Frant Primary School PTFA – Annual General Meeting 2016.
Registered Charity No. 1078469
Date: Wednesday 12th October 2016.
Venue: The George Inn, High Street, Frant.
MINUTES
Present:Eleanor Marshall (EM), Shelley Holdsworth (SH), Ros Breese (RB), Michelle Baker (MB),
Jennie Holland (JH), Madeleine Dain (MD), Katie Sutton (KS), Alex Dahm (AD),
Justin Luchford (JL)., Vicky Jenner (VC), Maddie Clarke (MC)
Apologies:Rosie Karim (RK), Nicole Chevaire (NC), Stephanie Dahm (SD), David Barlow, Sarah Malin, Amanda Gander-Miller, Alison Flynn.
Subject / Notes/Comments / Action required byWelcome and Apologies for Absence / EM welcomed everyone to the AGM and noted apologies from those named above.
Minutes of previous meeting / Minutes were approved and agreed.
Chair’s report / EM presented her Chair Report for the year – please see Appendix 1 at the end of the Minutes for the full report.
Treasurers Report / RB presented her Treasurer Report for the year – Please see Appendix 2 at the end of the Minutes for the full report.
Election of the Committee / a)Ros Breese was elected as Chair of the Committee
b)Julia Middleton was elected as Treasurer (in her absence).
c)Shelley Holdsworth was elected as Secretary.
d)Jennie Holland was elected as an ordinary committee member
e)Katie Sutton was elected as an ordinary committee member.
f)Madeleine Dain was elected as an ordinary committee member.
g)Stephanie Dahm was elected as an ordinary committee member.
h)Alex Dahm was elected as an ordinary committee member.
SH to create a parentmail to announce the new committee. / SH
Headmasters Comment and Fundraising Targets: / Amanda Gander Miller and Alison Flynn were unable to attend the AGM and there were no other teachers available to attend in their absence.
Ros Breese presented a report on their behalf:
They apologised for their absence, there was an unfortunate clash with a Governors meeting.
AG-M has been looking at ways to utilise the money given to the school in the previous academic year and some suggestions are listed below:
1) We would like to make the atrium more usable and aesthetically pleasing.
2)More money to be spent in the Early Years such as more furniture which will enable more structure and fluidity. They’re looking to spend somewhere in the region of £2,000.
3)More money for all classrooms to enhance the children’s learning environments. This will include decorating the classrooms (instead of magnolia!) – perhaps expenditure in the region of £1,000.
4)More work on the library – there have been improvements and it is looking better than it was but still need more. We’d like to create some interactivity and give the children more interest in using it/reading.
5)An art project for the reception/lobby area to reflect the ethos of the school and provide a more welcoming entrance.
6)As part of ourSchoolImprovement Plan we have been visited by aSchoolImprovementOfficer on a regular basis over the past 2 and a half years. For the first time during this period she gave theschoola "good" this week. Thanks to all the hard work of the staff and pupils theschoolare looking to build on this very significant achievement. Amanda will discuss with the staff how they would like to take this forward and will look to approach the PTFA for financial support for their plans.
What would the PTFA like to see the money being spent on?
Fundraising Targets: / Following on from the above the committee and attendees discussed the question raised by AG-M
We feel mostly that the school should decide where the funds are spent. It was suggested that we liaise with the Governors about their priorities over the coming academic year to see if we’re able to financially support any of their ideas/requirements.
Also the following were suggested as further discussion items:
Tapestry – this is the online learning journal that Frant Nursery currently use and could be used to support parents when their child is in Reception year. The committee feel this would be hugely beneficial. We’ve spent a lot of time in the last few years ensuring new parents feel welcome and the transition from nursery to school is a smooth on; this learning journal tool can keep parents more informed and involved. This will need further discussion as it’s not just a cost element. It has been presented to the school previously but we don’t know the reasons for not progressing this.
An outdoor classroom – we’d like the children to make the most of their beautiful countryside surroundings and space (we’re very fortunate!). We were thinking an outdoor classroom would be a good larger project to raise funds for.
Sun Sails/Shade – this has been on the parents’ wishlist for approximately 4 years and whilst the school don’t feel it is vital it is something that keeps being mentioned. The committee feel we need to provide some shade for the children to enjoy the outside space without risk of sunburn.
Hanging plants - perhaps another way to brighten the atrium? Bring the outside in?
Post meeting note – we would consider providing additional ipads for the classrooms.
The Year 5 and 6 Pupils were very supportive at the Macmillan Coffee event and were excited and keen to be involved; we thought perhaps we may liaise with them and the School Council to find out if there are things the children particularly would like within school.
Perhaps they might also have some original ideas on how the funds could be raised?
Michelle Baker told us about the £5 challenge they participate in each year and we wondered if one group may consider the PTFA as their Charity (we are registered after all!). They are given £5 and challenged to use this to raise further funds with all profits going to a charity.
Any Other Business / It was felt that we should try again to create a united PTFA with Mark Cross (our Federation partner); due to a change of Chair we do not have a contact. RB will discuss with AG-M and perhaps provide a contact.
There were some other points raised but these were redirected to the school, answered immediately or were more relevant to the Governors than the PTFA.
Thank you to all who attended; it is imperative that we have 10 attendees at every AGM in order to meet the requirements of the Charity Commission. We need to do more to encourage parents to attend – the PTFA is a vital resource for the school and raises a substantial sum of money. We need parental support at AGMs particularly if we are to continue to enhance the children’s learning environment and support the staff and school.
The committee would like to thank Eleanor Marshall for all her hard work in the role of Chair for the last 2 years and other roles prior.
Eleanor’s children no longer attend the school but she still gave up her time to Chair the committee and take on lots of tasks.
