Sanyathi Baptist High School | Eugene Mapondera | Zimbabwe | The future of the planet is in our hands! Students composed this image to convey how important it is that we look after our environment.
Sedgehill Academy | Shona Watt | Lambeth, UK | Sedgehill students investigated the Queen’s Green Canopy, a unique initiative to encourage people across the UK to “Plant a Tree for the Jubilee”. Individuals and community groups are planting trees to enhance the environment, leave a legacy to honour the Queen’s reign and contribute to sustaining the planet. The students used vintage illustrations to make collages which created an earth, sea and sky image, highlighting the damage caused by the climate crisis. Their inspirational figure is their science teacher, Mr Ben Amadi (top right corner).
Sekolah Kebangsaan Raja Abdullah | Amnahmalihah Binti Marzuki | Malaysia | This artwork resembles Wau Bulan, an intricately designed Malaysian moon-kite. It is one of Malaysia’s national symbols. Taking inspiration from Wau Bulan, the students wanted to compare the river to a high-flying kite. They said that kites need to be anchored carefully to soar freely in the sky, and that rivers must be looked after to flow freely in the ground.
South Dartmoor Community College | Ione Maria Rojas | Devon, UK | A mosaic of imagery created by students in answer to the question, ‘If the river could speak, what would it say?’ Students learnt how to make natural inks from avocado stones, grass, red onion skins and cabbage. All of the pieces were made using natural inks made from local materials and River Dart water. They researched issues that concerned them regarding the River Dart and we looked at how to translate these into illustrations.
Springfield Secondary School | Lisa Zhang | Singapore | Students brainstormed different animals and plants that like to be near water. They made digital drawings of their ideas and worked together to compose the final artwork.
St. Kenneth's RC Primary School | Kaitlyn Hawley | Scotland, UK | Students investigated the many different shades of blue that can be seen in water. To capture this, they used blue, green and purple colouring pencils. Then, snowflakes and side-profile silhouettes of the students were cut out and arranged on a blue and white background.
St Aidan's Catholic Primary Academy | Ebony Chambers | Greater London, UK | The children have created a picture that has a range of wildlife spotted both in and around rivers. They used a mixture of natural and non-natural items to emphasise the importance of recycling. Miley (student): “My favourite part of this project was seeing the swan in its nest. The art made me feel good and I liked making pictures using nature.”
St Anne's College Grammar School | Lucy Whitworth | Lancashire, UK | The school is very close to the Irish sea and is situated near the estuary of the River Ribble. The Ribble Estuary is a hotspot for migratory birds to enjoy feeding and resting. It also acts as a nursery for fish to mature before they grow large enough to breed themselves. Rare creatures such as natterjack toads and sand lizards live here too! Daniel (student): “We’re doing this to show the plastics and harmful substances that travel from the river to the sea.”
St Famille School | Mary Ndinguri | Rwanda | Students started by drawing quick sketches relating to the role that water plays in their daily lives. Then, they were given a large canvas and worked together on a collaborative painting. Digital designs were incorporated to create their final design.
St Gregory's Catholic Primary School | Cheryl Beesley | Lancashire, UK | The class collected plastic bottle tops, then each child chose one to be the centre of their flower design. They used colouring pencils to draw intricate petals and leaves… quite the transformation for a scrap piece of plastic!
St Hannah's Girls High School | Albert Mukono | Kenya | The rainbow contains the colours of the Sustainable Development Goals. To achieve ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’ (SDG 6), it is helpful to harvest rainwater from roofs that can be used for irrigation, human consumption and watering livestock. In this artwork, students wanted to illustrate the interrelationship between life above and below water.
St John's and St Clement's Primary School | Moya Hanif-Banks | London, UK | Chimeras made from all the incredible animals found in the River Thames. Students hope that their creatures will keep the river clean and beautiful! The silhouette is of Rob Porter, a teaching assistant in Year 2, who the students say is hardworking, kind, creative and spreads a smile wherever he goes.
St Joseph’s Anglican School | Bright Ackwerh | Ghana | Students were asked to transfer their visions of an ideal river city onto the Thames, employing only the latest cutting-edge developments of river technologies from locally inspired sources. Here, the Thames is seen bustling with new life and ideas.
