THE rain held off and the sun shone on a fun filled day at Wolverley recreation ground for the annual village carnival. Our school was well represented by year seven Opening Minds students, ably supported by the cast of Return to the Forbidden Planet, which had been performed, to much acclaim, earlier in the year. Perched on the back of a float, they sang songs from the hit musical as the parade made its way around the village and other students walked alongside, rattling buckets and encouraging onlookers to donate their spare change.

The carnival committee had asked Wolverley students to help make this year’s carnival a record-breaking success.

The suggested theme for the 2009 carnival was Sixties America and our year seven students immediately rose to the challenge, devising creative ways to persuade carnival-goers to part with their cash – all of which goes to charity.

With the help of various members of staff, the students came up with a range of ideas – including a cake stall, a jewellery stall, a coconut shy and a lucky dip – and immediately set to work creating props to ensure the stalls looked inviting and, of course, making items to sell. For days, the students were busy baking cakes, making jewellery, badgering people to provide prizes and making suitable props. One group made some colourful and suitably psychedelic surf boards to act as backdrops to the coconut shy, whilst others decorated their cakes with 60s-appropriate flowers and ‘ban the bomb’ symbols. As well as maypole dancing, morris dancing and a dog show, there was also a more unusual spectacle – wrestling!

The HCW Wrestling Club, which meets at Wolverley Social Club every last Thursday of the month, put on a wonderful display, aided by Wolverley C of E Secondary School’s very own Mr Barth who, seeing “Mad Dog Max” and “Johnny Rose” beating up the unaided “Tiger Nick Dutt” did a Clark Kent/Superman transformation and – in his guise as “The Cage” – leapt into the fray to “save” his friend and left Max and Johnny whimpering in a corner!

The performance was rounded off with a tag match in which, once again “The Cage” and “Tiger” were the champions! The display was enjoyed hugely by the onlookers and all the participants (looking remarkably unhurt!) were roundly applauded.

A wonderful surprise awaited us at the carnival – one of our year seven students, Rhiannon Gower, had been crowned carnival princess and hadn’t said a word about it at school. Rhiannon looked every inch a real princess and we all felt very proud of her. She shared her glory with another (former) Wolverley student – Sandie Rickson, who was crowned carnival queen. Sandie left Wolverley two years ago and it was lovely to see her looking very regal!

Both staff and students thoroughly enjoyed the carnival and were pleased to learn that this year’s takings were at a record high. The organisers praised the year seven pupils for their fantastic efforts and all the members of staff for their support.

Mr Blackwall, who helped to co-ordinate the students’ efforts, was also pleased, adding : “Being a Church of England school is very important to us and we are always delighted to play a part in local events such as the carnival, to emphasise our active role in the wider community.”