A pupil voice group from local primary school, Raglan Church in Wales, is asking the local community to “connect” with Sidney the Stone Snake this summer.

Community Connectors, one of a range of pupil voice groups in Raglan, regularly organises initiatives to develop and enrich relationships with the local community. Over the past year they have visited a community café to enjoy a cup of tea and crafts with members of the village, delivered daffodils and motivational cards around the village, sang Carols at the doctor’s surgery, made wreaths and undertaken random acts of kindness.

This summer the Community Connectors are setting pupils, past and present, a different challenge. They need help to create Sidney the Stone Snake and ask that everyone contributes in this fun and free activity by painting a stone and adding it to Sidney, who will slither around the entrance of Raglan car park.

Laura Griffiths, Year 2 teacher and part of the Community Connectors group, says; “We know that the six weeks of the summer holidays can feel a very long time away from your school friends so we are hoping that everyone can come together with other children, their parents or family members and members of the community to enjoy an activity together, a walk around the village and a chance to help grow Sidney.”

Sue Marles, Headteacher of Raglan, continued; “We are very pleased to announce this new initiative in the same week that we achieved silver accreditation for our community engagement collaborations from the Foundation of Community Engagement. We are very lucky to be part of such an incredible community, and hope that lots of families and friends join us and help us to create Sidney the Stone Snake.”

Rosalie Mcfadden, a year 4 pupil at Raglan and a member of Community Connectors, has been very busy designing and creating Sidney’s head. Rosalie shared, “I love being part of the Community Connectors because it’s fun to be able to engage with other people, who you may not know very well, in conversation. I volunteered to make Sidney’s head because I knew it was something I would enjoy making and had the right resources at home.”

In addition to Sidney, Raglan are also asking the community to paint pebbles and leave them around the area, much like many did during the pandemic.

Laura continues, “We’d love to see lots of colourful pebbles scattered around the village again for others to find. We ask anyone taking part to write the school name on their pebbles before hiding. If you find a pebble, we ask that you take a picture of it and post to our twitter @RaglanVC.”

Raglan’s Pupil Voice groups include Community Connectors, School Council, Ambassadors of Rights, Criw Cymraeg, Health and Wellbeing, Playground Pals, Young Climate Warriors, Friends of Faith and Digital Leaders.