St Mary Magdalene C of E School | Shona Watt | Greenwich, UK | Students were introduced to contemporary Ghanaian artists Winfred Amoah, Bernice Ameyaw and Rufai Zakari. All three use a combination of plastic bags, fabrics and found plastics to create images informing about the current state of culture in Ghana. Students made collages self-portraits using a combination of sweet wrappers and African fabrics. Their inspirational person is the rapper Stormzy, a South Londoner.
St Mary's C of E (VA) Primary School | Samantha Perry | Northamptonshire, UK | The design was carried out by the Eco club for 6–8-year-olds. They considered the differences between polluted rivers and clean, healthy rivers. The children were particularly interested in how wildlife is affected, so they decided to create a collage using recycled items (some of which came from a litter pick in school) to show this.
St Mary's C of E Primary School | Jenny Jolley | Hawkshaw, UK | Students experimented with printing techniques. They made beautiful floral designs and printed them onto a large sheet of blue paper.
St Mary's C of E Primary School | Vicky Adams | Putney, UK | Shiny fish made out of tin foil and playdough! Students wanted their fish to be submerged in healthy blue-green water and surrounded by lots of colourful aquatic plants.
St Michael's C of E Preparatory School| Claire Hankey | Essex, UK | Students researched the conservation work undertaken by the Queen, and looked into Swan Upping led by the Queen’s swan marker. The students found this very interesting, so they decided to use a swan silhouette within the design. Pupils used wet in wet technique to create murky waters as a background. They mixed blues, greens and browns, and had a lot of fun experimenting!
St Paul's Catholic College | Anita O’Shea | West Sussex, UK | Students explored what the SDGs meant to them individually, to the country and to the planet. They learnt about the devastating impact that pollution is having across the world, but they were keen focus on the theme of hope and what can be done to make things better. They studied the work of artist Hundertwasser, who was an environmentalist and used his imagery to capture people’s attention. Students took inspiration from his work in the hope that they could motivate people to make positive changes.
St Paul's Primary School | David Morgan | UK | This artwork explores the beautiful and hopeful elements of the Thames in London. Students cut out shapes from old plastic bags and created a collage that tells a story about life above and below the Thames.
St Peter's Catholic Primary School | Helen Carr | Gloucestershire, UK | Students brainstormed words associated with rivers. How many words can you identify?
St Philip Westbrook C of E Primary School | Helen Birchall | Cheshire, UK | After learning about the environment and the impact that humans are having on life underwater, students were inspired to create a piece of work based on this theme. They used fabric that contained microplastics and microfibers to create a woven background. They also thought about some of the creatures that live in and around the sea, rivers and ponds.
St Sylvester’s College | Janith Yatipansallawa | Sri Lanka | A beautiful painting that highlights the ways in which the Mahaweli River is used by people and animals. It is the longest river in Sri Lanka, and many people see it as the life force of the land.
Stockingford Academy | Louise Earl | Warwickshire, UK | The students decided to explore a ‘mirror’ theme in their artwork, as they felt it was important to reflect on how we treat rivers and how we would like them to look in a perfect world. They concluded that we all have a responsibility to keep rivers clean and healthy.
Stranton Primary School | Vikki Littlefair | County Durham, UK | Inspired by local rivers, students have incorporated the beauty of rivers and nature, as well as the damage caused by humans and pollution. They have done this using recycled materials and fabrics.
Surjyakana High School | Suman Biswas & Metun Mondol | Bangladesh | Students made their artwork using canvas, paints and recycled items. They focused on the Padma River, which is one of the biggest rivers in Bangladesh.
Sutton High Preparatory School | Anne Musgrove | Greater London, UK | Students from Sutton High Prep School completed an Open Homework titled ‘Woodland Walk’, which involved taking a nature walk along the Thames. They worked with pens, inks, collage and watercolours to explore the ecological aspects of rivers and their banks. The illustrations aim to allow the viewer to appreciate the wonderful shapes, patterns, lines and textures of the river, as well as highlighting the worrying issue of plastic pollution. Jaycie (student): “We did this art project because we wanted to raise awareness of how we are polluting our rivers and how the fish are affected. I loved the workshop and it was very interesting to learn more about the Thames and different art techniques.”
Sybil Elgar School - The National Autistic Society | Adam Szefer | Greater London, UK | Sybil Elgar is part of the National Autistic Society and provides outstanding education for autistic children and young people. Students thoroughly enjoyed engaging with the ‘River of Hope’ theme and produced drawings that are full of life, energy and colour.
