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St Mary's School embraces Cows about Cambridge public art trail

St Mary's School embraces Cows about Cambridge public art trail

St Mary’s School Art Department promoted and hosted a mini moo design competition, encouraging all year groups from ages 11-18 to enter their design and concept. Once the submissions, of which there were over 40, were collated and anonymised, the Headmistress and a team of judges chose 3 winners from differing Key Stages, and a series of runners-up. We were astounded by the wonderful variety of designs and the creativity of the submissions.

After the arrival of our Mini Moo, we held a grand unveiling in a whole school assembly, in which she took centre stage as the curtain drew back to the sounds of ‘Also sprach Zarathustra’ by Richard Strauss (perhaps better known as the 2001: A Space Odyssey soundtrack). There she stood before us in a spotlight as a blank canvas, embellished but eagerly awaiting her adornments. The students cheered her arrival, excited to meet the new member of our St Mary’s community. The competition entry designs, and our unadorned Mini Moo took pride of place in an art department display.

We also developed a display of cow-based artworks in the main hall at our school showing the work of our talented Year 13 art students and their wonderful creations. Here we see the work of Fatima Y. and Katie K.

Once we had given our new arrival time to settle in, we gathered our team of 6 students, made up from winners and runners-up of the competition, to develop a unified concept from the winning design. Our Mini Moo was designed and created by Bella T., Karla C. and Amelia H., and Elanaz M., Elena B., and Ziren S.. This unified concept was then transferred onto our Mini Moo using primarily graphite, acrylic paint, Posca Pens and a varnish sealant. Our school community chose to name our Mini Moo ‘Miss Mary Moo’ after our founder, Mary Ward. She is adorned with symbols which represent the breadth of subjects that our students’ study within our creative curriculum at St Mary’s. The rainbow paintwork represents equality, knowledge, creativity and fun. Miss Mary Moo is loving her new look.  

Miss Mary Moo is lovingly named after our benefactor Mary Ward (1585-1639), a nun who promoted the education of women.  Here at St Mary’s School, Cambridge, we have been empowering girls since 1898, and we wanted our Mini Moo to reflect our ethos and the all-round education that St Mary’s provides. From art, drama and music to the sciences, languages and computer science, our Mini Moo is emblazoned with symbols that represent the breadth of our creative curriculum. 

Education has the power to changes lives. It gives us knowledge of humankind and facilitates quality learning all through life. It opens opportunities to progress and better ourselves. It supplies us with information, reasoning, creativity, and concepts of justice and equality. It is through education we can develop a sense of perspective and context about the world around us. Investment in education has led to advancements in the Arts, Sciences and Technologies. However, we cannot stop the fight to promote equality in education globally as we see that 57 million children have never experienced stepping inside a classroom. Miss Mary Moo is our symbol of education and its role within our lives and our future. 

Once Miss Mary Moo is returned to us, she will take pride of place in our Senior School. We are so pleased with how she represents our ethos we want her to warmly greet visitors as they arrive.