Woodborough pupils cheered up on sad anniversary (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Woodborough pupils cheered up on sad anniversary

2:00pm Thursday 15th March 2012 in Pewsey By Nigel Kerton

There was a day of surprises in store yesterday for the Woodborough School friends of Finlay Connor on the first anniversary of his tragic death a few yards from the school gates.

As a distraction the school organised a special day on the theme of the Wiltshire great bustards, the birds that have been reintroduced to Salisbury Plain. The children met a model bird and, using K-Nex construction kits, built prototype vehicles capable of carrying a bustard egg.

At their afternoon assembly the children encountered a full size glass fibre model of a bustard by Warminster Arts Society, one of a number the society has made for a competition to see who can decorate them the best.

Finlay and his mother Niki, 37, were walking towards the school on March 12 last year when they were hit by a bus that had just dropped off children and, a court later heard, was accelerating away when it struck the pair.

Teachers from the school fought to keep Finlay alive until paramedics arrived but despite being airlifted to Swindon’s Great Western Hospital he died from his injuries. Mrs Connor spent weeks in Frenchay Hospital and is still recovering from her injuries and the trauma.

Bus driver Adrian Shear-ing, 52, from Trowbridge, is serving a 28-month prison sentence for causing death by dangerous driving which he admitted at Winchester Crown Court in October.

Mrs Finlay and her husband Greg with their younger son Louis were living at Great Cheverell at the time of the tragedy but are now living in Rushall where Louis attends the village school.

Yesterday, Woodborough head teacher Mrs Brewis and her staff invited pupils to come to school wearing bright colours and they played in the garden planted in Finlay’s memory.

Mrs Brewis said: “We wanted to do something different to mark this first anniversary and we have tried to make everything as upbeat as we can for the children.”

At their afternoon assembly she unveiled one of the fibreglass model bustards.

Mrs Brewis said: “We are going to run a decorating competition and we are looking for an artist to come in and help the children.