Year 6 class at Aylesbury school launch fashion show raising child poverty awareness

A class at a school in Aylesbury held a special fashion show to raise awareness of international poverty and children’s rights issues.

Year 6 students from Elmhurst School launched a special ‘Trashion’ show inspired by a recent book they have been reading.

Currently, the class is exploring Trash, by Andy Mulligan, which was also made into a feature length film in 2014.

The award-winning author attended the school to discuss the context of his story and answered the children’s questions on his best-known work.

Inspired by the book’s themes which address children’s rights and poverty, the students came up with the idea of holding a fundraiser.

Through Andy’s work they have become more aware of children that live and work on dumpsites in certain parts of the Philippines and Brazil.

They used their creativity and art skills to plan, design and create outfits made from recycled materials.

They also made all of the decorations on display during the show, which included lanterns and glitter balls, out of materials such as old CDs, newspaper, bottle tops, old clothes and ribbons.

They wanted to raise money for a local charity and decided to continue supporting The Wycombe Refugee Partnership, a not-for-profit organisation the school has been supporting all year.

Earlier in the year they collected art resources for refugee and asylum-seeking children and the students wrote a booklet full of artwork with welcome

messages for the children who have recently arrived in the country.

The Wycombe Refugee Partnership chairman attended the trashion show.