Students unveil mural created to pay tribute to their key worker heroes

Royal Wootton Bassett Academy students have unveiled a mural with a very personal message.

The students were at school during the last covid-19 lockdown because their parents were key workers and couldn’t be with them at home, and the mural honours them.

Miss Alice Falvey, an art and design teacher at Royal Wootton Bassett Academy, said the mural reflected some of the struggles people throughout the community faced, but also a lot of the positives too.

“The students designed the entire thing, and then I worked with two of them at a time, socially distancing, to bring it to life,” said Miss Falvey.

“I live alone, so this felt like my sanctuary. The students included Captain Sir Tom Moore, an image of a family, a reference to Black Lives Matter, a child holding a rainbow sign, a nurse and an elderly lady to mark those who were lost to coronavirus. 

"They also included wild flowers, to represent how we need to look after our environment.

“The mural is now up and proud in The Street area of the school.”

During the final term of the last school year, most students remained at home and had to learn remotely, as schools only opened to young people whose parents or carers worked in roles the Government deemed essential, such as health and social care workers, teachers, police officers and members of the armed forces.

Staff at Royal Wootton Bassett Academy worked with the children of such key workers to come up with a way of marking the sacrifices they had made in order to keep the rest of the country safe and well. 

It was decided that the students would design and then create a mural that would reflect different aspects of life under lockdown, so the school would have a permanent reminder of how life changed during that time.