Sidley Stringers work to deadline

Pauline and Robin Thompson from Bexhill-based Robin Thompson Training are preparing to undertake six half-day sessions with picked gifted and talented pupils from Sidley Community Primary School and All Saints' Church of England Primary School.

The project is being promoted under the aegis of Creative Partnerships Hastings and East Sussex.

The Bexhill Observer will be actively involved as a partner in the project for The Sidley Stringers' objective is to write, sub-edit and submit their own news page for the May 18 Observer.

The challenging theme they were set at a planning meeting at Sidley CP School last Friday is to investigate the work being undertaken to have Bexhill officially declared a Fairtrade town.

Volunteers from Bexhill Fairtrade Committee are already well advanced in their objective. They need to encourage sufficient local businesses to sell in their shops and catering establishments or to provide for their staff canteens goods bought under the Fairtrade system for the town to qualify for status.

The Fairtrade campaign aims to ensure that Third World growers receive the true market price for their produce.

The young people - aged between seven and 10 - will be encouraged to conduct interviews and write reports on all aspects of the campaign and its implications not only for Third World producers but for the local community.,

Training sessions will alternate between the two schools. A trip to the Woods House, St Leonards, where the Bexhill Observer and its sister papers the Hastings Observer and Rye and Battle Observers which are also partners in local schools schemes are sub-edited.

In the meantime, Bexhill Observer readers are invited to keep an eye out for stories about The Sidley Stringers' progress - written by the pupils themselves, of course.