Friends of St. Dunstan’s School
Meeting Minutes
15th January 2014
In Attendance: Mrs Birch (Head Teacher), Camille Morgan (Chair & Parent), Helen Byrne-Smith (Parent) Lin Mason (Treasurer & Parent), Madi Cooper (Secretary & Parent), Shawn Boyer, Ruth Whiddett (Parent), Esther Berry (Parent), Katy Allington (Parent), Lizzy Buss (Parent).
BY WHO / ACTION BY DATEIntroduction
Camille Morgan welcomed the team to the third meeting of the school year.
Apologies
Fiona Smithson & Sarah Townsend – Quiz Night Event Leaders
Clare Dane & Cathy Conquest
Treasurer’s Report[Gu1][TC2][TC3]
Current financial position:
- We currently have a fund raising surplus of approx. £6,300 for the year to date, with approx. £14,600 in the bank as at 27 December 2013.
-Cake Sales – Year 1 raised £167.81, Reception raised £178.85 and the special Christmas sale raised £81.05, bringing the total raised to date to £1,045.37.
-Uniform Sale – Raised £119.10 at the Year 1 Cake Sale, bringing the total raised to date to £310.05.
-Christmas Puddings – Made a profit of £722.66, with income of £1,700 and costs of £977.34.
-Christmas Raffle – Raised £796.25, with income of £1,194 and costs of £397.75.
-Christmas Trees – Raised £506.51, with income of £586 and costs of £79.48.
-Holly Ball – Raised £1,966.89, with income of £3,273.51 and costs of £1,306.62 (though still to receive one cheque for £27.50 which has been included in these figures already).
-Theatre Tickets for Thriller – Raised £31.
Other costs/income:
-Misc. costs: £20 as prize for winner of the Logo competition.
-Misc. income: £20 from a group of parents who had money left over after a night out.
-Donations to the school: We have now paid £12,852.07 for iPads and cases (this relates to last year’s fundraising), £555 for library software, £329 for the Parentmail license and we paid for the Christmas tree.
Other items:
-The auditor will be given the paperwork this week so hoping to complete this soon.
-We are awaiting paperwork from Lloyds for the bank account for Friends of St Dunstan’s. We have already received some cheques in this name which we cannot currently cash, but should be able to next month.
Summary of Activities
New Logo
Camille presented the new Friends of St. Dunstan’s logo, designed by Martha Collings (Yr 6) and digitized by Angela Goodwin (parent).
The new logo will now appear across all FoSt.D communications and in time, the website will be updated too.
A Parentmail will be sent out to launch the new logo.
Social Media
Camille presented the draft of a new Facebook page for the FoSt. D. It is still in development but will be a page where announcements, event information and even school news (e.g. Snow Days) can be announced. Camille advised that she is still working on the details of whether it should be a closed or open group etc. and will advise in due course. In addition, the title needs to be confirmed as there is another Friends of St. Dunstan’s on Facebook. The page will be a great too for inclusive communication and allow parents to comment on activities and feed in to ideas etc.[Gu4][TC5]
Movie Night
This will take place on Friday 28th February. A Parentmail and form will be sent home soon so parents can buy tickets in advance (which is cheaper than on the night). In addition a Sign-Up Genius webpage has been set up to allow volunteers to sign-up to help on the night. This is the first time this method has been used so we will review at the next meeting. Shawn advised that if we don’t get enough volunteers signed-up then the event will NOT be able to take place as the ratios of adults/child must be reached.
Shawn advised that the two films were for Reception and KS1: Despicable Me 2 and KS2: The Croods. This year, as an experiment, children can choose which film they see as both are U certificates. This is a new idea and will be reviewed at the next meeting.
Please Note: RECEPTION PARENTS MUST STAY AT THE EVENT, regardless of whether they volunteer to help out or not.
Lin to work with Yvonne Dore to deal with the Filmbank license payments.
