Pupils draw inspiration from Spinnaker Tower trip

Year 3 and 4 pupils from St John’s College Junior School, Southsea, were given a bird’s eye view of the Solent, having spent weeks studying the sea for their creative project.

To help them explore the tower, the children were given two activities to complete. 

Firstly, they chose an area they wanted to draw by placing porthole stickers on the glass and copying what they could see within them.

Then they were given a treasure hunt to complete, which involved the pupils identifying various locations across Portsmouth from the deck.

And they could not resist crossing the glass Sky Walk floor panel to see the spectacular view underneath their feet.

Rikke Salomonsen, eight, said: ‘I really enjoyed the trip to the Spinnaker Tower and walking on the glass floor.

‘It felt like you were walking in the air and I liked that you could see the harbour below.

‘The activities were really fun and I enjoyed learning about the history of Portsmouth while being up so high and looking over the city.’

Over the past few weeks the pupils have visited other local attractions in Portsmouth and Southsea in support of their topic, including ArtPotz Ceramics and Southsea Castle, where they collected materials and ideas for their seaside poems, collages, models and stories.

They presented their seaside artwork to friends and family.

Teacher Caroline Robertson said: ‘The trips were designed to help the children creatively explore Portsmouth and Southsea. The visit to the Spinnaker Tower was a fantastic way to finish and seeing the children engaged in the activities and discussing what they had learnt while looking down over the city was lovely.

‘I am so pleased the children got the chance to present their work to their parents as they are all extremely proud of what they have achieved over the last three weeks – and so are we.’