PTFA Monthly Meeting

Date:Monday 14th November2016

Time:8pm

Location The Goudhurst Inn

In attendance: Melanie Shenton, Sarah Tennant, Victoria Aldwinckle, Laura Bellhouse, Imogen Barstow, Vicki Denny, Ruth David, Jayne Russell, Sharon Lewis, Lindsay Roberts

Apologise: Gemma Preston, Juliette Widdowson, Gemma Hughes, Carla Anderson, Jane Dennis, Jackie Bussey, Ashley Wilson, Tom O’Sullivan

Agenda

  1. General update by Chair: Jayne thanked everyone for their continued support, particularly with the Christmas Bazaar and hamper donations and promised that things would go a little quiet after the bazaar so families ‘relax’ into Christmas.
  1. Treasurer’s Report: Jayne updated in Toms absence. We have currently raised £3,080.96 this year so far. £1,431 raised from the quiz night, £717 from the Dragon Boat race, £533 from cake sales and £372 from the indoor boot fair.

We have spent £494.67. £175 on tile painting for YR R & YR 6 which have been hung in the reception toilets, £100 for buddy magician, £83 on a learning doll for year 3 using their cake sale money from last year and £53 on children’s socials, plus a few smaller items.

  1. Calendar of Events

Recent Activity

  • Tile Painting – Friday 23rd September – Year R and Year 6 – The tiles were hung in the Year R toilets over half term and are a great addition. It was discussed that it would be lovely if this became an annual event and something that children could look back on as it would become a permanent fixture in the reception toilets.
  • Mrs. Mileham requested new team kits last year for sporting events and these have been ordered from Phillip Manns at a cost of £612.25. The school now have 31 sets of new kit which will benefit all children who take part in all sorts of events. Bags for each kit are to be ordered in addition to help keep each set together and aid the return to school of each kit after events.It was discussed that to label each bag and perhaps sign them out and back in would hopefully stop kit going missing as it’s not cheap to replace.
  • Harvest Community Lunch – Wednesday 12th October – Lunch club and members from the community were invited into school for lunch and served by year 5 & 6. The tour around the school by year 6 afterwards was a great success and great feedback was sent to us from those that attended.
  • Cake Sale Y4 – Friday 14th October raised £152.93. This was a great total and Mrs Norman will spend it on a Victrix visit possibly.
  • Quiz night – Friday 14th October – Raised an amazing £1.411.91 and is now set to be an annual event run by Tom O’Sullivan. Half of this will be donated to Demelza House (Mr. Goodman’s marathon efforts). It was discussed that maybe each year this event could support either Demelza or another charity agreed by the school (50/50), as Goudhurst is a fairly affluent area and it would support our ‘community links’ and understanding of others who perhaps have less than ourselves.
  • Buddy Magician – Thursday 20th October - YR & Y6 – The children loved spending time with their buddies and watching the magician ‘Amazing Magic – AKA Marc Lemenza’ who did a fabulous job again. We need to remember to book him in the first week of September next year.
  • Bonfire Disco – Thursday 3rd November – Booked with ‘Apollo Funk, AKA Raf’. 147 children attend and had a great time. A few injuries and a few rules that need to be written down for all helpers, the most important one being that water is to be kept behind the blue curtain by the kitchen and children should not be playing ‘IT’ and running around at speed. Also medical room should be open and someone on the door at all times with no children on the hallway by the office unless they are resting or recovering from an injury. Kat Woodcock has very kindly agreed to take over from Jayne on disco’s in the future as part of the September handover.
  • Cake Sale Y3 – Friday 4th November raised £121.91 which given the cold weather was an incredible amount. Mrs Omer will be purchasing another learning doll for the class.
  • Film Creche at parents evening – Tuesday 8th & Wednesday 9th November – Thanks to those that did a stint on the crèche. All ran well except when the film needed changing over and the children got loud. Need to keep more children inside the library and not wandering the corridors as at times it got quite loud and make sure everyone knows film crèche rules which are kept in the PTFA green folder and are stuck on the library door for parents evening.
  • Indoor Boot Fair – Saturday 12th November – Thanks to Ashley Wilson and Teresa Steel and helpers. This raised just over £350 with 31 stall holders.