Lin advised that the license requires the final number of children to be stated. It was agreed that Shawn would ensure that a tally of children turning up on the night would be kept so we can add these to the total.
Quiz Night
This takes place on 8th February and all is in hand. Forms will be sent home over the next few days and response has been high so far so is likely to sell out quickly. Please return your forms/chequesasap to avoid disappointment!
Tickets priced at £12 include a Fish and Chip supper and the night is hosted by the hugely popular DJ James Cannon. Please bring your own beverages.
Parentmail to be sent out to recruit prizes for the raffle as we are very low on these so far.
This is the last year that Sarah and Fiona will be organising the Quiz Night and Lizzy Buss and Carol Barnes from Year1 have very kindly stepped
up to take it on from next year.
Maroon Pages
In progress - now in receipt of all copy and cheques and brochure is being compiled by Lil Duggan. The brochure is due to be released early February.
Carboot Sale
Camille to contact our Reception Parent sign-up list to see if a few parents would help run this event during Lent. Therefore info and dates still tbc.
1st Holy Communion / School Uniform Sale
This will take place on 14th March. Camille to meet with the Event Leaders to finalise details of how this will be run, in regards to the 1st Holy Communion attire.
The Circus
Camille advised that The Circus are only free on one date this May (a weekday) or Sunday 17th May 2015.
Mrs Birch advised that the building works would still be in progress this May so it was agreed that this would be booked for 2015.
Addendum: An e-mail has been sent to hold the date and to reserve the booking for Sunday 17th May 2015. / Camille
Camille
Shawn Boyer
Lin/Yvonne
Shawn Boyer
Fiona Smithson & Sarah Townsend
Camille
Anna Sole/Lil Duggan
Camille
Camille /
Cathy Conquest & Christine Ibbotson
Camille / Done
On-going
On-going
ASAP
28th Feb
Ongoing
ASAP
Ongoing
ASAP
w/c 20th Jan
Done
School and Parent Wish List
Mrs Birch presented the school’s Wish List of items they would suggest for use of FoSt.Dfunding, that cannot be purchased/afforded by the school.
The following list is in order of priority:
(NB. Parentmail, Swimming Lessons, Living Eggs and Library Software are already on the list, every year).
- Trim Trail (adventure playground).
- PE Apparatus
It was agreed that a budget of £5,000 be allocated to this and it should go ahead asap. Mrs Birch to advise exactly what will be purchased when the detailed quote is received. FoSt.D already have the funds for this so it can go ahead now.
- Smart Response Hand Held Units
This was agreed to proceed as Camille advised that the funds should be available by the end of March (given that funds from Maroon Pages, Quiz Night, Movie Night and Tuck Tables will be received by then).
- Swimming Changing Rooms
A discussion was held about other elements to update the swimming pool facilities at St. Dunstan's:
Can we add a roof to the pool and hold lessons all year round:
St. Dunstan’s school currently fund the maintenance and heating of the pool for the summer term. Money would not be available to do this all year round.
The cost of updating the facilities could be in the region of £40K. Goldsworth Park school, for example, were able to secure a grant for updating their facilities, however one of the conditions is that it is open to the local community. Mrs Birch advised that this would mean that more staff would be required to manage the pool and there are safe-guarding issues of having the public on the site of the school during school hours. Although money could be raised by renting the pool out to outside people/companies, more staff would be required to run this as a separate business to the school.
At present the swimming lessons are part of the summer term curriculum at the school. At present there is no room to add more lessons to the curriculum during Autumn and Spring terms.
Mrs Birch also highlighted that most children leave St. Dunstan’s being able to swim.
It was therefore agreed that Changing Rooms would be kept on the Wish List but not Roof etc.
