Kingsley St John's pupils create beautiful wildflower mural with local artist, Billie-Jo English

Pupils at Kingsley St John's Primary School have this week transformed a once bland wall into a wonderful wildflower meadow mural.

Children from Reception to Year 6 worked with local artist, Billie-Jo English, to decorate the wall, which runs between the school and the Horseshoe Garage, in a project organised in conjunction with Kingsley Parish Council.

Now, rather than brown concrete slabs, passersby will be met with an array of colourful flowers, butterflies and bees!

"As a small, rural church school at the heart of the village, our relationship and partnership with the local community is an imperative focus for us," said St John's Headteacher, Rachel Jones.

"We have worked closely with Cllr Danny Moores of the Parish Council on a number of occasions.

"When he contacted school and looked for our support, it was viewed as a wonderful opportunity to strengthen this partnership.

"The walkway between The Horseshoe Garage and Kingsley St John's has been on our radar for a long time and we are always keen to demonstrate our skills and talents in art.

"The children absolutely loved taking part in the project with Billie-Jo. She put in a lot of the ground work and design elements.

"The mural demonstrates the increasing ages in school with our youngest children (Robins Class) adding their touches at the end near to the Co-op steps and then Class 2 (Sparrows) seen in the photograph, moving through to the Barn Owls (Years 3 and 4) and finally the Falcons in Years 5 and 6, whose additions are closer to the school windows.

"It is a privilege to work alongside our community and enhance our environment for all residents in Kingsley.

"We look forward to our next project – the Community Covid Time Capsule – to be completed later this month!"

Billie Jo was also delighted to be involved in the project. "I've been doing a lot more outdoor painting recently," she told Frodsham Nub News. "I've done huge tree stumps in Helsby and the wall mural on Langdale Way at new shop, Polkadot Pockets.

When she was asked to help create Kingsley's new wildflower meadow, "I thought having the children involved would really make it. Let's bin the beige and brighten things up one village at a time!"

To see Billie's Helsby tree stumps, just click through the gallery at the top of this article!