This year's school competition was a big challenge. We didn't just ask for a nice little picture with a big generic statement. We asked schools to turn Refugee Week into a research project. We've asked schools to find big or small things that were created, inspired, invented or developed by a refugee. The only way to do this was to really get under the surface and think about who refugees are and what sort of contributions they could have brought to all of our lives.
We, the Simple Acts team here in London were really moved, inspired and amazed by the work that was sent in. All of the schools who have taken part have sent in work that was not only creative, thought-through and heartfelt but also well presented. Thank you all for taking part and for your fantastic work.
But there has to be a winner and we feel that one school really managed to take this challenge to another level.
This year's winner is Ashington High School in Northumberland.
Ashington High School created a refugee tent and assembled all of their findings around this shelter. We love this entry because they really managed to combine the work of different teams into one piece of art, which has also meaning on its own. They've also generated 1100 simple acts for our Simple Acts counter. All of their 260 pupils have been involved in the project and came up with an avage of four examples each.
And this is how Ashington High School described their project:
During the week tutor groups were allocated team challenges to complete and the Simple Acts Competition was included in this. Each group were given the competition instructions and then worked as a team to come up with the best way to research & present this. At the end of the week this work was brought together to complete a larger art piece. One of the groups had created a ‘shelter’ to display their work so it was decided that all other work would be added to this-so displays, photos, posters etc were used as carpet and to cover the outside of the shelter. We're glad you don't need a hard copy-it's too big to get out the classroom door!
As said above, all of the submissions were of very high standard and we understand if you are disappointed if your school didn't win. There is always next year. Please have a look at our gallery to see all entries.
