PTA Open Meeting 8 June 2017

PTA Open Meeting – 8 June 2017

20:00-22:00

Yerbury School, Q Room

Agenda

Quick Update Items

Actions from last meeting

Funding Update

Liam Update

Garden Project

PTA continuity

YPTA website pages

Summer Fair

Chloe – learnings & handover from 2016

2017 Planning – 2 weeks to go!

Attendance:

Mark Benson

Rosi Marsh

Katherine Court

Victoria Lemmon

Tina Poyser

Julie Lambert

Imogen Chopra

Mel Edrich

Liz Morrish

Laura Heath

Cary Perkins

Liam Frost

Sharon Yates

Chloe Cooper

Jo Begent

Anna Michell

Quick Update Items

Actions from Last Meeting

International Evening Update

£2,091 takings at international evening – more than in previous years

Pa needs fixing in time for summer fair

Rip up tokens once used to prevent recycling!

Other

Ben has spent the money from Music Night on all items previously listed:

Samosas still to pay for music night

Funding Update

Suggestion that it would be good to continue to send funding updates in the Friday emails and reminder that there is a PTA page on the website

Pledge Items from Auction of Promises

It was noted that spend on all pledge items from the Quiz Night/Auction of Promises has already been approved.

Dislexyia Laptops – order has been placed

Lab Coats - order will follow shortly

Maths Intervention Boxes – 12 bespoke boxes are being made and are in progress

Reception toilets Update

Now have a preferred company with a great design idea – details currently being worked through with Cassie

The whole ground floor needs to be damp-proofed over the summer so it is hoped that once this is finished then the work on the toilets can go ahead. If however, the damp proofing slips time-wise, then toilets may have to be deferred to Easter.

Books

Replenishment of newest titles - will be in time for the beginning of the next school year

£3,000 has been allocated for the books

The school has several lists for books on their wish list and they will also be getting the kids involved in choosing which ones to get.

Book table at summer fair – whatever isn’t sold the school will keep

Garden Project

There is lots of enthusiasm from parents and lots of ideas which need to be married with a sustainable plan for both school and parents.

Liam and Katherine have spoken about best ways to move forward in terms of what can be supported by the school and what is practical given the limitations of the space and the need for adult supervision when children are in the garden.

Idea – first steps would be to bring the space back to life as wild nature garden that doesn’t need lots of day to day work – for example where kids can watch tadpoles, have bug hotels, bird boxes, log pile etc, maybe a more effective seating area for story time in milder weather area.

In the first instance it would not be a growing garden – as this requires a lot of input and work which may be hard to maintain.

Liam suggested that they may make it part of school development plan.

Agreed to put forward the Garden as one ofthe PTA priority projects for next year.

School Journey & Paid for Activities

The School trip has been held at Cardfields and PGL for both year 5 & 6 for the past couple of years and the kids really love it!

Liam however raised the issue of the regular shortfall in payments for the trip every year.For the school to cover this shortfall may not be sustainable in light of continued cuts which might bring into jeopardy the ability to offer this amazing opportunity to kids in both years, which would be a huge shame.

The question was raised about whether the PTA would be willing to make up that shortfall in future years.

There was agreement that funding trips in general would be a very positive use of PTA funds but also a warning that this should not then be an encouragement for parents not to pay (for any reason other than financial circumstances).

Rosi suggested that rather than the PTA being seen to make up shortfalls it could just be a (regular) donation from the PTA as a fund for school trips generally and would potentially be a good thing for PTA to fund as it is not an item on the school’s budget list.

Attendees generally felt that the school should continue to send reminders to parents that can afford to do so to pay for their trips and other paid for school activities.

PTA Continuity

Imogen raised the issue of how to manage PTA continuity when each year the bulk of the work often ends up on only a few shoulders making it a much more time consuming task than it should be.

Various suggestions were put forward to address this and it was decided that a separate meeting specifically on the topic of PTA volunteering should be held after the summer fair.

