South Downs church creates special Remembrance Day display with Arundel primary school

A church in South Stoke has collaborated with a primary school in Arundel to create a display for Remembrance Day.

St Leonard’s church, north of Arundel, has collaborated with Arundel CE Primary School to create a display for Remembrance Day.

The 200 pupils at the school took part in drawing and writing on poppy and dove templates, in which they expressed their thoughts and feelings about Remembrance Day.

Cheryl Stead, 58, is a congregation member for St Leonard’s church and parochial church council member. Cheryl worked with the school pupils to build and design this display.

She said: “The poppies represent thankfulness, sacrifice, remembering, family, and love, and the doves represent peace, harmony, inclusion, and understanding.

“I just wanted the children to feel that we were here and proud of them, and that they could display their work and be proud of it.

“I was actually amazed at how keen everybody was. The enthusiasm from the school and the delight that they took in being able to be involved was amazing, and they totally got my vision for this display.

“I felt really good because they made me feel really good. The staff are lovely and the head teacher is really proactive and supportive.

“We have a lot of foot traffic through here, we’ve got foot paths all over the place, and I want our visitors who come in who may not have anything to do with the church normally to know that this church is up and running, it’s vibrant, it has things going on that are relevant now with the community getting involved.

“However, unfortunately while the poppy project was underway, the high winds and rain resulted in damage in three places to the interior ceiling plasterwork at St Leonard’s.

“As you enter the church, you will see three scaffold towers which are required to remain in place until the restoration work is complete. We will be launching a fundraising appeal soon to help achieve this.

“St Leonard’s has been serving the community for over a thousand years and is open for all to visit. We hope that the temporary change to the appearance does not spoil the moving experience that can be felt from spending time here.”

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