Can you tell why Norfolk school kids are laughing at this logo?

Lynn Grove Academy in Gorleston.August 2015.Picture: James Bass (Image: (C) Archant Norfolk 2015)

Lynn Grove Academy is opening its doors for the new term next week with a refreshed logo and colour scheme across its buildings, vehicles and uniforms, to mark it becoming part of the Creative Education Trust.

But part of the design of the new crest has sparked titters among pupils after they spotted its likeness to a man’s genitalia.

The logo features a red compass, celebrating the borough’s proud maritime past, and a grey ‘C’, representing a mathematical ratio.

The grey section of the symbol is shared across all Creative Education Trust schools - including Caister Academy - and it is this part that has sparked mirth among students, and caught parents’ eyes.

Janice Hopwood said the phallic design had been brought to her attention by her son, a pupil at Lynn Grove, who had found it “comical”.

“It’s all a big joke at the moment but I think a lot of people will be poking fun, I don’t know how other schools will interpret it,” Janice, 50, added.

“Some people have noticed it and some people haven’t but when you bring it to their attention, they say ‘oh yeah’.”

Janice, a mum-of-three, said the logo was “obviously” not meant to represent the rude image people were conjuring, but it was not clear what it was intended to symbolise.

“The red bit is the compass but I don’t know what the rest is meant to be,” she added. “It must have taken a group of people to say we’ll go for that and for them all to pass it and not see what it looks like seems very strange.

“I’m light hearted about it but for a school I think it should be a bit different.”

The school’s old logo featured two lions holding a coat of arms.

Alison Mobbs, headteacher at Lynn Grove, said she had come up with the compass part of the emblem but the rest of the symbol was designed by the trust.

“All the schools in the trust have the grey bit and then each individual school has a bit that represents something to do with their local area,” she added.

“We were trying to celebrate our maritime culture with the compass and education is a compass as children start to work out which way they want to go.”

Mrs Mobbs said she had not heard from any parents about the potentially rude representation the emblem could take on, and she was pleased with the school’s fresh new look after under going some redecoration over the summer.

She added: “The school looks lovely now we have got the trust colours, I love the red and grey together.”