Eco Toy Swap

On Friday 8th March the West Leigh Junior School Eco Warriors hosted their second Toy Swap and it was another roaring success. At 8.40 the doors of the Lower School hall were opened to greet the hoards of excited swappers who eagerly passed over a wide range of preloved toys, books, games, puzzles and art and craft equipment in return for tokens to be used that afternoon.  The range and quality of the swaps were amazing and could have easily rivalled Harrod’s toy department at Christmas.  The dedicated Warriors ably assisted by Mrs Garrett, Mrs Flower and Ms Bassett, sorted and  grouped the swaps, being sure to hold back plenty so that each class had a varied and good quality and quantity of swaps from which to choose when it was their tern.  There was a definite buzz of excitement in the school that morning and snatches of conversations about the swap could be heard in the corridors and on the playground.  As lunchtime ended, finally the curtains in the hall were drawn back and the first class came eagerly to see a veritable Aladdin’s cave of toy treasure!  It was wonderful to see the Warriors taking such responsibility for the event, helping their classmates to find what they wanted, making suggestions to the more discriminating swapper, demonstrating the different toys and games and even modelling some of the dressing up clothes donated!  At the end of the afternoon any items left (and there were very few) were distributed into classroom wet play boxes, the school library or classroom book shelves or our playground play equipment making this a truly eco friendly event which we will certainly reinstate in the next school year.