Picture gallery: Gingerbread fairytale street project is sweet success for Saffron Walden students

Classic fairytales took on a life of their own for children at Katherine Semar Infants School – thanks to gingerbread!

The Year 1 pupils spent weeks putting together the constructions and characters made of the baked good, with lots of icing and sweeties for decoration.

The project was led by parent Catherine Kelly, who spent about 100 hours making sure every last gumdrop was in place. The fairytale street was made on six boards, each relating to different fairytales that the children have been learning about in class: Cinderella with gingerbread castle with ‘moat’; The Three Little Pigs with ‘straw’ house, ‘stick’ house and ‘brick house – complete with pigs with curly tails and a wolf; Jack and the Beanstalk, with Jack halfway down with some golden eggs; Goldilocks with three beds, three chairs and three bowls of ‘porridge’; Hansel & Gretel with a house in a ‘forest’; and The Three Billy Goats Gruff complete with bridge, goats and troll.

The gingerbread street was finished by late Wednesday afternoon and, following an assembly to show it to parents on the Thursday morning, the children got the chance to put their final efforts into it – by smashing it up!

Mrs Kelly said: “It was fabulous and the children managed to decorate it all without eating any of the sweets! They loved it – particularly smashing it all up!

“We’ve had fantastic support from some local businesses. Claire Glover at The Sweet shop sponsored the sweets, Ridgeons donated the boards, the Nisa shop on Cromwell Road donated the eggs, and Tesco donated most of the gingerbread ingredients.”

A school spokesman said the children produced “fantastic results” before thanking Mrs Kelly for organising the project, and the businesses for their donations.

For more details of Catherine’s Cake Tin Hire Service, call 07988 727151.