Norbot on the Park; LP Supports The Grand Appeal!

The Art Department were delighted to welcome our very own Norbot, courtesy of Aardman Animations, for the month of June and our Art Scholars are looking forward to getting stuck into some artistic embellishments!

The Leighton Park Norbot will be part of an exhibition in Bristol featuring hundreds of Norbot the Gnomes that have been decorated by various groups across the country. Each Norbot is available for an initial donation of £500 and offers fundraising opportunities for each community to generate addition money through their own Norbot related activities. All the proceeds from The Grand Appeal 2025 will support the work of Bristol Children’s Hospital and build on the success of previous Grand Appeals featuring exhibitions with giant sculptures of Shaun the Sheep and Grommit. The School is grateful to the generosity of the Parent and Staff Community (PSC) for kindly donating the half of the £500 contribution to secure the Norbot and to the School’s. STEAM co-ordinator, Rachel Milhofer, for the remainder.

Mark Wood, Head of Art, enthused, “I’ve seen previous exhibitions in Bristol and it looked a really good way of interacting and engaging creativity to do that. I was slightly inspired by those cows that do round the town centres and they are always really easy to interact with and very public. I think that’s a really good way of promoting art, rather than it being stuck up on a gallery wall sometimes. I’m a big fan of public art and this sort of project is really interactive and good for everybody. The premise of raising money for the hospital as well is something that very important for our own values and it’s good to get students to think beyond the classroom and about the impact that their art can have on the wider community.”

The Art Scholars will be using elements of different designs created by students throughout the school to inspire their decoration of the LP Norbot. Mark has been leading the Fryer art classes in gnome creativity encouraging mini plaster of paris sculptures and poster designs.

Ethan (Year 8), commented, “I liked how the plaster felt; it felt pretty cool; it was a bit weird, a bit lumpy. I like colouring the gnomes. I think all the gnomes will look nice together and make a good exhibition to show off all the different colours and the different values of Leighton Park. Raising money for a children’s hospital is doing good and it’s fun to paint gnomes as well so I think it’s all good.”

Katie (Art Technician), added, “The greater project I think is really lovely because obviously Norbot the Gnome is joining loads of schools together to help raise money for the children at the hospital, so that’s an excellent thing to be doing. It’s also fun and they are getting to learn about different materials. We are learning how to make your own plaster and thinking really carefully about design and how it goes from 2D to 3D.”

Creative problem solving and teamwork are two aspects of our STEAM academic approach which brings together the imagination of the Arts with the practical logic of STEM.  We are delighted that the Norbot project also builds our students’ awareness of their ability to help others and aligns with our strengths in values-led education, recognised by our recent ISI report.