Raised a five figure sum towards a new playground for the school

THE countdown is on for work to start on the new playground at St Peter’s C of E Primary School after the school’s charity dinner and auction evening raised a staggering £17,000, nearly twice as expected.

‘It is an incredible amount,’ says Head teacher, Karen Frazer. ‘I want to say it was beyond our expectations, but I’ve always known we can do this.’

The new playground, to be completed during the school summer holidays, will incorporate ideas put forward by the school’s 210 children and include two large climbing areas, a sports pitch made of artificial grass, a canopied structure for the children to sit, read and play board games beneath and a science area where plants and mini-beasts will be encouraged.

‘The current playground is awful and dismal and the children deserve better,’ says Miss Frazer. ‘You walk round the corner and see it and it doesn’t fit with the rest of the school.’

The event was sponsored by London Auctions. Local celebrity Clare Balding’s offer of a guided river walk for 10 was snapped up in an instant, as were a selection of luxury mini-breaks, membership of private clubs, a flight in a light aircraft, tickets to see Spurs v Wembley City at Wembley, a fine wine tasting and tickets to the Oval.

There was particular interest in offers of babysitting by St Peter’s staff members and a bidding frenzy took place over the chance for one lucky pupil to step into Miss Fraser’s vertiginous heels and be head teacher for the day.

The full costs of the playground project will be £65,000, of which the school community has now raised all but £3,000.

‘We might be a small school, but we’ve proved that we can do this – we can raise money when we need to,’ says Karen Frazer.’

The next fundraising event for St Peter’s C of E Primary (which was rated ‘Outstanding’ in all areas by Ofsted last year) will be the Summer Fair, which takes place on 23 June from 11am to 3pm in St Peter’s Square and is open to everyone.

Jane Fryer

May 25, 2018