West Dene nursery and prepartory school pupils got the chance to publicly exhibit their paintings celebrating the harvest festival at Purley Pool recreation centre.

The exhibition, running for two weeks, is part of the Croydon Guardian's efforts to work hand-in-hand with education and has resulted in the first of many public displays of work by local pupils.

Pupils aged four and five produced paintings carrying the theme of harvest and autumn on October 4 after enjoying a special festival service at the Brighton Road school.

Songs were sung and afterwards the head teacher's car packed with donations of goods like tins of tomatoes and packets of pasta was driven to Croydon Welcare charity in Church Street. Croydon Welcare has become the willing recipient of harvest festival donations for the last two years and provides food for local families in need.

For the exhibition, some pupils had painted hedgehogs whilst other budding Cezannes created work that looked more like a page from a coffee table book on impressionist masters.

Head teacher Sally Topp said: "As I was putting the display up at Purley swimming pool, with Linda Kirby from the Guardian, the comments we had from people were wonderful. They were really impressed. They thought it was a lovely idea."

"We plan to do another exhibition at Christmas.

The West Dene pupils will be presented with certificates from the Guardian when the exhibition finishes.

Barry Ashley, area manager of Croydon Pools, said he was happy to help.

October 24, 2001 16:30