Wiltshire College Chippenham is commemorating this year’s Remembrance Day with a large poppy collage.

Staff and students at both the Chippenham and Trowbridge campuses were tasked last week with creating a large remembrance poppy, made up of individual poppies and including messages of thanks, reflection and commemoration.

The project was the initiative of Cathryn Giles and Lisa Cox, lecturers in Foundation Studies at Chippenham, a programme which caters for students with learning difficulties.

An email was issued to all staff and students at the Cocklebury Road campus, and the Trowbridge campus, to contribute by cutting out and decorating a poppy template, with a special message attached - and the response was phenomenal.

The collage, put together by students on the Foundation Studies programme,  includes 423 individually created poppies, and was placed on display at the Chippenham college’s Cove Theatre in time for last Saturday’s Open Event at the Chippenham campus.

Said Mrs Giles: “We usually talk with our students about remembrance as part of our Foundation Studies programme, but as it’s the 100-year anniversary of the First World War, we felt we should do something more this year and give it more of a push.

“Seeing the students put the poppy together last week was amazing, there was such a buzz, such an atmosphere.

“We extended it to the whole college, the interest was fantastic and there is already talk of it sparking future projects for the students to come together.

“We also developed a link with the College of North West London, which should see the start of some combined projects, one of which will see both sets of students being taught social media and safe practice, and they will come together through Facebook and the web.”

Denise Lloyd, Wiltshire College Chippenham’s director of Curriculum and Campus, added: “It showed great teamwork on the part of the Foundation Studies students, they’re so proud of what they’ve achieved and rightly so.

“It’s so powerful. The poppy collage touched the hearts of so many people in the building, a huge number of people also commented on it during Saturday’s Open Event and visitors were given an opportunity to add to it, which brought a real community feel to it.”

On Remembrance Day itself, the students and Foundation Studies staff will observe a two-minute silence beside the collage.