Finding activities that engage all our middle school students, aged nine to 13, can be challenging. The older pupils, in particular, don’t engage as much with our events when they start feeling ‘too cool for school’. We thought a video games theme might be the answer!
We’ve held themed fairs before, including Harry Potter, Marvel, Eurovision and the Queen’s Jubilee. A theme sparks interest and excitement and makes the fair more fun for the PTA to organise, as well as for the children to participate in. We hoped the video game theme would appeal to all age groups, including the parents. For anyone considering holding a video games fair, get the children onboard: find out what video games they are playing and which retro games they know that might also excite their parents. It’s also important to engage the school IT staff, as their expertise is essential.
Lorna Beech, PTA committee member, Hexham Middle School PTA, Hexham, Northumberland (619 pupils)
- Read about other summer fair themes
- Unusual fair games ideas
- How to add more to your summer fair
How we gave our stalls a video game makeover
Treasure map: a giant map of the Club Penguin Island
Whack a Mole: an inflatable giant version
Video game picture quiz: images from modern and retro video games
Mask making: a craft stall where pupils made Minecraft masks and windsocks
Lego carts: participants built Mario Karts from Lego and then raced them
Fruit kebabs: our local Tesco store donated fruit to make Fruit Ninja kebabs
Café: a Roblox-themed Bloxburg Café
Tombola: players picked discs out of a bag. The Pac-Man disc won a prize
Beat the keeper: a football goal-shooting game with a FIFA twist
Board game: we used a small board game similar to Tetris in which two players race to place all the blocks in a grid
Spin the wheel: like Wheel of Fortune but with a Space Invaders makeover
Racing pigs: pupils raced four battery-powered toy pigs dressed as Super Mario characters
Get cooking BBQ: a SpongeBob SquarePants-themed barbecue
Sweets stall: Candy Crush theme
Tin can alley: we used a catapult instead of throwing bean bags by hand to give it an Angry Birds theme
Name the animals: Animal Crossing theme using donated stuffed toy animals
Mario Kart video game racing: the computing teacher organised this game on the big screen in the school hall
Year 7 computer game design competition: the children created game designs using Scratch software in their computer studies lessons. We awarded a prize for the game that received the most votes from the fair visitors via a QR code.
Fair facts
Timing: Saturday, 12-3pm
Entry fee: Free
Helpers: Seven PTA members, 20 parents, grandparents and friends, 15 teachers and support staff, the head of the school, the executive headteacher and two pupil helpers, who were stars
Best money-spinner: Tombola
Biggest tip: Arrange back-up volunteers in case anyone cries off on the day
Profit: £4,377.
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