Another element discussed was whether we can add Arm Floats (rather than Arm Bands) to the wish list. Mrs Birch advised that no more than 15 children are in the water at any one time so 15 sets would be required. FoSt.D to look at costs/suppliers and feed back. These would be preferable over Arm Bands as parents have to send them into school, fully inflated, with the children. Helpers are not currently allowed to inflate arm bands for the children so if they deflate prior to a lesson or are not balanced, then they have to stay this way.
FoSt.D. to feedback on options for this and aim to purchase before the Summer term.
- Choir Folders
Mrs Birch to advise cost so FoSt.D. can approve asap.
- FoSt. D. Letterbox for the New School Foyer/Reception Area
Camille presented Mrs Birch with a couple of options. Mrs Birch to advise if any are suitable.
- New Books
It was suggested that we give parents the opportunity to purchase books to donate to the school library as a gift to coincide with the opening of the refurbished library.
Parent Wishes
FoSt.D to organize a parent survey (e.g. via Survey Monkey online) to ask parents if there was anything else they would like to see on this Wish List. / Mrs Birch
Mrs Birch
Katy Allington / Madi Cooper
Mrs Birch
Mrs Birch
Madi Cooper / On-going
Ongoing
Before March meeting
Before March Meeting
Before March meeting
ASAP
More Volunteers
A discussion was held regarding how to get more parents/carers to be involved with the FoSt.D.
Camille started the discussion by suggesting that perhaps and end of year party/event was held for the Event Leaders/Coordinators or perhaps VIP seating was given to the volunteers at key events.
It was voiced that many of the attendees at the meeting would not feel comfortable with either of these options.
However it was suggested that each attendee of this meeting, should be challenged to bring a new person to the next meeting.
In addition it was suggested that as more people get involved, the Chairperson’s opening statement or even the Agenda, should remind all that just because they come to a meeting, they won’t be expected to suddenly take over an Event etc. and that their ideas and feedback are highly valuable to us.
Camille advised that Event Leaders should be asked, in September, to recruit a ‘buddy’ from the new Reception Parents to help with their Events. / Everyone
Camille / On-going
ASAP
AOB
Swimming Helpers
It was advised that Swimming Helpers are required for the Summer Term. This year parents will be asked to sign-up for a volunteer timeslot which may not include their child’s class/group. It is felt that mostly, the children get on better when their parents are not in the water with them.
Potentially Sign-Up Genius could be used for this volunteer recruitment process.
Fireworks Night
Mrs Birch agreed in principle that this would be possible. FoSt.D. to reach out to parents to see if anyone works for a professional pyrotechnic company or knows of one that specializes in child friendly Fireworks displays.
The event could take place on e.g. a Friday night to avoid clashing with the Woking and Ripley large scale events.
Details to be worked on.
After School Club and Breakfast Club
Camille advised that many parents are asking FoSt.D. about expansion plans for the Before and Aterschool Clubs. Mrs Birch requested that any parents wishing to discuss this should talk to her re: KS2 club and Young Explorers regarding the KS1 club.
Separately from this, it was discussed whether the current Teacher-led activity clubs that run after school could be expanded, for example to run paid-for clubs such as Chess etc. Mrs Birch said that this could be something that the FoSt.D could potentially part fund.
Lizzy Buss and Esther Berry to contact MrsLoveder to discuss further.
Backpacks
It was discussed whether KS2 children should be required to have a ‘school uniform’ backpack. Mrs Birch agreed that size of backpacks is now an issue due to the space available in Rosary House, however, the KS2 children view the chance to choose their own style was very important and would not be changed at the moment. / Camille
Lizzy / Esther / MrsLoveder / ASAP
ASAP
Next Meeting
Scheduled for Wednesday 12th March 2014 at 8pm – VENUE TO BE CONFIRMED
[Gu1]I thought I emailed this this morning, let me see what's happened. On ipad at the mo and the report is on the laptop.
[TC2]No worries!
I just got it
[TC3]
[Gu4]Spelling error "shold"
[TC5]Thanks – if you see a spelling error like this please do change it – I only think comments are required for overall / big changes.