SPARKLING with gemstones, a rhino has been given a memorable make-over by pupils at a Southampton school.

Great Oaks School has joined the stampede for Marwell Wildlife’s Go! Rhinos campaign that will see life-sized, multi-coloured sculptures pop up across the city this summer.

The children also took it one step further with a video of themselves riding the colourful rhino, which they named Jules Rhinestone, through ‘Africa’.

Children at the Bassett school, which caters for young people with a range of complex learning difficulties including autism and speech and language difficulties, got together to decorate the rhino with gemstones.

Each class had to come up with their own design for the rhino and put it on a mini model, then the winning design was transferred to the school’s model rhino.

The public art project will create an exciting trail for families to follow while raising vital cash for charity and conservation missions run by Winchester-based Marwell in celebration of its 40th birthday.

It is hoped that the Go! Rhinos project, which runs for ten weeks, will showcase artistic talent in Southampton while highlighting the ongoing threat to wild rhinos’ survival and how the Southampton business community can help.