International Cross of Nails Award
In September 2024, our school was awarded the International Cross of Nails Award (ICONS) for our work on peace and reconciliation from Coventry Cathedral.
At the end of the academic year 2024, the children completed a project of work on the ICONS award and why it is so important. They worked passionately on their pieces and reflected thoughtfully on the meaning behind their work.
At Farway CE Primary School, we are deeply committed to fostering a positive and inclusive learning environment where our students learn the values of empathy, understanding, and respect for others.
We believe that initiatives such as the Cross of Nails project provide valuable opportunities for our students to engage in conversations about peace, reconciliation, and the importance of building bridges across differences on a national scale. This is really important to us as we are a small, rural school.
As a whole school, we have created our own artwork based on the symbols of peace, reconciliation and love- please see attached photos of the work the children completed, the prayer garden that has started to be created as well as the letter of application from Mrs Tubbs.
From this planning and work the children then created their own wooden tiles using acrylic paint and varnish. These were their pictorial representations of what peace and reconciliation meant to them. These beautiful pieces were then put up in our new prayer garden- which is still under construction!
After getting the award, our Cross of Nails was made in Germany, then it was blessed in Coventry Cathedral and finally bought down to our school and presented to us in a special church service, where it was awarded to our school. The Pupil Ethos Group accepted the Cross on behalf of the children and staff. We now proudly display it in our school, and it is a central part of our Collective Worship.