The four winning pupils all attend schools in the North Swindon area which have recently been completed as part of John Laing’s project to design, build, finance and operate seven schools across four sites, as part of a PFI initiative with Swindon Borough Council.  The schools involved were Isambard Community School, Nova Hreod College, and Uplands Special Secondary School, for children with Special Educational Needs.

Paul Handy, the winner from Uplands Special Secondary School, created a striking piece of modern art in copper and silver paint.  Yara Zakhour’s winning entry for Nova Hreod College in the “Years 9, 10 and 11” category depicted a mysterious looking girl dressed in flags from around the world. The judges awarded two prizes for the “Years 7 and 8” category, to Dylan Fernandez of Isambard Community School for his unique photo-montage, and to Lydia Roberts of Nova Hreod College for her touching depiction of two friends, expertly drawn in colour pencil.

Judges for the competition included Adrian Ewer, Richard Weston and Chris Waples,  from the John Laing Board of Directors along with Silke Pillinger, an education curator from the Tate Britain. Final judging took place at John Laing’s central London headquarters on Friday 29 February.

The first round of the competition was judged in Swindon on Friday 15 February by a panel of local judges, including Neil Selby from Swindon Borough Council, Rebecca Waldman from ArtPoint, and Sharon Savage from Education Support Swindon Ltd (ESSL), the project company for John Laing.

Silke Pillinger said, “It was a real honour to be asked to judge this art competition. We were so impressed by the quality of the art work and the individuality of the ideas behind each work. We found it hard to single out the winners as in our eyes, all who participated in the competition are winners. We hope that we were able to inspire the group by showing examples of art works within the Tate Collection and that they will continue to use their artistic talents in the years to come.”

“It was a pleasure to welcome these creative young artists to John Laing and chat to them about their work, commented Adrian Ewer, chief executive of John Laing. “We have been so impressed with the work that we’ve seen, that we are going to showcase it in our London headquarters for all our visitors to see.”

Head teacher at Uplands School Mary Bishop said, ”This trip was an extremely generous gift from the Directors of John Laing, I was thrilled to be included. It was a wonderful opportunity for the finalists especially as they could bring a parent with them.  It gave them a chance to be truly proud of their son or daughter’s achievement. As a special school overnight trips are rarely affordable and certainly not in London. For some in our group it was their first visit to London and their first stay in a hotel. A real treat! We all had a great time and look forward to developing further links with John Laing. A sincere thanks to everyone involved.’’

ENDS

For further information please contact: Karina Chilton, Communications Executive at John Laing plc, Tel: 020 7901 3293 or email: karina.chilton@laing.com

Notes to editors:

About John Laing

John Laing plc is a specialist provider of facilities through public private partnerships with a long-term perspective and approach around the world. The company manages and delivers 63 projects from planning and funding through to design, construction and operation.  It is actively involved in the management of a wide range of education, health, police, rail, roads and special purpose government facilities.  It has investments and operations in the UK, Scandinavia, Central Europe, Canada and the US and Asia.