Merthyr Tydfil primary pupils inscribe church roof tiles for future generations
Pupils at a Catholic primary school in the Archdiocese of Cardiff have been writing messages for future generations on new church roof tiles.
At Easter St. Illtyd’s Church in Dowlais had received over £950,000 to undertake urgent repairs. This was thanks to the generous support of The Albert Gubay Charitable Foundation, the National Churches Trust, and the Welsh Government.
Over the summer term new slates are being applied to the roof and pupils of St. Illtyd’s Primary School in Dowlais made a very special contribution to the project. They were asked to look to the future and write messages on some of the slates that will cover the roof – messages that may be read by people 100 years from now when the roof needs replacing!
“The children have been involved in the ‘Church Slate Project’,” said Kelly Rowling, Head of Campus St Illtyd’s Primary School.
“We launched the project with an assembly telling the children what they were going to be doing. We showed them drone footage of the church roof and told them they would be writing time capsule messages to somebody in the future – a 100 years’ time when the roof would be done.”
The children went back to their classes and drafted messages they wanted to put on the slates. On Monday morning, 300 slates were delivered by the contractors Camilleri, and as Kelly noted, “We had two projects on the go. We had our own time capsule project and one from Deacon Garth. He asked us if we could write messages on slates which had been sponsored by the parishioners – either their own messages or messages dedicated to others. So, the children took it in turns, class by class, to come and write messages.”
“It was a very thought-provoking week for the children and the staff. We wanted people in a hundred years’ time to find the slates and to learn about our school, what life was like for us in Merthyr, and what school was like.”
The staff also got involved, writing their own messages on the slates about life in 2024. Politics, the Royal Family, the cost of living, and life at St Illtyd’s were all explored. “We also ran a competition for the children to guess how many slates were going to be put on the roof”, she said.
When asked if any messages stood out, Kelly shared, “Lots of them stood out for lots of different reasons. Some children wanted to put in their favourite foods, and wondered whether there would be pizza in 100 years’ time? Another wanted to tell people that we go to school Monday to Friday, sit on tables, and we’ve got Chromebooks that we use sometimes. Many of our families come from different countries, and the children wanted to put that in their message. They asked, ‘Would there be an India or a Poland in 100 years’ time? What would the countries look like?’ The thoughts that have gone into the messages were fantastic.”
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