Sanyathi Baptist High School | Eugene Mapondera | Zimbabwe | The future of the planet is in our hands! Students composed this image to convey how important it is that we look after our environment.
Sedgehill Academy | Shona Watt | Lambeth, UK | Sedgehill students investigated the Queen’s Green Canopy, a unique initiative to encourage people across the UK to “Plant a Tree for the Jubilee”. Individuals and community groups are planting trees to enhance the environment, leave a legacy to honour the Queen’s reign and contribute to sustaining the planet. The students used vintage illustrations to make collages which created an earth, sea and sky image, highlighting the damage caused by the climate crisis. Their inspirational figure is their science teacher, Mr Ben Amadi (top right corner).
Sekolah Kebangsaan Raja Abdullah | Amnahmalihah Binti Marzuki | Malaysia | This artwork resembles Wau Bulan, an intricately designed Malaysian moon-kite. It is one of Malaysia’s national symbols. Taking inspiration from Wau Bulan, the students wanted to compare the river to a high-flying kite. They said that kites need to be anchored carefully to soar freely in the sky, and that rivers must be looked after to flow freely in the ground.
South Dartmoor Community College | Ione Maria Rojas | Devon, UK | A mosaic of imagery created by students in answer to the question, ‘If the river could speak, what would it say?’ Students learnt how to make natural inks from avocado stones, grass, red onion skins and cabbage. All of the pieces were made using natural inks made from local materials and River Dart water. They researched issues that concerned them regarding the River Dart and we looked at how to translate these into illustrations.
Springfield Secondary School | Lisa Zhang | Singapore | Students brainstormed different animals and plants that like to be near water. They made digital drawings of their ideas and worked together to compose the final artwork.
St. Kenneth's RC Primary School | Kaitlyn Hawley | Scotland, UK | Students investigated the many different shades of blue that can be seen in water. To capture this, they used blue, green and purple colouring pencils. Then, snowflakes and side-profile silhouettes of the students were cut out and arranged on a blue and white background.
St Aidan's Catholic Primary Academy | Ebony Chambers | Greater London, UK | The children have created a picture that has a range of wildlife spotted both in and around rivers. They used a mixture of natural and non-natural items to emphasise the importance of recycling. Miley (student): “My favourite part of this project was seeing the swan in its nest. The art made me feel good and I liked making pictures using nature.”
St Anne's College Grammar School | Lucy Whitworth | Lancashire, UK | The school is very close to the Irish sea and is situated near the estuary of the River Ribble. The Ribble Estuary is a hotspot for migratory birds to enjoy feeding and resting. It also acts as a nursery for fish to mature before they grow large enough to breed themselves. Rare creatures such as natterjack toads and sand lizards live here too! Daniel (student): “We’re doing this to show the plastics and harmful substances that travel from the river to the sea.”
St Famille School | Mary Ndinguri | Rwanda | Students started by drawing quick sketches relating to the role that water plays in their daily lives. Then, they were given a large canvas and worked together on a collaborative painting. Digital designs were incorporated to create their final design.
St Gregory's Catholic Primary School | Cheryl Beesley | Lancashire, UK | The class collected plastic bottle tops, then each child chose one to be the centre of their flower design. They used colouring pencils to draw intricate petals and leaves… quite the transformation for a scrap piece of plastic!
St Hannah's Girls High School | Albert Mukono | Kenya | The rainbow contains the colours of the Sustainable Development Goals. To achieve ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’ (SDG 6), it is helpful to harvest rainwater from roofs that can be used for irrigation, human consumption and watering livestock. In this artwork, students wanted to illustrate the interrelationship between life above and below water.
St John's and St Clement's Primary School | Moya Hanif-Banks | London, UK | Chimeras made from all the incredible animals found in the River Thames. Students hope that their creatures will keep the river clean and beautiful! The silhouette is of Rob Porter, a teaching assistant in Year 2, who the students say is hardworking, kind, creative and spreads a smile wherever he goes.
St Joseph’s Anglican School | Bright Ackwerh | Ghana | Students were asked to transfer their visions of an ideal river city onto the Thames, employing only the latest cutting-edge developments of river technologies from locally inspired sources. Here, the Thames is seen bustling with new life and ideas.
St Mary Magdalene C of E School | Shona Watt | Greenwich, UK | Students were introduced to contemporary Ghanaian artists Winfred Amoah, Bernice Ameyaw and Rufai Zakari. All three use a combination of plastic bags, fabrics and found plastics to create images informing about the current state of culture in Ghana. Students made collages self-portraits using a combination of sweet wrappers and African fabrics. Their inspirational person is the rapper Stormzy, a South Londoner.
