Dashwood Primary pupils brighten up the walls of a £12m Bromford retirement living village in Banbury with their artwork

‘’When I grow up, I want to be…’’ was the theme of the art competition and given the standard of the entries submitted, it seems a number of pupils at Dashwood Academy could say painters or artists.

The pictures created by pupils at the school have helped to liven up the walls of a new £12m retirement living village in Banbury.

Housing association Bromford, which opened its latest retirement living scheme Park Gardens in October last year, teamed up with the school which is part of the Aspirations Academies Trust to offer pupils of all age groups the opportunity to enter the ‘when I grow up, I want to be’ art competition.

More than 40 colourful entries were received and residents of the Bath Road development then decided on three winners during a recent coffee morning.

A special art exhibition was also held where residents, pupils, parents and teachers visited Park Gardens to see the dazzling pictures adorning the walls of the scheme.

The three winners were presented with gift vouchers and their framed artwork as a special school assembly marked the students’ achievements.

Bromford has also donated £500 to the school’s double-decker library bus to enable the learning space to be refitted and an outdoor reading area created for the summer months.

Claire Richardson, Bromford’s sales manager, said: “Dashwood Academy is a wonderful local school and this competition and the donation towards the mobile library was really about linking up with a key part of the Banbury community and starting to forge positive relationships between residents and pupils and teachers at the school.

“We received some brilliant entries which are now hanging proudly in the Hobbies Room at Park Gardens. This partnership will go from strength to strength and last week students also came to perform a carol service before breaking up for Christmas which was a pretty special occasion.”

Amy Rogers, Principal at Dashwood, said: ‘’The children were really excited about the art competition and the prizes given by Bromford.  We are delighted to have established more links within the community which give our children great life experiences.  We are looking forward to many future events and would like to thank Bromford for their kind donation which has enabled us to buy more books for our library bus.’’