Children at West Lodge Primary School in Pinner, Middlesex, turned into budding entrepreneurs for the day to raise a remarkable £1535 for the FACE school building project.

The school dedicated themselves to a ‘South Africa Day’ to help finance their new ‘friends’ at the ‘Home of Love’ pre-school in Masiphumelele, near Cape Town.

It kicked off with a special assembly run by the children themselves with all the youngsters having been encouraged to come dressed up in the colours of the South African flag. That was followed by the Year Six children taking over the role of teachers for the younger ones, providing classes on various aspects of life in South Africa. Then it was down to business with three market areas set up around the school buildings where the older children operated stalls to sell to the younger pupils.

The school gave the would-be wheeler dealers £10 each to invest in products they could then sell for a profit. The wide range of stalls included selling cup cakes, soft drinks, sweets and name bracelets, to a lucky dip and even one where you could get your photo taken with a genuine Olympic torch.

The whole day was part of an initiative at the school led by teacher Athena Douglas with excellent support and backing from all the rest of the staff. The school had previously raised more than £300 for FACE through donations and a cake sale by the children.

“The money they raised is simply incredible. They were so professional and inventive in their approach. West Lodge has every reason to be immensely proud of what the children and everyone at the school has achieved. It is specially important because this is children here helping desperately poor children in South Africa to have the chance of a future. Quite simply the children at the Home of Love School could not have better friends than those they have found at West Lodge,” said Nick Jenkins, who visited the school for the event on behalf of FACE.