SCDPA Winter Market 2023

Approaching the SCDPA Winter Market on Saturday 11^th November, the arrival of Christmas could not be doubted. So many visitors commented on how beautifully festive it was to be greeted by the school brass band at the entrance, playing in the crisp winter sunshine.

This year's market felt like an exceptionally heart-warming coming together of so many layers of our community.

Just as the Market opened, we observed the two minute silence for Armistice Day, which was poignantly concluded by the school's Gospel Choir's sung prayer. School community talent was also on display amongst the stallholders with past and present students showing their creativity and entrepreneurial spirit; while Mr Biswell and co were once again inundated and sold out of their extraordinary Food Tech wares pretty much as fast as it was possible to sell them.

Our parent community were also very generous, for which we are most grateful. The homemade cakes for the cafe were once again amazing and the donated mince pies continued the festive feel. Thank you to all parents who contributed these and also for all your donations to the chocolate and bottle tombola stalls. These, once again, sold out very quickly. We welcome any ideas regarding methods to increase donations so that we don't sell out halfway through next year's market too, despite the current level of giving!

Our business community were unfailingly generous, enabling us to raise a large sum from visitors buying raffle tickets. Local shops, garden centres, supermarkets, stallholders, businesses, individuals and families allowed us to compile a very tempting prize offering. And to show them all off, a new parent member of the PA made us a brand new reusable display board. Thank you, Mickie, not only for such a good job but also for therefore ensuring that those of us working on the entrance no longer had to try and remember and repeat all the incredible prizes in order to lure each visitor into buying raffle tickets. Once you've attempted the list from memory for the 2364th time, as in previous years, it's hard even to remember your own name. We are very grateful that this is now a thing of the past.

And finally, a huge thank you to everyone who came and, frankly, spent their hard-earned money. Local folk from Chorleywood, Rickmansworth and surrounding villages, students, teachers, parents, former-parents, fellow stall-holders and those who came to watch and play football but found themselves unexpectedly joining in the fun.

We raised an enormous sum (currently to be finalised but approximately £5000 profit) that will go directly to school resources and activities that would otherwise be outside of the school budget. Please look out for our emails, articles in Headlines and (when we've caught our breath and updated it) our webpage to find out the many ways this profit is spent. We work hard at ensuring it is spread equally across departments and areas of school life: pastoral, academic, sporting, creative, technical and non-core but important activities such as workshops to educate older children on safety and self-care at festivals.

We hope you had fun, ticked some items off your gift list, had a treat or two, were inspired, got some school uniform for the ever-growing students in your life and maybe even won something.

And now we need to start preparing for next year...feel free to join us with as little or as much time and effort as you can spare across the school year where we do other fun things too including a Comedy Night and a Quiz Night, by contacting us via: scdpavolunteers@gmail.com

Season's greetings from the SCDPA!