2009 33 - November 27th 2009 - Parent Teacher Association Advent Fair Day

Friday November 27th was Advent Fair Day at Dunster First School.

The Advent Fair is one of the Parent Teacher Association's biggest fund raising events of the year and plans for the event have been going on for many weeks.

On the day before the fair lots of parents and members of staff met in the school hall to set up the toy fair.

Advent Fair day itself was very wet. Everyone arrived at school in the pouring rain doing their best to keep the cakes they were bringing in for the cake stall dry.

As son as registers had been taken the children in Year 4 headed for the school hall. They acted as shop keepers for the morning, selling all of the toys and books that the children had brought in.

The toy fair was great fun and the children in Year 4 had to work really hard to sell the toys and keep their stalls tidy.

There were lots of bargains to be had and most children went home with bags full of goodies.

As soon as the toy fair was over the hall was cleared and made ready for dinner time.

Once dinners were finished school staff and some parents spent the rest of the afternoon getting the hall and the school ready for the evening event.

It was hard work but by 5.45pm everything was ready and people started to arrive!

At the fair there were craft stalls, a stall where you could win a teddy bear, the spinning jenny, a children's raffle, a bottle stall, the 200 club, a cake raffle (with an amazing Christmas Cake), a hamper raffle, a nimble fingers competition, a lucky squares competition, a whisky raffle, a silent auction and a game run by Arthur and Carol Ell where you had to try and work out what some "old" tools were used for.

In this picture you can see Mrs Evans and Mrs Evans hard at work on the craft stall.

Elsewhere in the school there were more amazing things going on. In the Monstas Room Father Christmas had taken up residence in an amazing grotto and there was a queue of people waiting to see him.

Pre-School, Monstas After School Club and Eco-Club had stalls to raise funds and in the Year 2 classroom there were lots of games including sinking coins, ping pong challenge, the button challenge and a snowball game where you had a chance to throw snowballs at pictures of members of staff stuck on footballs!

In the hall the school's music maestro, Mrs Fletcher had brought together a group of musicians made up of past and present pupils. At regular intervals during the evening they played a selection of Christmas tunes that were greatly appreciated by everyone in the hall.

As usual there was plenty of food to eat at the fair. This picture shows the amazing cake stall, full of cakes sent in by familes and members of staff.

For one night only the school kitchen was turned into the Dunster Bistro...with a range of food and drinks being sold, including hot dogs, burgers, chips, mulled cider and Mrs Shambrooks amazing mince pies! 

Our final picture shows the face painting crew. They worked hard all evening painting faces and transforming children into pandas, butterflies, tigers and superheroes!

Thank you to the many, many children and adults who helped with this year's Advent Fair and to all those who came along to support our school.

It was a brilliant evening that raised over £2300 for PTA funds!