At Beachborough School our location to and our relationship with our neighbouring market towns, plays an important part in our outreach and community engagement. Many children attend Beachborough School from areas such as Buckingham, Brackley, Bicester and Banbury and we like to support as many community projects held within these towns, as possible.
We are currently sponsoring The Buckingham Swan Trail, a family friendly, community-led cultural project, organised by Buckingham Town Council. The idea is that the trail will attract tourism to the town and help increase footfall to local shops and businesses.
The trail will launch in June and end in September 2023.
On 13th March 2023, our ‘selfie-sized’ swan arrived at school, ready to be positioned in our Art Rooms. The sculptures are made from recycled materials and once decorated, will be placed around Buckingham and within surrounding public green spaces for all to enjoy as part of a town trail.
At Beachborough School, the children in our Art Club, which comprises of our most promising artists in Form V to Form Vlll, were offered the opportunity to get creative and to submit their designs to Head of Art, Miss Cheshire before the final design by Form V pupil Olivia W, who had sketched the intricate skeleton of a swan, was collectively chosen.
Olivia said of her experience, “I was invited to join Art Club when I first joined Beachborough School in September 2022 and when Miss Cheshire announced that we were getting involved with the project, I was really excited and overwhelmed as I thought we could make it really good! My first design was an under the sea theme but then I thought that a skeleton design would have much more detail and would be eye-catching to people who would be doing the trail. This is the first time my idea has been executed by the group so I really felt like I was in a dream and was so excited to see it come to life. I’ve really enjoyed being a part of the project, collaborating with other members of art club and seeing it come to life!”
Art is one of the specialist subjects we offer at Beachborough School and community art projects like these enable our students to get their artistic flair and creative juices flowing and to showcase their talents, in addition to their normal day-to-day school timetables and art lessons. All members of the Art Club have been giving up their break times to get the swan designed and painted and we are really proud of all the children involved and their commitment to the project.
Throughout each academic year, the whole school will have a chance to get involved in our community and charity initiatives, from the tiniest tots in our Nursery, through to the teenagers in Form Vlll, as well as parents and all our staff. We encourage our pupils to raise awareness for important causes, in a huge variety of ways.
Our involvement in community projects such as The Buckingham Swan Trail, unleashes children’s creativity and encourages our pupils to be engaging, kind and responsible citizens.
We wish Buckingham Town council the best of luck with this project and cannot wait to see our swan ‘in-situ’ and we hope that members of the Beachborough community and beyond, will take the opportunity to participate in the trail throughout the Summer.
