School Event: The Arden Mosaic

February 2009

When a new building opens there is often a plaque put on a wall or a tree planted. We wanted something more dynamic for our great new building.

We also wanted something that the staff and pupils could all be part of too. We worked with a great artist called Lizzie Bean, who specialises in mosaic and she worked with us all the way.

All the children drew ideas for the mosaic and Lizzie chose the best and turned them into a mosaic design. Then all the classes helped put the mosaic pieces on and break the tiles. It took a few weeks. Even the teachers helped out. You can see Miss Trevena, Mrs Chudasama and Mr Cooper hard at work in the pictures below.

The finished product was varnished to protect it from the weather and eventually a cherry picker came in to ensure it was secured to the wall.

Now everybody entering the school can see it. It is a magnificent legacy for the school that hopefully will last for many, many years and all the children can say ‘I did a part of that’.

It was unveiled on Friday February 13th by Satnam Rana of Midlands Today.

I worked on the tile in the top left corner. I drew a tree and Kashif and I stuck some of the tiles on. In ten, twenty or thirty years time, all at Arden now, can say, we did some of that; I remember when that was made.

by Kadeer and Kashif, Y5

Lizzie working on the mosaic.		Staff hard at work, too!
Our wonderful mosaic is finished.		Mr Lacey and pupils proudly show off the mosaic.
A montage of photos around our mosaic entitled 'we like ourselves for who we are'.