here for all to see. It was good to learn about the world as part of TriWonder and the sea, air and land and there is wonder in our world.”
Lawrie, aged 11, added, “It’s really good how all the artwork has come together. It was fun to do, and we learnt all about protecting our world. We need to protect the air, sea and land equally because if we don’t, they will all fail. It’s good to come to this celebration today as this will be a lovely memory for all of us.”
Poppy, aged 11, from Andover Church of England Primary said, “God made the world, and he put a lot of effort in and sometimes people don’t respect the world and treat it as they should. It felt good to see all our creatures and all our prayers hanging in the Cathedral.”
Frank, aged 11, from Andover commented, “We really did think about what to write on our prayers. I wrote about the creatures of the world and asked God to help us into and through Year 7.”
Between 500 to 600 pupils attended each Leavers’ Celebration Day. They took part in workshops including calligraphy, archaeology and singing. In the afternoon there was a service led by Bishop Philip or Bishop Rhiannon. They sang songs, listened to a talk, and prayers were said that they would know God’s presence with them as they moved onto secondary school. Each school was also presented with a candle with a logo of the year’s project, to light during their daily school worship.
Bishop Rhiannon said, “It’s been so wonderful to have schools from all over the Winchester Diocese, all over Hampshire and East Dorset come to mark the end of their time in primary school, that transition which I think is really important for them. We have also celebrated God’s creation. They’ve all made these amazing creatures and we had them hung up from the ceiling and it’s wonderful just to see all of those and to celebrate and rejoice with them today.”
Archdeacon Jean Burgess added, “It’s really important, as all of these children are from Church of England schools, that they meet their Bishops and their Archdeacons because we long to be a larger part of their lives and to see what’s happening as they grow. So it’s a real joy and a privilege for us to be involved in that today.”
The Leavers’ Days are an important moment for school pupils, with many remembering the event for years to come.
The pupils receive an invitation to visit the Cathedral free of charge to show their parents the artwork. It will be available for visitors to view in Winchester Cathedral until 29th June.
Sue Bowen added, “The installation looks absolutely magnificent in Winchester Cathedral and is causing quite a stir. We’ve had a lot of tourists this week from all over the world who have seen it. I spoke to one man who was visiting, as we were putting it up, and he remarked that in one of the oldest parts of the cathedral, we had work from some of the youngest children, and he said how inspirational he’d found it. So, it not only has had a marked effect on the children, but also people who come to visit the cathedral. They see that God is alive in our church schools and that the children are really enjoying praising God in their own way.”
She continued, “We have had five Leavers’ Celebration Days and it’s wonderful to just watch their faces as they walk in through the cathedral doors and see the magnificence of the building. It’s a day that many of them say they remember forever.”
The Hampshire Chronicle featured news of this wonderful art installation in an online article.
