Children in Bayston Hill will be turning up to the newly-named Oakmeadow School in a purple uniform in September, after both the school name and uniform colour were decided in a poll this week.
Pupils at Longmeadow and Oakland Community primary schools in Bayston Hill, had to choose a name for their new school, which will be created in September when the two amalgamate.
School governors and members of the PTA whittled down the list to Oakmeadow Primary and Nursery School or Bayston Hill Primary and Nursery School out of the dozens of suggestions which had been made by pupils, parents and local residents.
Hugh Roberts, designate head of the new school, said the entire community had been involved in the process and the two favourite names were put forward for parents and pupils to choose between.
“We put the names in the community in places like the Spar shop and the library, and of course in the school, and we had more than 300 people cast their votes on which one they preferred,” he said.
“We had 170 votes for Oakmeadow, and Bayston Hill gained 143 votes. That was quite close, but the vote for the uniform colour was even closer.
“Overall the winner has been purple with 107 votes, but royal blue got 96 so it was very close. Navy blue only got 34 votes and jade just 25.”
Mr Roberts said the two schools’ 350 current pupils would now be set the challenge of designing a logo for the new school which will be used on the uniforms. And as a special treat, every child at the school will be given a new sweatshirt by the PTA association ready for the next academic year.
Cameron Taylor, chairman of the governors at Oakland School, said he thought the final choices were ‘excellent’.
“Oakmeadow is a good merge of the names of the two schools and we look forward to seeing the purple sweatshirts in September,” he said.