MICKLEY schoolchildren have been getting their teeth into a sweet fund-raising project.

Four young members of the school council have whipped up a scheme to produce Mickley First School-branded sweets.

Year four students Elijah Cann, Elizabeth Van Hinsbergh, Kieran Bower and Luca Milani have been carrying out market research and working with suppliers to create their product.

The sweets will be branded with the school logo and sold at school fairs and events to raise money for the Mickley First School PTA.

Jacqui Brown, who runs the Jiggery Pokery tea room in the village, has been supporting the pupils in their enterprise project.

Accompanying Jacqui to the Meet the Maker trade fair at Hexham Mart in February, the budding entrepreneurs met a number of local confectioners.

They settled on Durham-based business, Sweet Sally Cinnamon, who specialises in home-made, traditional sweets.

Sweet Sally herself visited the school, where the entire year three-four class got involved in exhaustive market research to decide which product would sell the best.

It was decided to focus on two products; fudge and cinder toffee.

Jacqui said: “While sweets aren’t healthy, we’ve targeted suppliers who use fresh, traceable ingredients and create home-made products.

“We’re restricting what else goes into it and have also looked at portion sizes, so it’s a little bit of a quality product rather than a vast slab of chocolate.

“The children have been involved in all aspects of the product.

“They can learn all aspects of the retail process, market research, how to order things and work with suppliers.”

Once the sweets are produced, they will be placed into different-sized bags, stamped with the logo of Mickley First School and then sold on for pocket money prices.