Our Junior School pupils were excited to welcome Angry Dan as ‘Artist in Residence’ last week.

The British poet, painter and illustrator, renowned for his vibrantly illustrated limerick street murals, spent an immersive week in the Junior School leading a whole-school assembly talking about his career, running limerick-writing workshops with the Junior classes and creating a vibrant mural inspired by the school's core values of Unitas, Veritas, Caritas (unity, truth and love).

In the writing workshops over the course of the week at the school, the pupils learnt about the rhyming structures needed for creating their own limericks and were tasked with coming up with their own creative inventions.

One of the lasting highlights of the week, however, was the collaborative creation of a mural that encapsulates the essence of our school’s core values – Unity, Truth, and Love. Dan used feedback from the pupils about what these values meant to them to come up with the limerick, and the finished piece serves as a vibrant representation of the School's commitment to fostering a community built on these foundational principles. The meaningful words were illustrated over different pencils to recognise the important of individuality within the School community.

Mr Marsh, Head of the Junior School said, "We were absolutely thrilled to welcome Angry Dan to Austin Friars School for this exciting week. This collaboration has not only enhanced our pupils creative writing skills but has also reinforced to them our commitment to Unity, Truth, and Love as our core values. The pupils have loved seeing the stages of creation of the mural, popping down to ask questions and see it evolve over the week. We couldn’t be happier with the end result  - it’s a fitting and permanent reminder of the school values which we hope will stay with them long after they’ve left us”.

Dan also commented “I've had such a wonderful time at Austin Friars. Everyone made me feel so welcome, and the children came up with some clever and wonderfully silly poems."