Unicycling with a difference to raise school funds

Since last week, pupils at Mab’s Cross Primary School in Standishgate have been donating their “grown out, not worn out” garments as part of Unicycle, to hand on reusable school uniforms to other children who have outgrown theirs.

The initiative will have three core targets:

Provide affordable school uniform.

Reduce Mab’s Cross uniforms in landfill sites.

Use funds raised to create a better place for children to play.

A spokesman for the school said: “When your child grows out of any item of school uniform, as well as this being frustrating, you may not have anyone to hand them onto.

“The items will often be left in a cupboard until they are donated to a charity shop or thrown out. Wouldn’t it be better if we could pass these items onto other children in our school?”

Unicycle founder Marianne Kennerley said: “Standing in the playground one day, I realised that children grow at different rates. Within a short space of time there can soon be a surplus of barely worn uniforms that could and should be reused.”

A pop-up shop will be in place at the school’s up-coming Christmas fair, where parents will be able to buy from hundreds of uniforms for as little as £1.

Donations already made were also piled up into a mound, to help pupils visualise the impact of recycling.

Unicycle is part of a wider project called Inspired Play, launched by the school’s Parent-Staff Association (PSA) to fund renovations to its playground which PSA chair Janet Pennington describes as “the most uninspiring in the world.”

“The school has no green area at all for the children to play, and the main view is the Tesco roof,” she said of the sloped asphalt playground, which will cost over £5,000 to improve. Local companies are set to get involved too in the new year by funding parts of the new playground. Mab’s Cross is hoping Unicycle will benefit parents and children, cut landfill, and ultimately help to save the planet.