An artist who spent three months painting a work of art to showcase the place women have in society now has visited a Sandbach school to share it with students.

Students at Sandbach High School and Sixth College's feminism group were treated to a special talk and showing of the symbolic "For Every Name Remembered" by Gill Nicholas.

The talented artist talked to students at the Middlewich Road school and showed students the iconic painting featuring 100 "strong" women from past and present.

Gill told the students that the painting had been "going round in her head" for about two years.

She said: "The idea is that whilst we are adding to the history books with the female names that were omitted but really should have been there, there will be countless women who are forgotten in time.

"This is my small and humble way of remembering them.

Gill talking to the Sandbach students, explaining her work.

"It was quite an emotional piece to paint. Every portrait painted had such a strong person attached to it, it was quite overwhelming."

Famous faces from the past appear in the 100 names, including Emeline Pankhurst, Florence Nighingale and Katherine Hepburn as well as more up-to-date names such as Kate Bush and Suzi Quatro.

Gill added: "I wanted to paint a piece that captures the sacrifice and strength women have been going through to the place we are at the moment in society." 

The artist spoke about her journey, pointing out that it was important to "find a voice of what you want to say" and "to get your head above everyone else's" which isn't always easy.

 The visit was topical as the school's Feminism Group has launched a petition calling on the government to ban the sale of school uniforms in sex shops and from being worn in pornographic videos.

It calls on the government to make it illegal for school

uniforms to be displayed and sold within sex shops to stop the sexualisation of children.

The petition has nearly 1,800 signatures but the group is calling for as many people as possible to sign it - https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/615829

Teacher Sarah Maile, the PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health, Citizenship and Economic) co-ordinator at

the school said: "With this particular petition, once we started discussing the issues the more impassioned

and angry they became.

"The fact is there is this sexualisation of, in particular young girls, in school uniform in pornography, in sex shops school uniforms are sold as sex costumes which is really, really concerning and it makes the young people feel uncomfortable and sexualised.

"It just perpetuates this idea that it's OK to sexualise children."

She said the girls at the school – which also takes students fromnearby Middlewich and Crewe – created the petition themselves.

"They want change. They can't believe that it's legal to have this and I fully support them," said Sarah.