The event gave enthusiastic student entrepreneurs chance to set up shop in the Map Area of City Hall. Together they creatively dressed stalls to generate a lively market that showcased the efforts of their school gardens and food growing projects. The schools were rewarded for their hard work as each walked away with between £50 and £150 in earnings.

Three competitions were held throughout the day for Best Dressed Stall, Most Innovative Product, and People’s Choice. The schools created incredible decorations for their stalls and came up with unique products to sell such as lavender eye masks, herb dips with tortilla chips, confetti boxes with rose petals, summer jams, herb bunches, herbal tea bags, tomato plants, potatoes and school jumper bags, which of course made choosing winners especially difficult.

Ultimately, the panel of judges from Capital Growth and GLA named Selwyn Primary School the winner of the Best Dressed Stall competition for their beautifully green and produce filled table. The Most Innovative Product went to Oakdale Primary School for their inventive spring onion, turnip, and pak choi seed tape, taking the hassle out of sowing seeds.  Over 70 attendees voted in the People’s Choice contest and though the race was extremely close, Mayflower Primary School won the title.

“The marketplace gave us a really good focus for our school gardening calendar and was a great way for the children to follow the growth of their plants to the table top. It really enthused them and helped to develop lots of additional skills, such as organisation, planning, costing, presentation, liaising with customers, managing sales which have really boosted their confidence. ” – Anna Hair, St Elizabeth Catholic Primary School

"We have been stall holders for the last 3 years and it is always such an amazing event for our ‘young marketeers!’ All our 5-7 year olds at Trafalgar Infant School help out in our growing space and the Marketplace is a fantastic opportunity for them to see the full cycle of growing, cooking and preparing produce and then selling it.”– Rachel Hutchins, Trafalgar Infant School

The 2018 School Marketplace participants:

• Trafalgar Infant School
• Oakdale Junior School
• Mayflower Primary School
• Selwyn Primary School
• Halley Primary School
• St Paul with St Luke CofE Primary School
• St Elizabeth Catholic Primary School
• Thomas Buxton Primary School
• William Patten Primary School

Thank you to all schools who took part and all visitors who made the day a great success!

This is part of a project funded by the Ernest Cook Trust. Find out more about the support that Capital Growth provides schools on the website.

19/07/2018