We are thrilled to announce the winners of the Love Lowndes children’s art competition.

As part of the Valentine’s day ‘Show your LOVE for Lowndes Park’ all-schools Mufti Day the children were encouraged to enter an art competition. They were asked to draw a picture on the theme of “Lowndes Park – the green heart of Chesham”.

We were absolutely bowled over by the number and quality of the entries. Children aged 4 to 11 drew amazing pictures that captured their love of play, their joy of green spaces and their sheer excitement about having a new playground. All the judges commented on how impressed they were and humbled they felt by the care and thought the children had put in. It was a wonderful reminder of why, and for whom, we’re doing this.

Keep reading to find out who the winners are!

Huge thanks to the following schools who raised an amazing £1,255 on the mufti day and/or entered the art competition:

• Chartridge Combined School
• Newtown School
• Waterside Primary Academy
• Ivingswood Academy
• Elmtree School (and Nursery)
• Brushwood Junior School
• Hawridge and Cholesbury CE School
• The Beacon School
• Chesham Preparatory School
• Thomas Harding Junior School

The Prizes:

WINNERS:
At the entrance to our new playground (due to be built by the end of March 2025), we will have a ‘heroes’ board celebrating all the key sponsors, businesses and groups that have donated to make the new park a reality. On that board we have set aside two spaces for the winning artwork from our two age groups. It will be up in the park for at least 10 years!

RUNNERS UP:
The runners up will be offered the chance to help build the new Bug Hotel in the playground. The build will happen on Sunday 23rd March led by local children’s environmental group Nature Club.

All the winners and runners up will be invited to a VIP play party on the 23rd March where they will be the first children to play in the new playground!

The winners

Age 4-7 category

WINNER

Kaith, Aged 7, Brushwood Junior School

Runners up:

Tia, Aged 5, Chesham Preparatory School

Ayvah, Aged 4, Chesham Preparatory School

Cherry, Aged 6, Hawridge & Cholesbury CE School

Age 8-11 Category

WINNER

Matilda, Aged 10, Chartridge Combined School

Runners up:

Aanah, Aged 9, Ivingswood Academy

Annabelle, Aged 11, Hawridge & Cholesbury CE School

Vaia, Aged 8, Chesham Preparatory School

We cannot overstate how impressed we all were with the entries. Love Lowndes is working on a way to create an exhibition in Chesham to share the amazing work with the community.

All the Ts&Cs in case you’re interested!

The rules:

• Each entry must be by one child only.
• It must be drawn on the A4 paper template supplied as the winning images will be square.
• The child’s name, age and school must be included on the template.
• Drawings and paintings only – no collage or photographs.
• The Love Lowndes team will collect all pictures to be submitted at the end of the school day on 14/02/25.
• The Love Lowndes team will choose two winners:
  • Age 4-7 category
  • Age 8-11s category
• We will contact the winners to gain approval of the parents for inclusion on the board on Monday 17th February.
• We will publicly announce the winners by 1st March 2025.
• The artwork and interpretation board will be unveiled at the new playground grand opening on the 29th March 2025. Winners will be invited to attend.

The judging process:

• All entries were collated by Claire Wyatt (Chair of Love Lowndes) after the deadline of 14/02/2025.
  
• Claire sorted the entries into age groupings and delivered them to Louise Hayday (CEO of Chesham Town Council).
• Louise ‘blind’ judged each age group (only looking at drawings and not names/schools) to create a long-list for each age category.
• The long-list entries were given back to Claire to redact names and schools details, photograph them and send to a small group from the Love Lowndes committee.
• This small group then voted for their favourite in each age category and the image with the most votes became the finalist in each age category.
• Claire then sent the finalists to the full Love Lowndes WhatsApp committee for final judging.
• The final was judged in the agreed 4-7 age group and the 8-11 age group.
• There were clear winners in both age groups. Claire Wyatt did not vote at any stage as she was the only one who may have seen names/schools.