Many years ago I was training at Malvern Way Infant and Nursery School in Rickmansworth. At the time, they had been developing their grounds for the past 8 years under the leadership of a head teacher, Janet English, who retired in 2014. This included giving children opportunities to work with artists and sculptors. As I looked out of one window this wonderful display caught my eye…

It is cleverly situated where children can walk along a corridor with windows on both sides. So on one side are the children’s work. Usually the artist creates a piece of work for the school and this is used as inspiration for children’s own work and is on the other side so that the connections can be made between the work of the children and the artist.

The sculptor who work with the children and created this piece of art above, turned out to be none other than the amazing Pete Moorhouse. Whilst many in the early years know him for his woodwork with children, not everyone realises that he is a sculptor and has a stack of public art work which can be seen on his website.

Whilst the works may not obviously be connected, I loved the funky-junkiness of these sculptures. They come across as highly original and individual even though similar materials have been used by all the children involved. What I also love is that these have been created by children in Key Stage 1 as well as EYFS. It is easy to box a person into an age category, yet Pete’s work is applicable to all children and young people of all stages and abilities.

The kite is a collective piece of work and typifies the approach. Every sculpture required time spent looking and appreciating the effect because surprises were hidden in each one. For example in the photo below, you can see that a stick has been added.

The use of Perspex has been great. The colours and the shapes add a brightness to the works in combination with lots of unwanted CDs.

Corks, ply board and other wood offcuts have been either screwed on or nailed in. There’s also been evidence of sawing the wood. Thus a variety of practical skills are being applied here. This is much more original than many technology and woodworking projects I see where children are directed to make  a particular object with a fixed outcome. These sculptures seem to have a balance between the process and the product.

The trick appeared to be to create a broad wooden base and post. Onto this most of the junk and off-cuts can be added.

I also rather like the one or two pure-wood sculptures. They highlight the pattern and waves shapes. The sculpture below didn’t need the fancy-smancy Perspex or CD bling.

Pete Moorhouse runs lots of training sessions, keynote speeches and workshops. I finally got to meet him in person about 3 years later and was really excited when I realised he was the “funky junk” artist. If you want to learn more about his woodworking or approaches to exploring creativity with schools and nurseries then get in touch via his website – Irresistible Learning. It’s a brilliant resource and well worth a look.

This blog post was originally published in March 2014.