St Peter’s Primary School Leatherhead – Parliamentary Flag competition
To mark the 800th anniversary of the famous charter setting out the English rights, Parliament invited every MP to nominate a primary school to design a flag to represent their community. The winners of the nationwide competition will fly in Parliament Square and surrounding streets in May/June 2015. The flags will also appear in an online digital exhibition.
This special project aims to create a powerful visual collection to commemorate the 1265 Montfort Parliament, where representatives from towns and shires came together for the first time.
Each flag in the collection has been designed by students aged 7-11 across the UK to represent their local area or community. Following nominations by Members of Parliament, 80 UK primary schools designed unique flags to represent their local communities which will fly at two special events; in Parliament Square in May and at the ‘Magna Carta Foundation of Liberty’ event, to celebrate 800 years since the sealing of Magna Carta, at Runnymede on 15 June.
St Peter’s School in Leatherhead was chosen by Chris Grayling MP to represent the Epsom & Ewell consistency. All the pupils were asked to come up with symbols which represented our local area. A team of ten 7-11 year-olds and 2 members of staff helped design an image that incorporated four key symbols, incorporating colours which they felt supported these themes. This is what they came up with – green, leafy areas full of wildlife and with horses representing the well-known racecourse. The children also designed the “ee” interlocking symbol to represent communities working together. The children wanted orange and yellow to be used to represent hope and sunshine.
“I would like to congratulate the pupils of St Peter’s for designing such a wonderful flag which really encompasses the key themes and our heritage within the Epsom & Ewell constituency. The Montfort Parliament formed the foundation of our democracy as we know it today and it is fantastic that St Peter’s have been a part of these celebrations” Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP
“We were thrilled to take part in such a historical event and the whole school community were excited to see the final design; which we are so proud of.” Ruth Hall, St Peter’s School.
