Shelford 1000 Cranes for Peace

If you go to the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan, you will see brightly coloured paper cranes everywhere. These paper cranes come originally from the ancient Japanese tradition of origami, or paper folding, but today they are known as a symbol of peace. They are folded as a wish for peace in many countries around the world. This connection between paper cranes and peace comes from the story of a young girl named Sadako Sasaki, who died of leukemia ten years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the end of the second world war.

Last year, we started the Shelford 1000 Cranes for Peace Project during Year 5-8 Activities week, and this year we are aiming to complete our 1000 cranes so that we can send them across to Hiroshima to join the worldwide community of people who value and pray for peace. We would like to finish folding our cranes in Term 3 so we can display them in reception for Term 4 before we send them to Japan. We are up to about 500 cranes, thanks to the efforts of some very dedicated Year 6 girls, but we still have a way to go! We’re running folding sessions at lunchtimes across this term in the Drawing Room. Everyone is welcome to come along and help us reach our 1000 crane goal!

Julie Devine

Head of Languages