Challenge, creativity, and competition are all things to be encouraged in school (and indeed life), and I would like to focus this week on an exciting event at the top end of our school. The Leonardo Creative Competition began life at Brighton College shortly after the Second World War, where it was founded as an Inter-House Arts Cup to encourage pupils in the arts as well as sport and academia. The competition has grown and now encompasses five categories across Creative Writing, the Performing Arts, Photography, Film Making, and Art both traditional and digital. It is a major event in the College calendar, and now runs across the world via the BC International Schools. Last year, for the first time, Brighton College Prep Schools took part in their own Junior version of the competition, open to children in Years 6 to 8. I am delighted to remind you that St Christopher’s won 1st and 3rd place out of the twelve Houses competing. The Mona Lisa trophy hangs proudly in 8A, reflecting Anson Lions’ overall victory, and Lucy in last year’s Year 8 won the overall prize for best entry.
This year’s theme was Where Do I Belong?, and the children rose to the challenge with some breathtaking creativity, demonstrating a huge range of skills along the way. You can see a selection of the Art, Photography, and Creative Writing entries on page 4, and some of the film entries will feature on our social media in the coming days. You can already find Izzy in Year 6’s fantastic video on there, showing the trials and errors of designing and producing her stunning finished 3D art piece. The picture above is one of a series created by Arlo in Year 7, who took pictures of famous landmarks and then superimposed examples of local street art and graffiti to represent his sense of belonging in our city. The entries have now been sent off to the judges, and we wait to see how many of our entries make the shortlist for the Prize Giving at Brighton College in June. This year, all four BC Prep Schools are competing, so bringing the trophy back home will be even tougher – but we can do this!
We also celebrate another Scholarship this week.
Ms Elizabeth Lyle, Head
