Minutes of the PTA Meeting 23rd January 2017
Present:
Susie Metcalfe
Claire Lund
Jayne Berry
Cathy Beddows
Jo Mallinson
Alison Powell
Apologies: Diane Birtwistle, Andrea Pollitt, Jackie Clays, Denise Maskew, Kerry Vacara.
Feedback from Christmas Fair:
We raised £2180 in total which was up on last year. We discussed the date of the fair and agreed
that it should be a week earlier next year to avoid the Key 103 concert and office parties. The craft
stall, Rudolph and Guess the Sweets didn’t make much money but they were more for the kids to
have fun than for a profit. A few people at the fair commented on the fact that the queue for the
tombola was out of the door so need to ensure next time that they tables are set further back. Mrs
Mallinson said the staff were pleased with the state of the classrooms on Monday morning (except
perhaps the floor in the craft room! Jayne suggested getting some of the sticky carpet protector for
next time).
The turkey butties didn’t go down as well as we thought. £120 profit made and a turkey crown was
left over. The size of the bread rolls was probably too small and we shouldn’t have gone out to get
more hotdogs as this would have made more people have the turkey butties. The Asian food went
well.
Makers Market – need to put more guidelines in place for the raffle prize donation from the stall
holders as a couple of the prizes were poor.
Donation days should perhaps be spread out a bit more as they clashed with Children in Need and
the class fund raising. Susie said it was an issue with storage and that’s why we did the donation
days on the run up to the fair. Mrs Mallinson suggested doing the £1 donation day in September.
Cathy did say they may do the fund raising at a different time. Laura suggested they do this in July
and each class takes their funds with them to their next class in September with Year 6 raising their
funds for nursery/reception – Cathy will look at this. Susie asked if the fund raising was successful
and if it was better than the PTA donating to the classes. Cathy said that each class raised at least
£100 with the exception of the resource base. They didn’t do their own thing as it’s difficult but they
do a lots of crafts etc. so Jayne and Susie suggested the PTA give them some money.
Confirmation of Funds raised:
We currently have a total of £3800 in the bank
Bingo Night/Race Night:
It was decided that we would do a bingo night on the 24th March. Cathy said this was Comic Relief
but it shouldn’t impact on the night and it was suggested that we do one of the bingo games in aid of
Comic Relief. We will get Easter Egg donations again. Cathy will organise the bar licence and Susie
will check the stock of beer in the garage and also has a number of bingo game books left over from
last time. Claire will speak to Big Fish.
Bags to School Collection:
450 bags will go out to each child and members of staff the week before the Easter holidays and we
will ask for these to be filled and bought into school on the 20th April (the bag company can’t do the
21st as originally planned). Nursery can drop theirs in Wednesday for those that don’t do the rest of
the week.
School Lottery:
Susie handed round some leaflets about a school lottery (yourschoollottery.co.uk), this was run by
an external company at a price of at least £1 per week with a guaranteed weekly prize for one
person and then entry to a draw for £25,000 per week. The PTA would get minimum contribution of
40% of each entry. The remaining 60% is divided into two with 36% used to support the prizes and
24% going to the administration on the plan. Because the company charge a fee Mrs Mallinson
suggested that maybe we could just run a similar scheme independently however it was decided
that this would require a few people to administer so the idea is a no go.
Easy fundraising:
This is currently at £387 with 61 supporters. We need to keep plugging this on school news etc so
Cathy will make room this week. We briefly spoke about the new Tesco token scheme and Susie will
look into this.
Summer Fair:
Date: July the 7th.
Susie asked if people though we should do something different as she was worried people would get
fed up with the same old thing but most people thought we should continue with the current format
as it has proved popular so far. The lack of helpers is always an issue and even though we got a big
offer of support when we sent the slips out in September and every single one was contacted for the
Christmas fair we still didn’t get a good response. Cathy is arranging a meeting for the parent council
so we will get a list of stalls together before that and allocate them so that Cathy can talk to them
about it at the meeting.
The sponge throwing game was ruined in the flood so we need a new one. Jane will get one of her
guys at work to make it with a stand so we can use it on the playground and we will ask Mrs Wilson
to paint it. Laura will tell Jayne what size MDF we need.
