Fifteen pupils, aged between seven and nine, from our school enjoyed a visit to the local canal, including a trip aboard Anglo Welsh’s day boat ‘Abi’ as inspiration for their art project and part of their learning about the history of the local area.

The children had a wonderful canal boat trip along the Trent and Mersey Canal. The experience was to support the children with their topic of learning this term, 'Meet the Artists'. The pupils also got to draw pictures of canal life, which provided the stimulus for the artwork that they have created for their canal-themed Art Exhibition.

As part of the activity day the Canal and River Explorer volunteers provided the children with information regarding the history of the waterways and water safety.

“We all had a wonderful time and were really enthused to create to some fantastic works of art to display,” commented Amy Dickenson, a teacher at St John’s Catholic Primary School.  “We are really pleased our pupils have been given this opportunity to enjoy a canal adventure day. Our learning project at the moment also involves the children finding out about their local area so it’s great to be able to bring the history of the canals alive with this visit whilst also inspiring their inner artists.  Thank you to both The Canal & River Trust Explorers and Anglo-Welsh Waterway Holidays.”

Following this day out, the children also had a watercolour lesson with local artist, Michael Bowdidge, who spent time showing them his watercolour paintings and demonstrating some useful skills and techniques. The children learned about making an 'impression' using the watercolour paints and then used this to create their own canal paintings in the 'Impressionist' style.

“Our students thoroughly enjoyed this 'masterclass' and are very proud of their masterpieces,” Amy commented.

The class art exhibition will be held in December.