Hewett School pupil Lucy White with one of the sculptures created by local school pupils that has gone on display at the Cecil road site. Photo by Simon Finlay

From spiders and toadstools to butterflies and woodland animals, a host of stunning sculptures celebrating nature and wildlife were yesterday brought together at a Norwich school.

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The Bright Futures: A Story of Life sculpture trail has seen more than 20 fantastical works of art created as part of a joint project by the Hewett School and youngsters from surrounding primary and special schools.

Yesterday, after months of work by pupils and the local artists supporting them, all of the pieces were brought together for the first time to create a super sculpture trail on the grounds of the Cecil Road site.

Work on the project first began earlier this year when students at the Hewett School joined wood carver Ben Loughrill, mixed media 3D artist Maggie Campbell and ceramicist Gerard Marsom to create their displays.

In total, 13 pieces were made and, thanks to funding from the National Lottery’s Awards for All, youngsters from seven primary and special schools in the Hewett cluster were invited to get involved.

Rob Anthony, associate headteacher at the high school, said the younger children were able to take inspiration from older pupils’ creations. He said: “The primary school children came to have a look at what we had done and got some ideas from that. They took it back to their schools and started to plan their sculptures.”

Each piece has a story behind it created by the students – like Webster the tiny spider who eats something dropped on the floor and soon grows to become 6ft tall and 12ft wide.

But they also all aim to make visitors think more about the nature and wildlife around them.

Mr Anthony said: “There’s one that is a series of toadstools in a circle with a big chair in the middle with a dragon on it. Each toadstool has something carved on it – like a spider – and you can sit in a little circle under a tree and experience being in nature. It’s great.”

The youngsters and artists not only thought about the environment when deciding what image they wanted to create, but also when choosing what to make them from.

Each sculpture uses environmentally-sensitive materials like willow and reclaimed wood.

The complete trail will be available to visit for the rest of this week before scattering across the Hewett School cluster.

The artwork will then take root at the schools which contributed to the project as well as points throughout the community, including Lakenham Way.

Is your school involved in an exciting project? Contact Victoria Leggett on 01603 772468 or email victoria.leggett@archant.co.uk.