A STATUE designed by children at a Downend junior school has gone on display as part of this year’s Gromit Unleashed 3 charity event.
Children at Christ Church Junior School have raised more than £1,000 for the Grand Appeal for Bristol Children’s Hospital as part of the Schools Norbot Competition.
They raised an initial £500 to take part, then almost £500 more for the appeal through cake sales and donations.
As part of the competition, children across the school were invited to submit their own design for a mini Norbot statue, after the robot gnome character created by Aardman Animations for the latest Wallace & Gromit film, Vengeance Most Fowl.
There were more than 100 entries, and the winning designs were submitted by two Year 6 pupils, Fizzy Huffee and Luca Coombe-Sparrow, who then worked together to integrate their designs into the final version.
They then worked with Charlotte Byrom, a teaching partner at the school, to turn their design into a decorated statue, which they named ‘Brizzle-Bot’. The statue includes some iconic Bristol images, including Clifton Suspension Bridge, Cabot Tower, hot air balloons, painted houses and the hoop sculpture outside Bristol Children’s Hospital.
Brizzle-Bot was on display from September 13 to 28 at Cribbs Causeway as part of the Greatest Dog Show on Earth exhibition of trail statues, before heading back to the school to go on permanent display.
Christ Church Juniors head teacher Dr Pippa Osborne said: “This is such a brilliant example of our children’s courageous advocacy.
“They see a brilliant cause, or something in our community that they would like to improve, and they feel empowered to make a change.
“I am always so proud of the ways in which our Christ Church pupils seek to live out our values to make life better for everyone around them.”