Olympic Spirit
Thu, 21 June 2012
Tameside College were approached to assist St Mary’s Primary School in an Olympic bid to celebrate Religion!
As part of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Roman Catholic schools in Denton are pulling together with other schools in the Diocese of Salford to take their version of the Olympic Torch on a journey covering over 300 miles and 200 schools.
The project has been named the ‘Relay of Prayer’ and is aimed at highlighting the link between religion and sport and to bring people together from all ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Each school taking part in the event was twinned with a country that is competing in the Olympic and Para Olympic Games. St Mary’s Primary School in Denton was given the country of Tuvalu and decided to make a ceremonial canoe to transport the torch, in reference to the Polynesian island.
Deputy Head Teacher at St Mary’s, Chris Hanson, approached Tameside College asking if they could help make the canoe. Carpentry & Joinery course tutor, Simon Wilson, was happy to help and enlisted the skills of two of his students; Joshua Charlsworth and Dominic Glenn.
Simon comments: “It was a great project to be involved with and a joy to see the students put the skills they have learned into practice. I would like to give a special thank you to my colleague Yvonne Whalley and the Tameside College Motor Vehicle department for supplying and spraying the Canoe”.
On the day, former Tameside College student and official Olympic Torch Relay Team Member, Alex Williams, arrived at the school to show his support and to help get the ‘Relay of Prayer’ torch on its way.
The Canoe is now on permanent display at St Mary’s Primary School.