St Mary's C of E (VA) Primary School | Samantha Perry | Northamptonshire, UK | The design was carried out by the Eco club for 6–8-year-olds. They considered the differences between polluted rivers and clean, healthy rivers. The children were particularly interested in how wildlife is affected, so they decided to create a collage using recycled items (some of which came from a litter pick in school) to show this.
St Mary's C of E Primary School | Jenny Jolley | Hawkshaw, UK | Students experimented with printing techniques. They made beautiful floral designs and printed them onto a large sheet of blue paper.
St Mary's C of E Primary School | Vicky Adams | Putney, UK | Shiny fish made out of tin foil and playdough! Students wanted their fish to be submerged in healthy blue-green water and surrounded by lots of colourful aquatic plants.
St Michael's C of E Preparatory School| Claire Hankey | Essex, UK | Students researched the conservation work undertaken by the Queen, and looked into Swan Upping led by the Queen’s swan marker. The students found this very interesting, so they decided to use a swan silhouette within the design. Pupils used wet in wet technique to create murky waters as a background. They mixed blues, greens and browns, and had a lot of fun experimenting!
St Paul's Catholic College | Anita O’Shea | West Sussex, UK | Students explored what the SDGs meant to them individually, to the country and to the planet. They learnt about the devastating impact that pollution is having across the world, but they were keen focus on the theme of hope and what can be done to make things better. They studied the work of artist Hundertwasser, who was an environmentalist and used his imagery to capture people’s attention. Students took inspiration from his work in the hope that they could motivate people to make positive changes.
St Paul's Primary School | David Morgan | UK | This artwork explores the beautiful and hopeful elements of the Thames in London. Students cut out shapes from old plastic bags and created a collage that tells a story about life above and below the Thames.
St Peter's Catholic Primary School | Helen Carr | Gloucestershire, UK | Students brainstormed words associated with rivers. How many words can you identify?
St Philip Westbrook C of E Primary School | Helen Birchall | Cheshire, UK | After learning about the environment and the impact that humans are having on life underwater, students were inspired to create a piece of work based on this theme. They used fabric that contained microplastics and microfibers to create a woven background. They also thought about some of the creatures that live in and around the sea, rivers and ponds.
St Sylvester’s College | Janith Yatipansallawa | Sri Lanka | A beautiful painting that highlights the ways in which the Mahaweli River is used by people and animals. It is the longest river in Sri Lanka, and many people see it as the life force of the land.
Stockingford Academy | Louise Earl | Warwickshire, UK | The students decided to explore a ‘mirror’ theme in their artwork, as they felt it was important to reflect on how we treat rivers and how we would like them to look in a perfect world. They concluded that we all have a responsibility to keep rivers clean and healthy.
Stranton Primary School | Vikki Littlefair | County Durham, UK | Inspired by local rivers, students have incorporated the beauty of rivers and nature, as well as the damage caused by humans and pollution. They have done this using recycled materials and fabrics.
Surjyakana High School | Suman Biswas & Metun Mondol | Bangladesh | Students made their artwork using canvas, paints and recycled items. They focused on the Padma River, which is one of the biggest rivers in Bangladesh.
Sutton High Preparatory School | Anne Musgrove | Greater London, UK | Students from Sutton High Prep School completed an Open Homework titled ‘Woodland Walk’, which involved taking a nature walk along the Thames. They worked with pens, inks, collage and watercolours to explore the ecological aspects of rivers and their banks. The illustrations aim to allow the viewer to appreciate the wonderful shapes, patterns, lines and textures of the river, as well as highlighting the worrying issue of plastic pollution. Jaycie (student): “We did this art project because we wanted to raise awareness of how we are polluting our rivers and how the fish are affected. I loved the workshop and it was very interesting to learn more about the Thames and different art techniques.”
Sybil Elgar School - The National Autistic Society | Adam Szefer | Greater London, UK | Sybil Elgar is part of the National Autistic Society and provides outstanding education for autistic children and young people. Students thoroughly enjoyed engaging with the ‘River of Hope’ theme and produced drawings that are full of life, energy and colour.
200 Winning Flag Designs (Alphabetical by School)
River of Hope is supported by:
River of Hope is a Thames Festival Trust programme delivered in partnership with the British Council