Teachers gunged at school fair

ABOUT 650 people attended Sonning Common Primary School’s summer fair.

The event, which was organised by the parent-teacher association, raised £4,600, which will be spent on new standing desks for pupils to use.

This follows a successful trial in January which found the desks helped children who struggle to focus during lessons.

Visitors were treated to performances by the school’s pupils while there was also a barbecue and a range of stalls and games including a 110ft long, 17ft high inflatable obstacle course.

Helen Simick, who chairs the association and is the school’s forest school leader, said: “It was a very busy day. Everyone was happy and enjoying themselves and that’s what it’s about really.

“Every year, each year group gets their own stall at the fair and this year we have had paper aeroplanes, gunge the teacher and splat the rat.

“We have also had external stallholders and activities such as woodturning by Alistair Phillips.”

There were also stalls from Sonning Common Pre-School, which is also in Grove Road. They had a bouncy castle and face painting, while Bishopswood Special School, which is in the grounds of the primary school, ran a bric-a-brac stall and chocolate tombola.

Rupert Loader, a teacher at the school was selling and personally signing his new book, Leila, a story about a neurodivergent girl.

Emily Doubek, the association’s secretary, said: “It was a lovely day, there has been a very good turnout and such a range of stalls.

“By 2pm the adult bottle tombola and the sweet tombola had sold out and we also sold out of cakes.

“We also had performances from the school’s Glee Club and choir which went really well. The children really enjoyed performing to a larger audience and to their parents.

“Our afterschool drama club run by Rabble also performed a bit from The Lion King and made animal masks to perform in.

“We also had a really great auction where the most popular prize was a trip to an escape room.”

Mrs Doubek, who has two children at the school, Ellianna, seven, and Maia, four, said that her daughter’s favourite part of the day was gunging the year 2 teachers Hayley Stone and Sophie Snowden.

She said: “The gunge mixture was made from Gelli Baff which is this sort of glutinous mixture. The teachers were such good sports we bought them chocolates to say thank you.”

Liberty Williamson, 11, who is in year 6 at the school, was running a stall selling bracelets.

She said: “I really enjoyed thinking about what I’m selling and how much the prices are. It has made me feel really independent.”

Naomi Moore, who was raising money for the Sonning Common Pre-School, said: “I went to the pre-school and there are generations of families here. It’s lovely to see.

“I think it’s nice for the older generations as they did this sort of thing when they were younger. It’s an accessible event for the whole community and it’s great to get people familiar with the school.”