Lockdown Art and English Competition

In the Summer Term of 2020, whilst schools were teaching remotely in lockdown, Bloxham School launched an English and Art Competition for local children with the chance for entrants to win a prize for themselves and their school.

The competition required the year 4 and 5 pupils to tackle the question “What has lockdown meant to you?” in the form of Concrete Poetry and Bloxham received a wide array of impressive submissions.

The Director of Art and Head of English chose one winner, two runners up and highly commended eight other entries. The winner received £40 worth of book and art supplies, and also won a further £100 in supplies for their school.

Aims

The aim of this competition was to provide additional resources to schools and their pupils during the lockdown period. With teaching staff having to find new ways in which to teach remotely, the resources supplied by Bloxham enabled primary schools to bridge cross curricular links between art and English and provide teaching that did not require the use of screen time.  

Resources

Our Head of English and Director of Art worked together to produce an introductory resource to explain the concept of Concrete Poetry. Their time was also used to judge the entries to the competition.

There was a small financial contribution from the school in providing a competition prize for the winner and their school.

Impact

“Thank you for organising this. What is lovely to see is that the pupils are not names who would normally do well in an event like this. This has given a real boost to many families so thank you.”
Headteacher, Deddington C.E. Primary School

Pupil Involvement

Pupils aged from 8 to 10 were asked to contribute to the lockdown competition.

Frequency

This competition was followed by a second art competition during a second period of remote school teaching. Art and English workshops are ongoing within Bloxham’s outreach programme with local primary schools.