Creativity comes to the fore thanks to exciting school pebble trail

Despite ongoing separation thanks to lockdown rules, the key worker children in Year 5 at Alexandra Park Junior School wanted to set something up to make the community feel more together.

During the final week before half-term, the schoolchildren created a #AlexParkRocks pebble trail.

Mrs Samantha Nicholson-Hickling, Year 5 teacher, said: "Last lockdown, the painted pebbles seemed to be everywhere!

"We decided we wanted to bring our community back together, even though we are apart.

"Most of the children take their daily walks through Alexandra Park, so we thought we'd create our pebbles and hide them in the park.

"We hid them on Thursday, and by Friday when we went back to the park some were already gone.

"We are hoping they've been moved and rehidden for others to find."

The children have written the school's twitter handle on the back of the all the rocks in hopes that they will get some photographs sent back to them.

The pebble trail has been shared with the children at home via the schools online learning platform Class Dojo as well as on the Twitter. 

One of the children in the Year 5 bubble said: "It's been a fantastic thing to do.

"We've really enjoyed painting the pebbles with lots of different designs.

"We hope everyone else enjoys finding them as much as we've enjoyed making them." 

The pebbles also formed the final part of the children's mental health awareness week work.

The pebbles were a way for the children to express themselves. 

Mrs Nicholson-Hickling added: "It's been a wonderful activity to see the children really showing off their creative skills.

"They were able to do some research on previously painted pebbles, and then just let their imaginations run wild.

"I'm so proud of them for all their hard work.

"I hope everyone enjyos finding them and the children see the benefits of their hard work.

"We need to stay connected as much as possible while we are separated by lockdown, and this is just one way we can do it." 

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