PROUDLY holding their colourful bags, Isabella Donnelly and Alex Freedman have a special reason for looking so pleased.
The Barnett Wood Lane Infant School pupils both had a hand in coming up with the eye-catching design and slogan emblazoned on the soft schoolbags, after they and their classmates decided to take matters into their own hands when they wanted some new toys.
Head of the Ashtead school Norma Penny said: "The children all wanted to buy new toys for their playtimes and we were talking about how we could raise some money to do that, and they came up with the idea of selling something.
"So they decided to design their own school bags. They've got our school logo on them and they also came up with the phrase 'Barnett Wood Infant School – Taking care of our world'."
The pupils' entrepreneurial spirit was rewarded sooner than they could have hoped, after the handy items proved very popular.
"The bags are sold for £5 and we make £2.50 profit on each one," said Mrs Penny.
"When we sold them all we made £350 in total. Then the whole school decided what they would like for their playground. There were lots of different ideas put forward, like new goal posts, hula hoops and skipping ropes."
Decisions made, the new equipment was all purchased in time for this term, and is now in very frequent use on the playground.
But demand for the stylish bags is still high after a new group of admirers set eyes on them.
"We've just done an order for another batch of bags, because all the grandparents came in for an event and they all really liked them and said they wanted to buy some," added Mrs Penny.
