On Wednesday 14 March 2018, pupils and staff from Cirencester Deer Park School braved the chilly winds of March to take part in Cirencester Youth Market in the centre of town. This community event, organised by the E4 Group with Cirencester Town Council, is designed to support and promote young enterprise and entrepreneurship.

We built on our Cirencester Youth Market 2017 success and this year had two stalls side by side. The Deer Park Designers, organised by our SEN Learning Leader Mrs Reynolds, returned with their upcycled craft ideas. They were joined this year on a second stall run by a group of our Year 10 pupils who are raising money for their volunteer trip to Ghana this summer with African Adventures. The Ghana 2018 team are fundraising together and individually in a variety of ways,  including a recent Quiz Night and an an upcoming Ping Pong Ball Race and Table Top Sale which had to be reschduled due to snow. Look out for details on @CDPStoday.

“It is great to be able to put Deer Park School at the heart of the community and share their hard work and enthusiasm.  It has been a pleasure to work with a number of staff and pupils on this, it has been a real team effort.  I am grateful to all those involved for their energy and commitment.” Miss Brace, Assistant Head.

Mrs Reynolds commented: "We were very proud to attend the Youth Market again. Even though the pupils were freezing cold, they chatted to our customers and kept smiling all day. Our Easter-themed upcycling was great fun and we are already looking at our next project."

We also took the opportunity to showcase our pupils' musical talents with music and singing in the Market Place at lunchtime.  We really appreciate the dedication of Mr Cook and the Expressive Arts team alongside the pupils for their hard work on this so quickly after the success of our recent musical Legally Blonde Jr; in fact the last time Deer Park pupils entertained the crowds in town was with a Legally Blonde Jr flash mob on Friday 9 February. Once again on the day of the Cirencester Youth Market our pupils entertained the shoppers during lunchtime and brightened up the chilly day.

We were incredibly proud that our Deer Park Designers were awarded the Best Stall prize for the second year running.  One of our pupils commented “I couldn’t believe how well the day went. It was really nice to be able to do this and it was a lot of fun to be in the market and working with lots of different people.”

We have already started planning the Youth Market 2019 and our next E4 events.