Derbyshire: Budding young artists raise funds for charity

Budding young artists at St Thomas' Catholic Voluntary Academy in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, have raised over £500 for charity.

Every child at the school created a piece of art based on Catholic Social Teaching principles and the work was sold at a grand art sale attended by parents and carers.

Over £500 was raised and this will be split between the charities supported by each class including Little Ways, Poor Clare Sisters, CAFOD World Gifts, Mary's Meals, Beauvale Society, Fair Trade and St Vincent De Paul Society.

The original idea for the art sale came from the pupils as they were looking for ways to make their Religious Education lessons more creative.

They suggested creating artwork based on the Catholic Social Teaching principles of Human Dignity, The Common Good, Participation, Subsidiarity, Stewardship, Solidarity, Preferential Option for the Poor, Distributing Justice and Promoting Peace.

Susan Law, Year Two teacher and RE Lead at the school, said: "Each class is in charge of a Catholic Social Teaching principle and the children wanted to combine art and RE as they were looking for a way to make our RE lessons more creative.

"The children really embraced the challenge of thinking creatively and they created some wonderful pieces of art. The sale was fantastic and our hall was packed with parents and parishioners.

"We would particularly like to thank former teachers Mrs Law, Mrs Smith and Mrs White who came in and backed every piece of artwork for us and helped with the display. We raised over £500 and the money will be shared between each Catholic charity that we support as a school.

"We had some great feedback from parents saying it was such a brilliant thing to do and it is definitely something that we would like to do again."

Michael Sellors, Headteacher at St Thomas', said: "I would personally like to thank the staff present and retired for all the hard work organising the art gallery. I would like to thank the parents and carers for coming in and supporting the event in such large numbers. And I would like to thank the children for creating such wonderful pieces of art which we have sold to raise over £500 to support local charities."

LINK

Sir Ralph Sherwin Academy Trust: www.srscmat.co.uk/