School flies the flag
Hundreds of pupils wearing different coloured T-shirts crammed on to a Shropshire tennis court yesterday to give an international guest an unusual welcome.
The pupils from the Grove School also carried different coloured pieces of card and once next to each other they formed a human South African flag.
Pictures were taken from the air of the spectacle, which was set up to welcome Ncumisa Sebola, headmistress of Vukani Primary School, to the town.
A vintage aircraft was called in to help take the aerial shots yesterday, which staff were relieved went according to plan.
School spokesman Geoff Soul said: "The children responded incredibly well to what was an extremely complex task."
Pupils at the school have forged strong international links with young people in Africa and have raised thousands of pounds for Vukani, a black township school located in Cape Town, over the years.
Yesterday's visit was part of the school's Africa month, designed to raise awareness of different ways of life.The Grove's fundraising efforts for the township of Vukani to date have seen it rewarded with the Giving Nation Award for the Midlands and South West area for the past three years.
To capture yesterday's grand welcome, the school recruited the help of Coventry-based Air Atlantic Classic Flight and its vintage Percival Prentice aircraft.
Richard Parr, of Air Atlantic Classic Flight, said: "We were happy to oblige.
"It was possible to slot the photoshoot into a training sortie we had already planned - photographing the Grove students from the air was certainly a more interesting diversion."
