Arundel & South Downs MP Nick Herbert visited Duncton CE School on Friday morning (10 December) to present them with a flag which had been flown in Parliament Square and was designed by a former pupil of the school.

Daisy Hervey, 12, won a competition to create a design for the Flags 2015 Project when she was still a pupil at the school. The project commemorated the 1265 Montfort Parliament.

Daisy is now a Year 7 pupil at Bowhunt School but returned for the occasion with her family to see the unveiling of the flag which she had designed a year ago.

All the children in the school took part in the national competition when it opened last year. Their brief was to design a flag which represented what was important to them in their school community.

Mr Herbert and Daisy unfurled the huge flag at a special assembly of the school, and Daisy talked about her design. She explained that the yellow represents the West Sussex sunshine and the red represents the rich fields in the area. In the middle of the flag Daisy has included an Ash leaf to signify the importance of Duncton being a Forest School.

The Flags 2015 Project aimed to commemorate the first English Parliament, the 1265 Montfort Parliament, where representatives from towns and shires came together and formed the basis of a more representative democracy.

Each of the 80 flags in the display had been designed by school children aged between 7 and 11 across the UK to represent their local area or community. They were flown in Parliament Square between 15 and 22 May this year, and at the 800th anniversary event ‘Magna Carta Foundation of Liberty’ in Runnymede in June.

Mr Herbert congratulated Daisy and the whole school for being chosen to represent the area with their design, and spoke about the significance of the anniversary of the very first Parliament.

ENDS

Notes

1. Photograph – Nick Herbert MP and Daisy Hervey with the flag, joined by the whole Duncton CE School.

MP presents flag to Duncton CE School