From parades and giant birthday cards to random acts of kindness and services to the community, Bermuda High School for Girls has done its best to celebrate our island's 400th anniversary.
Pupils aged between 5 to 15-years-old worked with their teachers and parents to make this a year to remember.
Perhaps the most spectacular contribution was the creation of a gigantic, four-sided birthday card made by students and staff entirely out of natural island materials.
Hundreds of thousands of beans and grains of rice were dyed and stuck to large boards that made up the background colours of the card. They were mounted on to floats that were covered in flowers for the school's Bermuda Day Parade.
Bermuda cedar was used to make features such as the traditional shutters on houses and parts of the Sea Venture.
Each side of the card depicted 100 years of Bermuda's history - all researched by the pupils - as well as the BHS crest. It featured the Sea Venture, St Peter's Church, the Bermuda Gazette as well as the Bermuda moongate and Gibbs Hill lighthouse. Some of the children dressed up in period costume and sang as part of the parade.
The school also created a 400-year timeline that has been mounted in the school's main corridor.
Students were asked to identify outstanding events that occurred through history and write and illustrate them to include in
the timeline.
Year eight student, Charlotte Griffiths, said: "I learned a lot more about Bermuda's past by being involved in decorating the float, walking in the Bermuda Day parade and creating my class' entry for the 400 year timeline. I think it is important to celebrate Bermuda's 400 years because you learn facts that you did not know about the island's culture, history and people."
Year eleven student, deputy head girl Kristyn Dale, added: "Creating the piece for the timeline was extremely interesting and rewarding as during the process, my classmates as well as myself, learned of many events of our island's past which are otherwise unrecognised in our present day. For example, the building of the Cobbs Hill Methodist Church in Warwick by slaves in the night - 1719."
Acts of kindness
Other celebratory activities included 400 acts of kindness performed by students and acknowledged on a paper tree full of messages.
The school is planning to collect 400 non-perishable food items and distribute them through the Salvation Army and the Lion's Club and they will also plant 400 cedar trees around the island promoting the benefits of endemic species to Bermuda.
Katherine Arnfield, a year 9 student, said: "I planted the cedar tree in my backyard and I really enjoyed planting it because I felt like I was making Bermuda a greener and better place."
