To celebrate the 750th anniversary of the
Montfort Parliament, the UK Parliament is hosting a nation-wide flag design project for British schoolchildren (ages 7-11). The children are given a brief primer on flag design (including a video) developed by flag artist Jonathan Parsons, and then asked to create a flag to represent their local community. Although students are asked to start by drawing a sketch of their flag, they finish by constructing their design out of colored (or, as they say, coloured) paper in 14 permitted shades. Fitting the UK’s reputation for excellence in design, the Parliament Flag Project provides — to adults as well as children — a beautifully made online resource for good flag design.
Fourteen colours approved for flag-making.
Designs will be added throughout the year to an
online gallery, and selected designs will be turned into actual cloth flags to be used at events. Here are some early examples:
Bryn Coch: “We are honoured to have been selected to create the flag to represent the constituency of Delyn and have chosen green to represent the mountains and the countryside, red to represent the Welsh Dragon. We have also used yellow to represent our national flower the Daffodil and blue as our school colour.” ( Link to entry.)
“Here is our flag design from Mary Swanwick Primary School representing Chesterfield, Derbyshire. This was designed and made by children in Year 5 and 6. YELLOW – represents the abundance of rape seed crops in the fields around Chesterfield. RED – represents the town and its buildings. WHITE – signifies the regeneration of Chesterfield Canal. GREEN – because our town is famously referred to as the ‘Gateway to the Peaks’. The centre emblem is the Crooked Spire of which Chesterfield is most famous.” ( Link to entry.)
Friars Primary Foundation School: “The yellow triangle is the shard which I can see from my classroom. I chose yellow because the sun light reflects off it. The light blue background represents the sky on a clear day and the dark blue is the River Thames which flows close to my area.” ( Link to entry.)
Abbas and Templecombe Church of England Primary School: “Our flag has a shield and a sword in the middle to represent the Knight’s Templar which is connected to our area. Red stripes are to represent apples that grow in the local orchards. Yellow stripes are to represent the county reaching out to people. A green background represents the fields of our farming community. Our flag is based on the union flag because we are part of Britain.” ( Link to entry.)
Gordon Primary School: “The flag was designed and made by pupils: Abbie, Emily, Bartek and Patricia. The colours chosen were blue for the sea and rivers in our area. The yellow was for the crops farmers grow and green for our green fields.” ( Link to entry.)
Ferndown Middle School: “During the flag initiative project all classes were involved in sharing ideas and coming up with a design which incorporated their views about Ferndown. The School Council led the project, liaising with their tutor groups and bringing ideas together to produce a final design. Although this was a whole school contribution about 15 pupils work together to produce the final product, We chose a green background to represent nature and the green spaces where we are free to play and enjoy the fresh air. We have shaped the main design like a fern leaf and chose white and brown to show that Ferndown is clean and surrounded by woodlands. The School Council decided that people were the most important part of our community and we chose to include different people to reflect diversity. The hands are linked to show that we all work together.” ( Link to entry.)