Imogen suggested a shadowing or handover period that started pre-year-end and more division of responsibilities.

Mel suggested that it would be helpful for there to be more split ownership and for new members of the Committee to be more specifically assigned tasks and given a helping hand so that they knew better what to do.

It was felt that a Starter Pack for Nursery and Reception parents would be incredibly helpful and would also encourage more parent involvement early on.

Mel agreed to work on the starter pack (tbc?)

Cary mentioned that Cassie’s appeal for help at the last AGM was very motivating and it would be great to have that again next year.

Website

Liam is waiting for the final word from developers about what can be done to assist the new workflow for updating the PTA pages.

Summer Fair

2017 Theme is: Tropical

Various other themes suggested:

Around the World in 80 Days

Summer Reading Challenge – Mystery/Detectives

Medieval

Gods

Fairy Tales/Folklore

Inventions

Circus

Generally Running Info and Allocation

Various stalls/activities have already been assigned but it was agreed that those left should be allocated by year group. This worked well at the winter fair.

It was also agreed that the stalls/activities allocated by year group should follow the same routine as the winter fair – whereby they would also be responsible for recruiting volunteers to do set up, running and clear up.

Any unallocated tasks could be filled via a sign up in the playground for people to add their names to. It was thought that the sign was a good PR exercise, creating a buzz around the summer fair amongst parents and children.

Chloe updated that all docs are on G-drive.

Rallying call close to the time of the event has proved helpful in the past for final push on volunteers if more are needed.

Class Photos

Who to do? Annabel Price/Chris (who did last year)? Mark B to ask? (tbc)

It doesn’t need to be in time for the Summer Fair given the timelines now.

Allocations and Actions:

Posters& Artwork

Mel will ask Seth if he can do and if not, Trevor Millshas offered his help if needed.

A Raffle poster will be needed as well so could one could be assigned to each?

Map – nice to have if there is time. Could Trevor Mills do?

Set Dressing (large scale sign/decorations for the front gate)

Suggested Names to approach: Trevor Mills (who would ask?)

Victoria Lemmon would ask someone in her class

Anna Michell would ask someone in her class

Please report back to Mark Benson on responses.

Stalls & Activities

• Raffle - Victoria will help Imogen in getting prizes from local businesses. Top prize – selbys voucher? Refurbished ipad mini (ask Andrew Tsai)
• Jumble Sale - Nursery class with Henry Villiers
• Tombola – Reception with Cary’s help (a lot to organize!)
• Slide - Y3
• Crafts- Y2
• T-shirts – Sonia Ciruelo?
• Ice Cream – Victoria’s brother has ice cream making machine she would ask him if he had any we could use.
• Football– any allocation?
• Games – Y1
• Face Painting - Sonia et al
• Decorations (around the playground) – Y5
• Popcorn & Candy Floss –Yale and Sophie did last year and could hopefully do a handover. Allocated to Y4?
• Junk Modeling & Bake Off – allocation required?
• Stories in the Garden – Rowan?
• Music - Cary has spoken to Ben about Music. He will be auditioning for kids places and will do a set list of kids who are going to play. He is also interested in finding parents who play to come forward. Comms to go to reps/in school email about that.

PA

Should be in the Parents Room. Who will set it up? Mark will ask Mike who has done in previous years. If no, then Victoria knows someone who may be able to help.

Gazebos

It was suggested that someone should be allocated specifically to Gazebos to monitor setup and take down and return.

Comms & Other

Tina to help Mark to put together docs and list for sign up sheet in the playground if needed.

PTA (Cary/who?) to send email with clear instructions about allocation and running of event and what each stall holder/year group needs to do.

It was requested that the emails be consolidated and timed so as not to bombard parents if possible.

Mark B will man the playground sign and ask for helpers. Liam and Chloe offered to help.

Junk Modelling & Bake Off – needs to be included in the comms.