Huge Marcus Rashford mural painted on Highgate Wood School building

Created by street artist MurWalls, the mural will greet at Highgate Wood School pupils when they return for the new school year in September.

The aim is to inspire young people to "look at what we can do when we come together” – something Marcus Rashford has said during his campaigns to ensure children received meals during the pandemic and boost reading.

Marcus Rashford comes to Highgate Wood (in mural form). He was painted by MurWalls and funded by the Highgate Wood Parent and Staff Association (PSA) (Image: Highgate Wood School)

The school said it is "delighted that so many have responded so well" to the mural. It features Marcus Rashford wearing England kit.

The idea came from assistant headteacher Jen Burniston, who was in charge of the slimmed down "small school" during the height of the pandemic.

She said: "After such a difficult year for all students nationwide, we felt we would like to honour the phenomenal contribution from Marcus Rashford to support students on Free School Meals.

"We had previously commissioned some pieces by MurWalls and thought what a brilliant use of the blank space on the side of our main admin building a mural of this sort would be."

Marcus Rashford's face now looks out from the admin building at Highgate Wood School (Image: Highgate Wood School)

The mural features Highgate Wood's "4 Cs", which it encourages pupils to follow both in their education and in their day-to-day lives. They are "consideration, co-operation, contribution and courtesy".

Jen added: "We wanted to incorporate our 4 Cs school ethos, values that Marcus epitomises both on and off the pitch to be a daily reminder for our students of the huge positive impact that every individual can have on their society. A huge thank you to the Highgate Wood School PSA for fundraising and MurWalls for this inspirational piece of artwork.”

On Monday night, headteacher Patrick Cozier tweeted the finished mural, and Marcus Rashford himself acknowledged the mural with a "wow" on social media.

Last week the school celebrated A Level and GCSE results, with Mr Cozier highlighting the hard work of his pupils and scotching talk of grade inflation. At A Level, 45% of all grades were either an A* or an A.

This summer pupils at Highgate Primary wrote letters to Marcus Rashford and his England teammates Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, thanking them for their efforts at the Euro 2020 tournament and showing solidarity with them after they received racist abuse.