Coming Up VERY SOON!

  • Fireworks display for 2017?? Jayne met with Anthea Hammond from Sandhurst who is qualified to run fireworks displays. She came to school to assess the grounds for safety etc. She advised that the school grounds is too small to comply with fireworks safety but the field is perfect with the fireworks being let off from the bottom end of the field with the amazing backdrop. It was discussed that this is maybe something we could consider for 2017 but it would need to be booked early and Mrs Roberts spoke with the parish council regarding permission to use the field for such an event and they came back saying that we could set the fireworks off from the field but spectators would have to stay on the playground. This would not work due to the high trees between the school and the field so Mrs Roberts is to discuss this further with them.
  • Cake Sale Y2 – Thursday 17th November.
  • School 200 Year anniversary celebration – Friday 18th November – The Bishop is to lead a special church service to celebrate. The PTFA half funded (with the school) commemorative badges for all the children (£328.70 in total £164.35 each)
  • Christmas Bazaar – Saturday19th November – Jayne ran through each stall by class below to make sure everyone was happy and they had what they needed. Most things have been bought by Jayne or Tom but wrapping paper is still needed and the signage for the renames ‘Chuck for Chocci’ which Will Knight has very kindly agreed to do. Year 2 are to take the chocolate away to stick the winning tickets to.

YEAR R / Toys & Books / Pick a lolly
YEAR 1 / Santas Grotto / Sweets
YEAR 2 / Chocolate Tombola / Chocolate Toss (or throw!)
YEAR 3 / Secret Santa / Jewelry
YEAR 4 / Badge Making / Raffle/Christmas Tree orders
YEAR 5 / Hairspray & Tattoos / Hook a bag
YEAR 6 / Plants/Cake/Produce / Craft/Pocket Money/Punch Balloons
Dragons Den Y6 / Save Santa / Alfie R / Oscar / Isaac
Dragons Den Y6 / Christmas Kafuffle / Brooke / Minty
Dragons Den Y6 / Yucky or lucky stockings / Lizzie / Emi / Katie
Dragons Den Y6 / Fun, Festive face painting / Mia / Alex / Mimi
Dragons Den Y6 / Shoot the Elf / Connor / Piers
Dragons Den Y6 / Shortbread Legend / Courtney / Niamh
Dragons Den Y6 / Guess the teacher / Edith
Dragons Den Y6 / Bananas for beans / Nathan / Charlie
All / Refreshments / Mulled Wine
Tim Widdowson / Tuxedo man
All teachers / Teachers Tombola / Christmas Craft / Lucky Dip
Jeff Geoffreys / Simon Russell / Entrance/Door collection
  • Year 6 Dragons Den:Simon Russell, Tim Widdowson and Ed Bates were great ‘Dragons’ and Year 6 did amazing presentations. Eight out of twelve stalls were chosen.
  • Bairstow Eves Estate Agents boards fell through at the last hurdle as there was not enough time to get them printed and up. Very disappointing but at £5 a board (50 boards)it was discussed that we could raise the money elsewhere and that next year this needs organizing and doing way in advance in September.Agreement was sought in September but Bairstow Eves said they needed final sign off from head office and this never came till it was too late. Perhaps ask other agents next year too!
  • Pre Grotto bookings this week, two nights after school (Tuesday & Thursday will be done by Vicky Denny).Thanks for doing this.
  • Grotto presents (torches for older children and teddies for young children) have been bought and wrapped. Thank you Imogen Barstow for holding a wrapping night at her house and to all those that went along to help.
  • Christmas Tree orders – Ten so far – we need at least 30 next Monday at the latest…..reps were asked to email classes and to encourage classes to support this fundraiser 
  • Raffle tickets. Reps were asked if they could encourage parents to return all outstanding tickets – sold or unsold.
  • Hampers were put together by a team of parents on Friday. Jayne thanked everyone for their support and they are now on display in the school corridor 
  • Class crafts – One class are yet to do their class craft but all others have been done and they are looking great.
  • None uniform day chocolate tombola donations – Friday 4th November – Thanks you for the amazing support from everyone.
  • Jayne talked about all the doantions still needed and asked reps to email their respective classes. Still needed: Mulled wine and mince pies / cakes and produce / craft items / toys and books / secret santa presents / jewelry / teacher tombola prizes (bottles)
  • Village Late Night Shopping – Friday 25th November –Jayne asked if anyone could do more sweet jars as the tombola is popular and we ran out early last year. (late night shopping is 5 hours long).
  • Cake Sale Y1 – Friday 2nd December
  • Community Nativity Lunch – Monday 12th December – community members have been invited to come to school by Jayne for mince pies and a drink which is served by year 6 and to watch the KS1 nativity.
  • Whole School Disco – Thursday 15th December – This has already booked and Kat and Jayne are discussing the handover and the finer details. Helpers are needed so reps were asked to email their classes.
  • Pantomine 2016 – Friday 16th December - Agreed to fund £1,500 as per last year.
  • Whole School Christmas Lunch – Monday 19th December – crackers and table clothes have been ordered. Kat Woodcock and Laura Page plus two year 7 children have agreed to help.
  • Cake Sale YR – Friday 16th December
  • KS1 Christmas Party – Tuesday 20th December – After a few suggestions we have agreed to buy books this year. Imogen Barstow has researched appropriate books for each KS1 class.

