Hands of friendship reach out to schools

The grand unveiling of the newly re-designed Lambanana outside Toxteth Annexe has taken place at an event run by School Improvement Liverpool (SIL).

A competition was held over the months of May and June for Dingle, Granby and Toxteth schools for them to re-design the Lambanana outside Toxteth Annexe, using the School Improvement Liverpool EMTAS ‘Hands of Friendship’ theme.

Over 50 entries were received for staff to shortlist and the chosen designs were sent to a Twitter poll to decide the winner!

The winning design was by Noor Abd Zaid from Smithdown Primary School and was interpreted onto the Lambanana by artist Steve Molyneux.

The unveiling event was attended by Lord Mayor Christine Banks, Jeff Morgan from City of Sanctuary, Cllr Nick Small, Levi Tafari, Junior Lord Mayors and a number of students from some of the School of Sanctuary schools within the city.

Noor (the winning designer) and Abass (a student who coined the ‘Hands of Friendship’ term) both helped with the grand unveiling.

Gill Rowlands, Malik Killen, CEO of SIL, Levi Tafari and Jeff Morgan spoke some wonderful words at the event and highlighted the important of ‘Hands of Friendship and inclusion within the city.

Naomi Rose, marketing manager for SIL, said: “It has been a wonderful project working with schools at redesigning our much loved Lambanana. Thank you to all schools who participated and to all of the special guests who attended the unveiling.

“The Lambanana really reflects the importance of friendship, inclusion and belonging and we can’t wait for everyone to see it when they visit the centre”.