Pictures of rainbows have started appearing in windows across the UK after schools closed in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Hundreds of schools are encouraging pupils to put up paintings to 'spread hope' following a trend that began online.
Although many school buildings have shut, one head teacher said the school spirit was still very much alive with online lessons. A spokesman for Grange First School in Newcastle said: 'We are hoping to spread our cheerful windows campaign as wide as possible. Signs are going up in windows all over our area and beyond and will really help maintain morale for children (and families) in these difficult times.'
Angela Ruthven, whose son Harrison made a rainbow, described it as 'a truly wonderful idea while we are all facing such worries with our health, our jobs and children's education'. She added: 'It's bringing families together at home to create a rainbow, making people smile if they are spotted in windows. It's bringing our wonderful school and even the world together.'
Shona Richardson, head teacher of a school in Rosewell, Midlothian, said: 'We did not want it all to be doom and gloom for the children. We thought this would be a really visual way of bringing hope at a time when there is not much out there. It also sends a message to the elderly people to say we are thinking of you and hopefully it will give them some joy too.'
Eight-year-old Tayen from Bridgwater, Somerset, who has been blind since she was 22 months old and is currently undergoing chemotherapy, made a raised rainbow she could feel. Her mother Kali explained: 'We used paper which is put through a machine so the surface is raised so she can feel it. She coloured it in with paint sticks and her brothers helped her choose the colours - although she tells everyone it's entirely pink.'
Jo Tambie of Hall Green, Birmingham, said her four children created rainbows as an antidote to the 'negativity'. Her daughter came up with the words 'be confident and be brave', which Jo described as 'words from an eight-year-old' that 'just makes you smile when you see it and quite emotional'.