We also need to order a coconut shy that we can use on the playground in the event of a
waterlogged field – Laura to action.
Jayne suggested having a wet weather plan and a dry weather plan. For the dry weather we should
have as much as possible on the field including the bar and the BBQ so that the activities aren’t
spaced out too much and it will create more atmosphere.
Laura will look at the Bouncy Castles and get prices for an assault course type on and maybe a bigger
slide and a bigger castle for the little ones.
Film Night:
Susie had contacted Reels on Wheels previously but it was decided that it may be too much to fit
this in so the idea is a no go for this year.
Sal’s Shoes:
We sent off 114 pairs of shoes at a cost of £32 postage. Pictures and links have been posted on
Facebook for people to see. We had thought to do another one at Easter but as we are doing the
Bags2school collection then we will wait until the end of the summer term. It was suggested that on
the last day of term it could be “wear your own shoes” day with the children donating their school
shoes (or another type of shoe if they wanted)
Other Fund Raising ideas:
Kerry had sent an idea of a “pudding fest” the idea being that it was a social event where everyone
bought a pudding and the tickets were £5 and you could eat as much pudding as you like. We could
also run a bar at the same time. It was thought that this may be more of a winter thing but we could
use a variation of the idea and do a Bake Off Competition on the day of the Open Evening then sell
the cake off during the open evening and run a bar at the same time. Cathy said she would speak to
Mrs Collins as she is the food tech person and also organise the bar licence.
Spending Ideas:
Susie had found a Buddy Bench for £49 and Cathy had found one for £60 in the Cosy Catalogue. She
has also found a first aid bench that they would like as when a child falls over in the playground they
lose a playground assistant when they have to take the child inside to clean them up. The first aid
bench has a lockable unit underneath than contains all the first aid equipment needed to clean the
child up. We still have the money from the John Lewis token etc. It was decided that the PTA would
give the school up to a max of £500 for two buddy benches and two first aid benches (the school will
pay for the stock for the first aid bench). Cathy will look to order those this week.
Laura asked if the school should have a defibrillator and Cathy said it would be good but they are
around £1000 (£750 for the equipment and £250 for staff training). Fund raising specifically for this
was discussed and Susie said that the lady at Nuffield Health has offered to help with any sports
activities. Jayne mentioned an Aerobathon that Kingsway did. The whole school could take part in
something similar in the last week of the summer so it was like a fun day, organised by Nuffield
Health and covered by Key 103 if possible. Susie will speak to Nuffield Health and Claire will speak to
Kate who works for Key 103.
Mrs Mallinson then showed everyone some mood boards in relation to the Forest School that is
something that teachers are really keen to do. The school ground would be developed to improve
the outdoor environment and to create designated areas for learning spaces (at least 4 initially):
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Clearly defined areas that are regularly used in all weathers
Inspiring and engaging the children to use the outdoors as a learning space
The Forest School would support the Eco team and further develop understanding and love of the
outdoor learning environment.
It was thought a working party could be organised to dig the initial path as this would be the first
part of the project and would define the outdoor learning environment. Then there would be poly
tunnels, willow tunnels, willow hut and willow sculpture. The shelters and storage will be made from
a series of totem poles with sail shades and tarpaulin with seating areas made from logs. There will
also be fruit trees, bird feeders and a bug hotel.
They would like to get started asap and would like as much money as possible. The path is the first
bit to do and the membrane etc for this would be just under £200. Laura will ask a couple of local
builders if they could maybe dig out the path for free if not a working party has to be organised. The
shelters and storage will be next and the totem poles are £1200 in total and Mrs Mallinson will get
final prices for the Tarpaulin and ground sheets etc. Susie asked if they had shopped around for
quotes and Mrs Mallinson confirmed that they had. Jayne said she would speak to some of her
suppliers at work to see if they could provide any discount on the tools needed for the school. Mrs
Mallinson pointed out that they would need to be kid size tools. It was agreed the PTA would help as
much as they could.
Future of the PTA:
Susie confirmed that her Claire and Diane would be standing down from September and said it
would be a good idea to get forms out for new committee nominations around Easter so that
anyone interested could shadow.