On 29 September, Cognus invited the winners of the Lockdown Lessons Competition to a virtual celebration event. The hour-long event on Zoom was hosted by Cognus’ Advisory Teacher, Rebecca Duffus, and attendees included the families of the winners, school representatives, Cognus colleagues, and Madam Mayor, Cllr Trish Fivey.
The winners were applauded for the wonderful pieces of work that they had produced to reflect on their lockdown experiences. Each piece was presented during the event and the creative aspects of their entry were individually highlighted. Some of the young people chose to read out their work to the audience.
The event also included two performances from Luke Thornton, a Cognus Music Service trombone student.
Speaking at the event, Councillor Trish Fivey, Mayor of Sutton said: “I would like to thank all of the young people who got involved in this competition. It is great to see something so positive coming out of a difficult time and it is lovely to see so much talent from the young people in our borough.
“I would like to thank the staff at Cognus for creating this competition and funding the prizes. This has given the young people, their families and schools something positive to focus on over the last few months and it is an honour to be here today with representatives from all of these different parties.”
Cognus launched the Lockdown Lessons competition in June this year as a way for Sutton children and young people (Year groups 1-8) to express their feelings while being in lockdown. More than 60 talented and creative individuals across the borough submitted amazing materials ranging from poems and letters to diary entries and artwork pieces, some of which celebrated our nation’s heroes.
The winners were announced in July and the celebration event was scheduled for the return of schools following the summer holidays.
Each young person was prized with a book voucher and up to £100 each for their school.
