The annual JPS Spring Fair, hosted by the Parent Teachers Association of Jumeirah Primary School, will be held on Friday 24th February from 2pm to 6pm. The event brings together students, teachers, parents and the community, who all work together to make sure the event is a fun-filled day for all, with the purpose of giving under-privileged children access to an education.
Over the last two years the school’s PTA have partnered with Dubai Cares to build two schools in developing countries. The money for the two projects was raised at the last two Spring Fairs, with the first donation in 2015 funding a primary school built in Nepal. A new three-classroom school was completed in Jagatur Village in Western Nepal, and has been in operation since 26th September 2016. The school contains two gender specific latrines, and is furnished with desks and chairs, carpets for the children to sit on during leisure and reading time, and permanent chalkboards. The second donation, in 2016, will be used to build another similar school in the South Eastern African country of Malawi.
Each year, the Fair attracts between four and five thousand people from the local community. There’s various game stalls hosted by each class at JPS: a fabulous tombola with almost one thousand prizes; a silent auction; a retail trading area indoors; an indoor sports area; a food court providing everything from pizza, hot dogs, coffee and fresh juice to the ever-popular cotton candy; and some of the biggest jumping castles some of the younger children had ever seen!
Teachers volunteer to be dunked and splatted at the “Dunk the Teacher” and “Splat the Teacher” game stalls, parents volunteer their time to set up and run the game stalls for the afternoon and every pupil at the school becomes involved in the organisation and success of the fair, whether it’s decorating the game stalls; donating a prize for the tombola; selling tickets for the game stalls or volunteering their time at a game stall during the fair.
The Spring Fair also attracts the interest of the wider Dubai Business Community, with many opportunities available to sponsor the School Fair, generating an enormous contribution to the money raised.
Dubai Cares, part of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, has, over the last three years, provided thousands of children in developing countries with access to quality education.