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Dalbeattie Primary School | Alexandra Howie | Scotland, UK | A study of the local river, the Urr, including its rich and varied culture, history and biodiversity. In particular, students wanted to reflect a message of hope for the river’s Atlantic salmon. They made shimmering fish scales from recycled food packaging and wrapping paper.

Dartmouth Academy | Ione Maria Rojas | Devon, UK | Students learnt about the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill and looked at the importance of the right to protest when creating change in our environment and culture. Students made a palette of natural inks using red cabbage, turmeric, beetroot, charcoal, grass, avocado stones, copper and coffee, then used these inks to practice expressive mark making techniques. Inspired by art from different protest movements, students then used collage and coding to create their own hidden messages in response to the PCSC bill. The final piece is a reflection of the need to speak up about climate change and defend our planet.

Davenant Foundation School | Victoria Kennedy | Essex, UK | This artwork was made by Year 7 students. They explored the wildlife found along their local river, the river Lea. They came across kingfishers and Painted Lady butterflies. Using watercolour paints, the students produced colourful studies inspired by the different wildlife and flora. The pieces of work produced by the students were then collated into a collage from each class. 

Dawa Presby School | Bright Ackwerh | Ghana | Inspired by the concepts of travel and exploration, students from Dawa Presby Basic School created a composite drawing detailing some of the wildlife and euphoria encountered during their imagined tourist trip to the river Thames. Tourism continues to be one of major benefits derived from local rivers.

Dawhenya School | Bright Ackwerh | Ghana | From Dawhenya D A Basic School students illustrate through this collage various ways in which a healthy river can serve as a great resource to the people who live around it. Knowledge about such features of a river are transferable from one space to another, making positive lessons applicable to a wide demography of cultures. 

Delhi Public School Gurgaon | Survi Sinha | India | A student wanted to depict various aspects of life around the river, such as rice cultivation, the Dakshineswar temple in Kolkata, people bathing and praying, the South Asian river dolphins, and myths about the Ganges. The river itself has been personified into a graceful woman wearing a lehenga, dazzling jewellery, a crown, blue gems and a sash with a message from the Ganges.

Deneholm Primary School | Laura Lane | Essex, UK | Students designed their own fish by cutting interesting shapes out of packaging and recycled paper. They chose to scatter their fish over a striking pink background.

Earl Mortimer College | Alison Banner | Herefordshire, UK | A group of enthusiastic Year 9 students have created individual designs based on their relationship with the natural world. These designs have been combined to create a repeating pattern of the outline of Herefordshire. There are river lines in the background, and the Herefordshire-silhouettes are filled with colourful drawings of different natural forms. This allowed them to link their work with the local area.

Eastbury Community School | Aminah Adeyemi | Essex, UK | This artwork is made by Year 7 and 9 students as an opportunity to get older and younger students collaborating and supporting each other in a creative activity. They began the project by questioning how they could be more sustainable with their water consumption. For their artwork, the students were keen to create patterns using 3D elements, and made each droplet entirely out of recycled material. They included David Attenborough as their hero.

Eltham Hill School | Shona Watt | London, UK | Students from Eltham Hill explored various factors contributing to climate change, such as fast fashion, the meat and dairy industry, deforestation and the effect of pesticides on pollinators. They used a mix of embroidery combined with recycled fabrics to create individual pieces illustrating their thoughts on the climate emergency. These were collaged together in Photoshop to resemble a ‘folk art’ sampler. The girls included Baroness Doreen Lawrence as their inspirational person.

FCJ Primary School | Nicky Salmon | Jersey, Channel Islands | Inspired by our Island climate and the desire to protect the surrounding seas from man-made damage, FCJ pupils collected natural materials from the surrounding Jersey beaches to create beautiful fish from the local waters.  The silhouette in the centre represents a young Marie Madeleine, the FCJ Foundress; her values and mission lives on in every pupil and staff member in our FCJ community. 

Forest Lodge Academy | Jo Moore | Leicestershire, UK | This piece was completed by a group of children in Year 5 at Forest Lodge Academy. They carried out the work as part of their ongoing topic on rivers, exploring rivers both locally and nationally, and the impact that climate change has on them. The piece includes words associated with climate change using letters cut out from newspapers.

