Four local schools decorate Chantry Place medals – here’s where you can see them

Four local schools have decorated stunning medals for Chantry Place as part of our Sporting Summer event. A mix of ages from Norwich Free School, Magdalen Gates Primary School and Nursery, Lionwood Infant and Nursery School and The Hamlet Centre decorated the medals and they look amazing. Come and see them now until Tuesday 3rd September 2024 – the medals are on South Lane corridor between H&M and Phase Eight, Hobbs and Whistles on the upper ground floor.

Plus, we want you to vote for your favourite as the winning school will win £200 of Sports Direct vouchers.

Hannah Tough, adult services activity co-ordinator and support worker at the Hamlet Centre, commented: “As a charity that supports children and adults with physical and learning disabilities, it was important to us to reflect the Paralympic Games on our medal. The collage in the centre showcases our students joining in with inclusive sports like trampolining, dancing, swimming, and races. We felt that it was essential that we exhibited the involvement of our students in sports and displayed their talents! A group of roughly seven students explored their creativity during weekly arts and crafts sessions. Aided by support staff, the students engaged with mixed media to create a finished piece we feel reflects our students’ skills. We wanted to make sure that we created our medal using methods that are inclusive to our students with learning disabilities. Students got creative by using red, white, and blue mixed media to design art pieces that made collage tiles for our medal’s ribbon. They then chose to recycle milk bottle caps and paint them shiny gold to decorate the outer edge. There were lots of smiles and giggles in the process of making the medal, we can’t wait to all come and see it!”

Beverly Cullum, pastoral and SEND lead at Lionwood Infant and Nursery School, commented: “We chose three children from each of our classes (Nursery to Year 2) to do most of the work on the medal, but many more joined in during the last few days. We began by looking at the history of the Olympic games and the children were particularly interested in the Olympic rings, so they decided to include the colours of these on the medal ribbon. We looked at all the sports that will be part of the Paris games and children drew the pictures of these around the outside of the medal. The children asked about the pattern in the centre of the medal and we a found a colour to match the Chantry Place logo and they wanted the main part of the medal to be gold.”

Darren Webster, principal at The Free School said: “The six children in our school council decided how we would decorate the medal. They wanted different textures to represent the medal and the ribbon and decided to add sparkly pieces to the collage to make it shine. They decided to use gold and green for their links to Norwich City, with the ribbon being a real contrast to brighten it up even more! The children had a great time getting their hands sticky and they are looking forward to seeing the medal in place.”

We caught up with Paul McCarthy, our general manager, who comments: “The medals that the students have decorated look fantastic with so much personality, creativity, colour and texture. The eye-catching display is a fantastic way for us to help celebrate our Sporting Summer event and we hope the students will bring their family and friends to see them on display.”

Chloe Demeuzois, assistant headteacher at Magdalen Gates Primary School, said: “We really enjoyed making it. It was a special project for our Year 5 children, and they wanted to reflect Magdalen Gates with the pencil symbol”

Make sure you visit Chantry Place to see them and vote for your favourite!