Ghost ship

Grafton Primary School

Years 2, 5 and 6 pupils at Grafton Primary School in North London collaborated with their resident artist and writer to make this large ship sailing down the Thames.

Children in Year 2 (six to seven years old) learnt about the Thames today and made drawings of the landmarks they observed during a class trip. Back at school, they used collage materials to transform their designs into a large-scale work. Year 5 pupils (nine to 10 years old) wrote poetry in response to the Temeraire’s plight, while children in Year 6 (10 to 11 years old) were inspired by the ghostly quality of the Temeraire in the painting. They used withies and tissue paper to construct their own boat, complete with a figurehead and seagulls overhead.

During Black History Month, the children researched the story of another boat, SS Windrush. They wrote and performed their own musical about the stowaways on the ship when it sailed from Jamaica to England in 1948. Their ghost ship and Thames backdrop provided the scenery for the production.