A Harrogate primary school pupil has taken first prize in an art competition to create a design on the theme of hope.
Competition winner Thomas, who attends Pannal Primary School, took inspiration from global events to create his design.
The competition, run by the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University, received more than 150 entries from school children across Yorkshire.
Thomas said:
My Mum suggested I paint a snowdrop to represent Hope, but it got me thinking about what I would like to draw. I started to think about all the things that have happened in the news with forest fires in Australia and then it got me thinking about Africa and how I have seen adverts on the TV about them not having drinking water.
In lockdown we watched a really good film called ‘The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind’ and it helped me to learn about how hard it is to live in a country without clean drinking water because it barely rains.
I thought about hope and what it would mean to people in Africa when it rains, and I decided to draw a picture to show that. Global warming is giving us warmer summers, but it doesn’t help other parts of the world because it means less rain for them.
Headteacher of Pannal Primary School, Mrs Jane Turner said:
I was keen to circulate the competition information to our families due to our links with the university and the appropriateness of the theme of hope.
The past 2 years have tested all of us in different ways but the sense of hope going forward has been a positive message we have shared with our school community.
Head of Teacher Education at Leeds Beckett University, Dr Pinky Jain, said:
We had such a fantastic response to our art competition, and were delighted at the quality of the entries sent in by the pupils.
With so many wonderful entries it was really difficult to choose a winner, but we thought Thomas’s entry illustrated the theme of ‘hope’ wonderfully, and really showed his talent as a young artist.
