‘All aboard’ for Artsweek John Hampden style

Pirate treasure aboard the good ship ‘John Hampden’ for Artsweek 2015

ARTSWEEK at John Hampden School in Thame, has been a swashbuckling affair with the pupils and staff enjoying a life on the ocean wave, on ‘The Jolly John Hampden’.

The pirate theme saw the school hall transformed into a desert island where ‘The Jolly John Hampden’ has been washed up and shipwrecked, spilling it’s cargo of jewels and treasures across the beach. The John Hampden shipmates attired themselves with homemade Pirate hooks, eye patches, swords, telescopes, compasses and even sewn their own parrots to look the part. They made their own pirate ships and filled class treasure chests with coins, jewels and pirate booty. They printed their own Jolly Roger flags to show their pirate intent, and formed clay skulls and fish to litter their sunken treasure under the sea.

The school’s Arts Co-ordinators, Jackie Nichols and Clare Field, have been very involved in organising ArtsWeek, which also involved finding out about the ‘not-so –romantic’ real pirates who roam the oceans of the world today.

They reported: “Yet again John Hampden has seen an army of parents, grandparents, governors, guardians, teachers and teaching assistants, old and new, volunteer to support the children in their pirate artwork, with a multitude of helpers (over 60!), who came to bring our ideas to life!

“Our PTFA provided the booty to fund the week, with a generous donation which enabled the school to provide a wealth of artistic experiences and resources for the children to enjoy. These have ranged from a woodwork project to make a pirate shipwreck, a mysterious, mod-roc skull cave, a sew-off of felt parrots, fish and jellyfish, a junk modelled challenge to create recycled pirate boats and much, much more!

“The staff also set the children the challenge of identifying which golden coin belonged to which member of staff, by matching the coin head’s profile to the right staff member in the ‘Treasure Trove Quiz’, with an arty prize for the winning entry. We dared all to enter our pirate world at the end of the week, to follow our treasure maps through shipwrecks and sand dunes, past beautiful mermaids and fearsome pirate folk, to find the jewel of our artistic endeavours at the Artsweek Fair-trade Café as a Friday finale.

“The week proved to be a voyage of pirate discovery and it took half-term to recover from our pirate antics, but we can enjoy our hall in weeks to come as a reminder of our swashbuckling adventure!”