Super Trade at our Fair!
On Friday 26th June, normal service – lessons! - at school was suspended for the afternoon, because everyone was involved in our first Enterprise Fair. For one and a half hours, the whole focus of pupils and staff was on commerce: buying and selling of products from our range of stalls.
The challenge had gone out in September to all departments in school from our Business and Enterprise Department: decide on a product connected with your subject, manufacture or purchase it, and sell it at a profit. Every department responded magnificently!
The first signs that we were on our way to success came later in the autumn term, when pupils in year 8 started to carry round their catalogue of bags they had designed in Art. With the current interest in the world’s resources, these bags are perfect for shopping or carrying books to and from school. As a consequence, they sold like the proverbial hot cakes; the girls were clearly on to a winner! Delighted by their success, the girls branched out, using their designs to create greetings cards.
By January, other departments were busy planning and producing their goods, and a marketing and financial team had been established, made up of pupils from years 10 and 12 Business Studies students, under the aegis of Mr. Bellmon. They were an outstanding support to all our companies, offering guidance and advice and dealing with the plan of our marketplace as well as preparing to publicise our fair. In this last task they were ably supported by Miss Hackney’s Media Studies sixth formers, who created an advertisement which was broadcast on Radio City in the weeks before the fair. With coverage on Radio Merseyside as well, we were ‘out there’, pushing our wares at the community!
Some departments, like Art, chose to begin selling their goods before the actual day of the fair: for example, P.E. chose to sell ‘team hoodies’, and took orders for these over several weeks, and our Soap Company sold throughout the year.
We watched the weather forecasts anxiously in the week before the fair; many of our plans depended on there being good weather! Thank goodness, Friday dawned bright and dry, and by 11.00 a.m. we began to see the first signs of our marketplace. In the main school hall, most of our stalls had been set up.
Textiles and Resistant Materials had a colourful display of bags, high visibility jackets, ‘woodies’ (scented letters of the alphabet to hang in lockers, thus banishing the smell of hockey socks left too long!), mirrors, passport covers (especially for next year’s ski trip) and jewellery. Everything was uniquely designed for and by our pupils. The care they had taken in making their own display stands and product labels really impressed everybody, and there was brisk trade at their stall.
At events like these, cakes are always a clear winner, and customers buzzed round the Food Technologists’ stall snapping up the delicious-looking cakes. By the end of the one and a half hours that the fair lasted, not a crumb was left!
Geography had come up with the idea of selling jigsaws of local views, including the opportunity to buy a jigsaw aerial view of your own street; they were also selling plants from climatic regions in originally decorated pots, and many a customer went home clutching her cactus or his begonia.
ICT were busy creating individual ribbons to decorate USBs – flash drives – and make them unique. Mr. Makin seemed a little perturbed by the fact that he had been on line with his students ordering metres of ribbon: a first for him!
Over at the English stall, Miss McCarthy’s team were selling posters and bookmarks that they had made, and inviting customers to get involved in their tombola. Nearby, R.E. were selling hand made, originally designed bead jewellery and beaded bookmarks (with profits destined for pupils going to Morocco on the World Challenge); beyond them, Psychology students were tempting us with their deliciously scented bath bombs – a great relaxation technique!
The History Department had a clear eye to exam success with their revision guides and ‘Top Trumps’ revision games. From the deals they were making, it’s clear that our pupils are keen to do well in their next History exam!
Last – but by no means least – the Science Department were selling their hand-made soaps, and candles in original etched glass pots. Their soaps have been a big hit with our pupils all year, selling especially well at Christmas and around Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. Mr. King and his team of year 7 girls had made a fantastic success of their soap company, and the fair was simply the icing on their cake – of soap, of course!
All this buying and selling made for hungry and thirsty shoppers: they were well-catered for at the ‘Café du Parc’, where the whole of the Modern Foreign Languages Department was rushed off its feet serving teas, coffees and continental delicacies to a huge number of customers. They were extraordinarily professional, with their waitresses in neat black uniforms and aprons, and every table sporting a specially made menu – all decorated with the colours of the French flag, of course!
While shoppers made their purchases or refreshed themselves, they could leave their cars outside, where Mr. Smalley and the Maths Department, in partnership with Mr. Spencer, spruced up each vehicle with a wash and vacuum. And in the yard, Mr. White’s team sold ice lollies – a real blessing in the heat of the afternoon.
And, as they say, there was more: pupils could buy a strawberries and cream treat while they watched Wimbledon on our big screen in the Music Room; and the Music Department itself had occupied the Drama Studio, where singers and instrumentalists performed their hearts out for enthusiastic crowds. And what of the Drama Department? Well, their play is yet to come before the term reaches its conclusion.
No wonder that the final verdict on our Trade Fair was that it was a ‘resounding success’! Well done to everyone: pupils, staff, parents and local community. Thanks – and come again!
