MEMORIES of the Covid-19 pandemic have been recorded forever in a special magazine featuring the work of pupils at St Anne’s Lydgate Primary School.
Drawings, photographs, poems, stories, letters, and a colourful rainbow of children’s names capture their emotions and memories over the last 18 months of lockdowns and school closures.
Their work was collated and produced as a magazine by Practical Publishing and every child at the school received a copy to keep.
The magazine was the idea of the school’s PTA to create something positive from a historic but difficult period.
Chair Katie Hodson explained: “When the children returned to school last September, we were determined to do something even though we had to cancel our usual events.
“We were looking initially at doing something as a fundraiser and thought maybe we could publish some of the work by the children for people to buy.
“But it evolved over time and we decided it wasn’t appropriate to charge for it. It became more of a community project than a fundraiser.
“The world, and especially children, have gone through something major and this will form a part of our history and will be taught to future generations.
“So instead we decided to create the magazine as a special memento for the children and their families.
“The teachers put in a lot of time and effort into working on it with the children. The work is very varied and impressive and there are contributions from Reception right up to Year 6.
“Practical Publishing kindly put it together and printed it for us so in years to come the children will have something to look back on and remember being part of a major part of history.
“There is a lot of negative press about how children have been affected but this shows there are positive outcomes as well.
“They have alluded to some of those negative emotions but overall the work shows an optimistic angle and how resilient they are.
“There is a lovely community feel in the school so it is great to be able to do something like this together.”
In the magazine’s foreword, headteacher Russell Learmont writes: “I hope we can all read this publication in awe at the children’s resilience and open-mindedness.
“They may have had personal struggles and situations to content with, but in truth, they have done brilliantly and continue in school seemingly unaffected in general.
“The pages in this magazine present a glimpse of their history.”
The school also buried a lockdown time capsule in their grounds, including a copy of the magazine, which will be uncovered in years to come.
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