Fortrose Academy | Isabelle Thomson | Scotland, UK | The pupils made puppets of mythical water spirits who represent the future of our rivers. Some act as Guardians of the river, like the fairies from the Fairy Glen (Fortrose, Highlands of Scotland) who protect, nurture and care for our rivers. Others are based upon Cuachags or Water-Wraith’s- a female water spirit who drags people down into the depths. They took inspiration from different living organisms from the river to help them design their puppet. They also looked at Paul Klee’s puppets. 

Gicumbi School | Mary Ndinguri | Rwanda | This artwork is based around the theme ‘River Culture’. Students were given a large, cylindrical piece of scrap wood and they worked together to transform it into a magnificent sculpture. They did this using paint, glitter, cotton wool, string, paper and cardboard.

Giles Academy | Emily Cartwright | Boston, UK | Students looked at prayer flags, an iconic image of Nepal, the meaning and symbolism behind them and how they are made. Everyone thought about a design for a prayer flag that contained their hopes and wishes for the environment. They also designed their own mythical creature or symbol, and used text to describe their ‘prayer’ for the future of the planet. Several different printmaking methods were used to make the final flags on fabric, and every student made at least one. The silhouette in the corner is of Melanie Marshall MBE, an Olympic and Commonwealth medallist in swimming, and a former student at Giles Academy.

Global Goals Competition Winner| Taroona Primary | Lily B & Coco | Australia | Artwork made as part of a competition that encouraged students to express what “Clean Water and Sanitation” (SDG 6) and “Life Below Water” (SDG 14) mean to them.

Global Goals Competition Winner | Genesis Global School | Vivaan Mathur | India | Artwork made as part of a competition that encouraged students to express what “Clean Water and Sanitation” (SDG 6) and “Life Below Water” (SDG 14) mean to them.

Globe Academy Secondary School | Shona Watt | London, UK | Superbloom at the Tower!  To celebrate the Platinum Jubilee, the Tower of London converted the iconic moat into a great, wildflower meadow, attracting many birds and pollinators to the area. Students learnt that lots of plastic waste is carried from the Thames to the sea. They collected old plastic to make decoupage images of flowers, Goldfinches and Monarch butterflies. The design includes lily of the valley, the Queen’s favourite flower, and their hero, Michael, the school’s security guard. 

Gordonstoun School | Isabelle Thomson | Scotland, UK | Paper cut out ‘stain glass window’, exploring some of the native and non-native plants along the River Findhorn. Students researched these plants after a field trip, and used their research to come up with beautiful designs. They looked at artists such as Lotte Reiniger, Erland Tait, Quentin Blake and some stained-glass windows in local churches in Moray.  

Government Girls High School | Sarah Mumtaz | Pakistan | This piece is called ‘Modern Nature’ and was created by etching on acrylic. Students talked about the Ravi River and how, sadly, it is no longer roaring with the force of its original glory.

Government Islah-e-Moashra High School | Salman Afzal | Pakistan | This piece is called ‘Nostalgia of Shadbagh’ and explores the idea of a modern-day dystopia. Students studied the flora and fauna that once thrived along the Ravi River, and the human actions that have caused environmental degradation. They wanted to provoke a melancholic mood through this artwork.

Government Junior Model Girls High School | Sarah Mumtaz | Pakistan | This piece is called ‘Where do we go?’ and includes etchings on acrylic. Students talked about the Ravi River and how it has changed over the years. Each etching captures a past, present or future moment by the river.

Government Millat Girls High School | Salman Afzal | Pakistan | This piece is called ‘Rhythms Underneath’ and depicts vibrant river flora. The work was done on sheets of old newspaper to promote sustainability in art.

Government Practicing Girls High School | Salman Afzal | Pakistan | This piece is called ‘Floating Toxicity’ and explores the relationship between the River Ravi and the people of Lahore. Students wanted to respond to themes such as environment, culture and industry waste.

Granard Primary School | Janet Breeze | Greater London, UK | Students explored the different colours of the river Thames. They used a combination of photos, videos and experiences of visiting the river to help them, and they used a wide range of pastels, crayons, pencils and pens to create colour blocks.  The colours are a combination of blues, greens and golden colours (to represent the sun shining on the water). Then the students cut the colour blocks into snowflakes and side profiles. 

Great and Little Shelford Primary School | Pamela Stewart | Cambridgeshire, UK | Watercolour paintings of some of the historic colleges along ‘The Backs’ in Cambridge. The River Cam is a beautiful river, and widely known for punting. The class got talking about the time they have spent by the river, and then the things they have seen pulled out of the river, from bikes, to bottles and plastic. In their artwork, they wanted to convey an anti-pollution message and a desire to save the beautiful River Cam landscape.