We presented Eleanor with a small token of our appreciation and hope she will continue to assist as a “friend” of the Frant PTFA.
Meeting Closed.
A committee meeting follows the AGM.
APPENDIX 1
Chair’s Report – 2015-2016.
Welcome everybody and thank you for attending this Annual General Meeting of the Frant School Parents, Teachers and Friends Association.
It’s really important that we remember what the PTFA is all about. All parents, teachers and friends are automatically members of the PTFA, with the committee as their elected representatives. Our aim, as stated in our constitution, is to advance the education of the children at the school. We should be doing that in two ways: by building positive relationships between the parents, staff and friends of the school, and by fundraising to support the school.
We have worked hard to achieve this aim over the past year, and I feel it has been very successful. We continue to liaise closely with the school and maintain a positive relationship with the staff and leadership. Our social events, such as the start of year coffee morning or last weekend’s welly walk, help new parents to settle in and meet people. These events are not designed to raise a profit and instead provide an opportunity for parents to meet and spend time together.
Of course we do also continually strive to support the school financially, and Ros will give us the full details of this shortly. We were proud back in June to give the school a cheque for £10,000 to spend as they see fit. In addition, the PTFA funded the new Maths resources and cupboards to store them, and this really is exactly what the PTFA is designed to do: raising money to advance the education of the children. This is why we all do what we do and why we are here tonight.
Since last October’s AGM, the PTFA has organised Bonfire Night, the Christmas Fair, two discos, one jumble sale, refreshments at three school events, the Directory, personalized Christmas cards, the Bedtime Story, the Easter Egg hunt, a Summer Barbeque, refreshments at the Village Fete, a coffee morning for new parents, the welly walk and the coffee afternoon in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support. And I’ve probably missed some.
Some of these events are enormous, like Bonfire Night & Fireworks, our biggest earner. Last year was the first time Jennie & Jo Bladon had organized this and they did a brilliant job –I know you have been hard at work for months getting ready for the next one too, so thank you.
The Christmas Fair is also a huge amount of work, which Katie & Madeleine took on to enormous success, though I’m not sure either of them quite knew what they were signing up for! So, a special thank you to them as well. Yet the little events crop up here, there and everywhere and although everybody helps out with everything I’d also like to name-check – and thank - Shelley who took charge of organising almost half of the events I listed.
The PTFA achieves a huge amount but it’s not always easy, and I’d like to take a moment to thank all the committee for the time and energy they put in. There are no passengers – everybody works really hard to achieve that aim I stated earlier. As you’ve just heard, there is always something going on and I feelincredibly grateful to have worked with such a generous and committed bunch, always prepared to give up their time and go the extra mile. Jennie, Julia, Madeleine, Katie and Rosie, and my two fellow officers, Shelley and Ros – thank you all.
I have been a committee member for four years, joint secretary for one of those and Chair for two. Although I am now standing down, and am no longer a parent at Frant, happily as this is a Parents, Teachers and Friends Assocation I will remain involved as a firmly committed Friend to the school. I know that Ros will be a brilliant chair and we are so grateful to her for taking on this role, and to Julia for taking over as Treasurer. Tonight Rosie is also standing down as a committee member, and I’d like to say thank you to her for all she has done to help over the past year.
The work of the PTFA is nonstop – I keep repeating this but it really is! - and it’s impossible to thank individually all the people who keep it afloat. We are hugely grateful to the staff at the school, who work so hard and provide an inspiring and exciting educational experience for the children.
Above all, a huge thank you to all the parents who support us: whether it is spending money at PTFA events, being one of our brilliant class reps, baking cakes, manning a stall, clearing away after an event, using the Giving Machine when you shop online – it may be a cliché but every little helps. For a small school, we raise a lot of money and that really is a huge team effort. We could not function without the help and support from all of you.
Thank you.
APPENDIX 2
Treasurers Report 2015-2016 – Frant PTFA
This year has been a very profitable year for the PTFA, despite the fact that we have run fewer events than the previous year, (11 as opposed to 14 in the previous year); the events that we have organised have been highly profitable.
In the financial year – 1st September 2015 – 31st August 2016 the 3 most profitable events were:
i) Bonfire Night – Profit £1479.50
ii) Christmas Fair - £1409.16
iii) Jumble Sale in January £716.73
We also made a significant profit from this years Easter Egg hunt – largely due to the small amount of expenses incurred. In fact we retained 89% of our takings as profit from the event.
We have also seen a change in the way that we liaise with the school in terms of providing funds for educational resources. In the past we would communicate with the school on a needs basis. This year we gave the school a donation of £10,000 for them to use as a fund to draw down from over the course of the year. The agreement is that the school keep a spreadsheet that allows us to be kept up to date with how the money is being spent. Whilst this is working, very little of the money has been spent as yet and we are working with the school to make this a more productive means of managing PTFA funds.
Other key highlights during the year include our trial of some new events during the summer. This included running a barbeque after Sports Day and holding a cake stall as part of the Parish summer fair. These events ran on consecutive days and in those 2 days the PTFA took £1302.18 and made a combined profit of £801.10.
Thanks to the help of Eleanor Marshall we spent some time claiming our backdated Gift Aid for a period of over 2 years. During this time we had received a very generous donation and were keen to claim the gift aid back on this as well as from the regular covenants that we receive every month. This resulted in a cheque from HMRC for the value of £4896.05.
The covenants in general have remained consistent over the course of the year and a further significant donation earlier in the year has had an impact on our overall profit. Going forward we will be claiming gift aid on a far more regular basis.
To finish, I can confirm that our accounts are complete for the financial year and await audit by our accountant.