Wellington School’s Christmas Craft and Produce Fair attracted big crowds of gift-hunters from both the school community and the town to the Princess Royal Sports Complex at the weekend. Organised by the Friends of Wellington School, there were dozens of stall-holders selling a huge range of foods and crafts and filling the venue. On hand too were pupils selling their own homemade merchandise and adding to the seasonal cheer by singing carols and Christmas songs to shoppers. A mob-capped waif advertising Wellington Pantomime Group’s production of ‘Scrooge’ in January offered a hint of Christmas past.
Beyond the sports hall itself there was a Santa’s Grotto, a barbeque selling burgers and hot dogs, a ‘Guess the Weight of the Pony’ competition (with a real pony) and senior pupils had organised a Car Wash to raise funds for their cricket tour to Dubai in February.
The Friends run regular events to raise money for every aspect of school life. Since it was founded in 1957 its activities have provided funds for choir robes, tents for Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, lockers, musical instruments, stage lighting and equipment, tennis and athletics pavilions, cricket scoreboard and nets, a sewing machine, a dinghy, a snooker table, a scrummaging machine, gym equipment, water fountains and garden furniture. Larger sums have contributed to the construction of the Science Block and the purchase of land on which the Prep School and Sports Hall are built.