Our Lady and St Joseph Literacy Wonderland Wall Art
We designed a Literacy Wonderland for Our Lady & St Joseph Primary School in Lymington.
Our Lady and St. Joseph Primary School centers their curriculum on the philosophy; ‘Architects of a better world‘. And this philosophy is about empowering pupils to make a positive impact on those around them.
The school won a Wall Art project in the National Year of Reading 2026. Initially, we donated a literacy Wall Art prize to NLT, which they offered as an incentive to schools. Then, every school that completed the relevant Spring Term reflections before the end of April entered a random prize draw. And finally, at the end of April, National Literacy Trust selected a winning school at random.
Our Lady and St. Joseph Primary School won the Wall Art prize! They received a bespoke Wall Art project, designed by us. Now, we’re delighted to share the completed case study with you.
Our Lady & St Joseph Primary School
Our Lady & St Joseph Primary is a small, nurturing Catholic School in the heart of The New Forest. The school provides a rich learning experience that encourages children to become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens.
We applied the school’s philosophy to our bespoke designs for their Wall Art project. To begin, we linked the philosophy to reading; so we took role models from society and visually represented how they use reading to become architects of a better world. Each of these role models has a connection to reading – either through their research in a specific field, or through the books they have written themselves. We then added quotes that connect reading to the philosophy. And this shows how reading can empower people to become architects of a better world.
The closer pupils look at their Wall Art design, the more they’ll discover. We featured objects that will remind pupils of their favourite stories. And this is all set against a beautiful woodland backdrop, to create a calm and serene ambience in the school hall.
Perfect place
The school chose their hall for the Literacy Wall Art design. This was a perfect choice. The hall offers lots of wall space and is a communal area. In fact, pupils, teachers, parents and visitors to the school use the hall regularly for events, meetings, performances and more.
The prize was linked to the National Year of Reading, so it had to be literacy related. A selection of Year 6 pupils at Our Lady and St. Joseph Primary School are reading ambassadors. These pupils promote a reading culture at the school. They also support and and encourage other pupils to read for pleasure.
The reading ambassadors played a big part in feeding into the design brief. They chose a list of books to reflect on, which we included in the design. Through the designs, the school was keen to boost pupils’ imaginations. In this way, they can become storytellers and create their own reading journeys.
It was wonderful to see pupils and teachers getting involved in putting together the brief – especially the Year 6 reading ambassadors. This Wall Art design will be their legacy and will promote reading for pleasure to future generations of pupils for many years to come.
The process
We enjoyed working closely with the school to understand their goals for the project and those must-have elements they wanted to include. The school was keen on a ‘woodland wonderland’ backdrop. They took inspiration from some of our other nature Wall Art case studies, and our blog about the benefits of nature themed Wall Art.
Our in-house design team took the brief and turned the school’s ideas into designs. We presented these back to the wonderful team at Our Lady & St Joseph for feedback.
A note from the Head
The school’s Headteacher, Ellie Prince, had this to say about the project;
“Our school community is incredibly excited and proud to receive this very special prize, which strengthens our commitment to placing reading at the heart of our curriculum. Our curriculum is underpinned by the vision to empower pupils as ‘Architects of a Better World.’
Guided by UN Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education, we believe books are central to empowering our pupils to achieve their full potential; opening new worlds, nurturing imagination and fostering a lifelong love of learning.
Working with the National Literacy Trust and Promote Your School to develop our reading spaces will enrich our growing community of readers and help us continue shaping a culture of reading that extends well beyond the Year of Reading 2026.”
Literacy Wall Art
Children who read for pleasure are proven to be happier and healthier. And they achieve better learning outcomes at school.
So we were delighted to design this bespoke Literacy Wall Art project for the school. We enjoyed linking the theme of reading to the school’s philosophy and personal list of books to feature. This gives the design a really personal feel and reminds pupils of the importance – and magic – of reading!
