Harrogate School’s community event for Christmas season hailed a success

School Christmas Fair success - Ashville Prep School Head Asa Firth, Ashville College Head Rhiannon Wilkinson, and Ashville Prep School Head Amanda Gifford.

A Harrogate school’s pupils and teachers got into the festive spirit by staging a Christmas Fair with more than 20 different stalls and activities for families, friends and staff.

The Harrogate school was transformed into a winter wonderland as Christmas decorations decked the halls, whilst the classrooms and Outdoor Learning Emperor Bell Tent, which was transformed into a magical Santa’s grotto, featured decorations handmade by pupils.

The New Friends of Ashville (NFoA), a group of parent volunteers, also helped with the decorating of the grotto, as well as providing refreshments.

Pupils in Years 3 to 6 devised ideas for their own stalls as part of an enterprise project.

They had to consider their production costs, and how much they would need to charge to make a profit, before being able to run their stalls themselves on the night.

The pupil-run stalls included those selling crafts including tree decorations, spring bulb planting kits, homemade slime, and personalised bracelets, and ‘make-your-own’ stations where children could make reindeer food and Christmas cards and decorate gingerbread.

There were also games including ‘shoot the elf’, a Santa penalty shoot-out, hook-a-duck and festive crazy golf.

The range of pupil-run stalls complemented the selection of external craft makers.

Asa Firth, Ashville Prep School Head, said: “The Christmas Fair was a huge success, and it put everyone in a very festive mood.

"The decorations around the school combined with the recordings of the Junior and Piccolo choirs which were playing around the school, gave the event a marvellous atmosphere.

“The fair was also an opportunity for pupils to learn about finance in a fun way, as they ran their stalls, considering how to price their product, market it, and sell it.

“A particular highlight was when I competed against College Head Mrs Wilkinson in a gingerbread decorating competition!

"Santa’s grotto was incredibly busy all night with each receiving a book from Father Christmas.

“I’d like to thank all those who made the Christmas Fair the great school community event it was.

"We do hope to be able to bring this community together many more times in the future.”