Well done, P7 Lochyside School

 

Lochyside Primary in Fort William was one of a number of schools who took part in the ‘Talented Fundraisers’ SCIAF project.

The project is based on the parable of the Talents and then the children bring to life the parable by first of all, recognising their God-given talents and then secondly, putting them into practice to serve God and others.

In their own words, primary 7 tell their story.

Mark Booker from SCIAF visited our school to talk to us about the Talented Fundraiser Project. He gave us £50.00 and set us a challenge to increase the money by using our individual talents. Our initial target was to raise £300.00.

Our class decided to organise a Christmas Fair. We formed a committee by voting for office-bearers. We discussed the different types of activities that we wanted to have at the Christmas Fair. We spoke to all the classes in the school and asked if they would like to help by making some Christmas crafts. We also involved our parents, families and people in our parish community. We advertised the Christmas Fair in the local press, on the local radio station and by putting up posters around the local area.

We were delighted with the support that we got – raffle prizes, donations, help with baking and volunteers to help at stalls.

Our Christmas Fair was held in our school hall on Thursday 3rd December 2015. We all had responsibility for individual stalls:

 Teas and Coffees and Home baking

 Face Painting  

 Fairtrade Stall

 Bottle Stall

 Fun Christmas Hats Photos

 Christmas Lanterns for sale

 Christmas Gift Bags and Gift Tags

 Christmas Body and Lips Scrubs

 Christmas Decorations and Cards

 Competitions –

 Guess the Salmon’s Name

 Pick a Prawn   

 Lucky Numbers Square

 Children’s Draw

 Guess Santa’s Birthday

 Sweets in the Jar

 Lucky Dip

 Christmas Hamper Raffle

 “Elf Yourself” with staff photos

 

There was a huge turnout of parents, families, friends and parishioners, and everyone had a great time. All of the stalls, competitions and the teas and baking were very popular and sold out very quickly. Our Christmas Fair was a great success, and we were delighted to raise a fantastic total of £1350.00 for SCIAF.

Reporters from the local newspapers came to the event to take photographs and articles on the Christmas Fair were published in the local press. Nevis Radio, the local radio station, not only supported us by advertising our Christmas Fair but they gave a very kind report afterwards. Primary 7 wrote thank you letters to all those people that helped with the event including school staff, parents and volunteers.

 

On January 11th 2016 Mark Booker returned to our school and he was overwhelmed by the amount that we had raised. We presented a cheque for £1350.00 to Mark in front of the whole school and again this presentation was covered in the local press. Mark talked to Primary 7 after the presentation and looked at the photos from the Christmas Fair and discussed how the event had gone. Mark explained that the money will go to SCIAF to help to train people in need in skills to set up their own businesses – the money wouldn’t be used as a ‘hand-out’ but a ‘hand-up’.

We were very proud of our success in organising this event and raising so much money for such a good cause