Review: Children's Parade 2008 - by Andrew Jeffrey

The streets of Brighton were filled with thousands of proud parents (and no end of fascinated onlookers) on Saturday 3rd May as the city’s children opened England’s largest Arts Festival in tremendous style.

As a family, this was our first visit to the children’s parade, and we were blown away by the variety and creativity of the designs. A huge number of schools were involved in making awesome displays and costumes, and it was a fabulous showcase for the primary and secondary schools across the city. From our vantage point overlooking Marine Parade, we were able to watch everyone finishing.

We and our children thoroughly enjoyed this unique spectacle. Of all the fabulous entries, my personal favourite was probably the Mouse Trap theme from St Mary’s Hall (though I might be biased as my friend was the Head and dressed as a diver; I have the blackmail photos on my phone, Huw…)

One final thought; as I watched parents, teachers and pupils all willingly giving up their Saturday mornings to work together in what were clearly happy and cohesive teams, I remembered that this was what education should really be about.