Stillness Summer Fair - Sat 16th July 2011 12-4pm

It all started out very wet on the day, and at 6am we were all peering out of our curtains hoping that the grey cloud would clear... but it didn't. There was a flurry of texts and messages between FOSI and SCA, and by the time we all made it to school a new plan had been devised to keep everyone in the dry. 

We moved our Craft Market into the Junior School hall, and all the other stalls went into the Infant School hall or under various bits of playground cover. Volunteers arrived faithfully to help put up bunting and set up stalls. Miss Lightfoot and I struggled with the BBQ which we had borrowed from the Brockley Society. They said 'no tools required' but it did, although luckily I had some in my van. For one awful moment it wouldn't light as I'd bought some dreadful B&Q lighter gel which was hopeless, but a husband was dispatched on a quick trip to the Brockley Supermarket for some proper firelighters and we soon had it going. Before long Mr Wilson and Mr Smith were cooking up a storm, with orders flooding in.

Miss Sharpe sent a text to parents to reassure them that the fair was definitely going ahead and before long the playground and halls were thronged with people, determined to have fun. We had fantastic coffee provided by Dark Fluid, wonderful cakes on the school cake stall, hot food, children's games (Splat the Rat, Hoopla, Tin Can Alley and Roll a 10p amongst others) and the craft area full of lovely things to buy. A parent, Samantha Fennell, had a table promoting her new Osteopathy Practice in Honor Oak Park, and Inger Christiansen ran the Guess How Many Sweets jar on the Parent Forum Information table. This was won by Eleanor Smith in year 3 who guessed nearest to the correct total. Other stalls on the day were run by Kath Dare (jewellery), Tamara Bent (www.eatcake.me.uk), Sandra Greenidge (cakes), Marjorie Simon (bric a brac), Fathimath Fareeda (hand-made accessories and home appliances), Lorraine Hammerton (Jewellery & Hair Accessories), Lisa Micklethwaite (child's aprons) and Jackie Mason (Smoothies).

 

An improvised paddling pool appeared next to the adventure playground, with enthusiastic paddlers in wellies and rainsuits, making the most of the opportunity for some wet play. 

When the sun eventually came out later in the afternoon stalls began popping up in the playground for Pimms and Beer, the balloons came out, and the Raffle ticket table was booming. 

We had some fantastic prizes on the raffle this year, with the top prize of a Wii console donated by Sebastien Roche estate agents, a Kindle 3G given by John Lewis, a term of after-school activities from Josh Franklin at Lewisham Community Sports (who also very kindly gave us the use of a bouncy castle for free), an iPod touch, Ocado vouchers, a wonderful facial at Neroli, and a hamper from Hills & Parkes who are opening a new shop in Honor Oak Park soon. There was also an Ezy Roller Scooter, vouchers for Fitness for Mummies, tickets for the Natural History Museum and London Transport Museum and vouchers for meals at Babur and The Orchard restaurant in Brockley. A huge thank you to everyone who kindly donated prizes, we are very grateful for your generosity.

At the latest count we calculate that we have raised about £5,000 between both SCA and FOSI, which is a fantastic amount, and could not have been achieved without all your help, time, donations and goodwill. Thank you to everyone. As the fair was organised as a joint effort between the two committees, we are going to share the profits equally between the two PTAs. We are now starting to think about how we can best benefit the two schools at this time, and after meeting with the head teachers we will soon be letting you know what we have each decided to support in the new term. 

We did find a couple of stragglers while we were clearing up, sheltering under the roof by the cake stall. If anyone knows who might have left these two friends behind please email us and we'll make sure they are safely returned.

There are more photos of the fair in our photosharing site at Flickr, so do have a look there. SCA and FOSI wish everyone a very happy summer holiday and look forward to seeing everyone in the Autumn term.


Alice (SCA secretary)
I have struggled with this new blog formatting so please excuse the bizarre spacing!