Creative students spread festive cheer across Richmond

The creative talents of students from Richmond School and Sixth Form College have brought joy to the Richmond community this Christmas. Many of the school’s musical ensembles have been entertaining at events in the town during the Christmas period and beautiful festive-themed artwork adorns the Town Hall, Library and St Mary’s Church and is being greatly admired by residents and visitors alike.

The magnificent artwork stemmed from a competition for students to design the school’s Christmas card and resulted in an overwhelming number of entries from Year 7 and 8 students. The winner was George Kipling, in Year 7, for his stunning reindeer which really impressed the judges for his clever and considered use of texture and contrast to create such a unique design with tremendous visual impact.

Jonathan Preece, Mayor of Richmond, said: “Having had the displays up in the Town Hall since the beginning of December, there have been many admiring and positive comments about the talents of the Richmond School students. There was a very worthy winner but all the designs are fabulous and the students should be very proud of themselves.” Councillor Clive World enjoyed looking at the designs in the Town Hall and added: “The students have created such beautiful designs, the standard of their artwork is exceptional.”

Students across all Year groups have been entertaining the community with Christmas music. Their first outing was the concert band who turned out on a bitterly-cold evening to play festive classics at the turning on of the lights in Richmond. Students performed at the Mayor’s fabulous Christmas concert in St. Mary’s Church and then the following evening 18 groups took to the stage at the school’s concert.

Staff and visitors at the Garget Walker House, the day support centre for people diagnosed with various forms of dementia, were delighted to welcome a group of Year 9 students who led community carol singing. Everyone was in great voice and the students really enjoyed having the opportunity to wish everyone a happy Christmas. The choir, concert band, symphony orchestra, as well as some soloists, enchanted the congregation at the school’s annual carol service at St Mary’s Church where everyone could also appreciate the fabulous Christmas artwork. Reverend Martin Fletcher, Rector of St. Mary’s Church, commented: “St Mary’s Church is delighted to be displaying the artwork which is very impressive. It will bring much joy to our congregations and visitors during this festive season.”

The students certainly brought a huge amount of festive cheer to Richmond before they finished school for the Christmas break, with a final outing of musicians to entertain the shoppers at Tesco, Catterick Garrison, between 11am and 4pm on Saturday 21st December.

Jenna Potter, Headteacher, concluded: “I am immensely proud of all our students who have helped to bring some Christmas spirit into the community through their fabulous artwork and wonderful music. What better start to the celebrations than to enjoy browsing Christmas artwork and to listen to and join in with festive songs. The Creative Arts is a real strength at Richmond School and we are delighted to have shared this passion with our community at Christmas.”