Great Staughton Primary School | Emma Jane Kelly | Cambridgeshire, UK | The children were inspired by the different colours and textures of their local river. They used lots of material to create the texture of the river, and designed weird and wonderful creatures to live underwater. Jamie (student): “My creature lives on the stones helping the animals.”; Corin (student): “My creature is like a slug and eats all of the unwanted items in the river.”

Greenoak International School | Daniel Oleabhiele | Nigeria | Students were given the freedom to design whatever came to mind during a brainstorm of ideas. They discussed mother nature, pollution, water, wildlife and flooding. Each element of this piece is a unique, personal response to the brainstorm. The individual artworks were handcrafted using entirely recycled materials, before being photographed and arranged together to make the final piece.

GS Shashi | Kizito Mafaranga | Rwanda | Beautiful collages of river scenes. Students based in the Musanze district of Rwanda wanted to illustrate that rivers are places of trade, transportation, farming, tourism, enjoyment and discovery.

Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College | Shona Watt | Lambeth, UK | A select group of students were introduced to the erasure drawings of South London artist Tom Phillips. Working with images of seeds, plants, leaves and trees, the students created poems and organic images from pages of poems and old books. They voted for their inspirational figure to be locally-born fashion designer Alexander McQueen, famous for using animals/organic imagery in his work.

Haddenham Community Junior School | Catherine Duncan | Buckinghamshire, UK | A small group of Year 6 children took on this project as a lunchtime activity. They looked at fish that could be found in the River Thames, which included roach, bream, perch, pike, rudd, dace, chub and gudgeon, among others. Having drawn an outline, the children collaged the images using seeds, lentils, rice, grains and other dried natural ingredients.

Hall Grove School | Catherine Foley | Surrey, UK | The project was set for children in Year 6 and Year 7. They started by painting strips of paper in all the different colours they could see in local rivers. Some made their strips into water weeds, some made riverbeds using scrunched paper and some added animals, plants and rocks.

Hamstreet Primary Academy | Jackie Samson | Kent, UK | Students visited the Royal Military Canal in Hamstreet and learned about the many different species of wildlife that can be found there. They spotted moorhens, ducks and swans. They also commented on the reeds growing up on the banks and how peaceful it was. For the artwork, they decided to draw kingfishers and fill them in with smaller designs that represented different elements of the canal.

Harbinger Primary School | Nimesha Nagahawatte & Emily Fawcett | Tower Hamlets, UK | Year 3 students at Harbinger Primary School took part in this project to create an artwork that explores life below water. They looked at the Thames for inspiration as it is the closest river to their school. The students researched animals that have been found in or around the Thames and then made sketches of these animals using felt tip pens and leaves found in the school playground.

Harris Primary Academy | Ben Strickland-Taylor | Beckenham, UK | Students wrote letters to the Queen, outlining their thoughts, feelings, worries, hopes and dreams for the environment. Underneath their letter is a side profile silhouette of each student.

Heston Primary School | Chandip Behar | London, UK | Black etchings on colourful backdrops, showing the gloomy dangers of pollution against vibrant river life.

High Tunstall College of Science | BloomInArt | Tees Valley, UK | Building on studies of natural forms in their sketchbooks, pupils from High Tunstall experimented with mark making, colour palates and repeat patterns. The final artwork was created using copper embossing to recreate their individual forms. David Attenborough was selected as their chosen hero, and his silhouette was recreated with use of the copper pieces. The tree represents their collective hopes to reduce pollution and build a cleaner environment for their future.

Highshore School | Shona Watt | Lambeth, UK | Students from Highshore School chose swans and crowns for their contribution to the project. They looked at swans and other birds on the Thames and made multiple images using painting, collage and drawings. They each designed and decorated a crown with mixed media, gems and sequins. Their inspirational figure is footballer, Marcus Rashford.

Holy Trinity C of E Junior School | Julie Fraser | Surrey, UK | Students recorded the waste generated by their households over one week and categorised it into biodegradable and non-biodegradable materials. Most were shocked by how much non-biodegradable waste there was. This motivated them to reuse non-biodegradable products, or to replace them with biodegradable ones, to stop waste polluting our rivers and harming the environment. The children have created superb self-portraits using recyclable and/or natural materials from their bins at home.