Coming up in 2017

  • 10K Run –Sunday 9th April 2017 – Tom O’Sullivan has agreed to lead on organization this year.
  • May Ball – Booked for Saturday 20th May. £200 deposit has been paid. Jayne will organize again this year and tickets will go on sale in February.
  • Village Fete – DTBC – Jayne asked if anyone would be willing to share organizing the Auction of Promises this year. We need to get working on this straight after Xmas. No one came forward but will relook at this in January and Jayne will send out letters to those that donated last year.
  • Dads Cricket – DTBC – Mr Tatnell & Mr Russell have agreed to take over from Rupert Williamson but we will need a refreshments team for the day. Rupert and Lara Williamson who have done it for four years have left the school.
  • Tennis Stack – Sunday 25th June 2017 – Laura Bellhouse. We are in charge of organizing all food (for 100 plus players) this year and sorting the bar. It was discussed that we would revisit this in early 2017.
  • Wine Tasting Evening for Spring term – Victoria Aldwinckle discussed this as a fundraiser and it was agrred that it would be a good addition to the PTFA calendar. Victoria will look at possible dates that fit with her schedule and email Jayne & Tom.
  • School Lottery – The school lottery is advertised in the PTFA magazine and many school are doing it and raising money. There is a school winner every week and a £25k prize nationally. Jayne is to find out more for the next meeting.
  • Tile painting / ceramic – fundraising idea. It was discussed whether we could get plain white tiles and ceramic pens for each class to do designs and that these would then be hung in the respective toilets to aid the refurbishment of the toilets throughout the school. Jayne will look at the cost implications in comparison to having the tile painting lady come to school.
  • Craft & business fair – it was discussed that this might be a good idea and Ashley Wilson agreed to look into this for the future in addition to the boot fairs
  • Local business brochure / advertising – it was discussed that this may be a good way of raising funds by a brochure or link on the website for local businesses to advertise. Lots of people ask for recommendations for plumbers/tilers etc on facebook so there is a need. To be researched further as to the best way to do this.
  • Laura Bellhouse has agreed to manage recycling in the foyer this year.

Things to consider/discuss

  • Any new fundraising ideas that you would like to suggest or organize – Jayne emphasized that new ideas are very welcome.
  • PTFA Committee for 2016/17 academic year – Jayne is leaving the school in July after eight years, Seven on the PTFA. It was discussed that being Chair is a big job so that perhaps the best solution for next year would be to have three Vice Chairs with responsibility for overseeing different annual events. One place has been filled so we are seeking two more. Jayne will put something together for the whole school for the newsletter or do a Jan/Feb newsletter to encourage anyone who may be thinking they want to get involved.
  • PTFA BBQ requested by Rupert and Lara Williamson from proceeds of cricket event as a legacy from them running it for many years – £700-£800. We are looking for the best deal and Jayne will ask someone that she thinks may be able to help.

A few important requests

  • Class emails are set up by the reps for the PTFA and are primarily for PTFA information and school reminders so please avoid using whole class emailing for advertising or none school related information. There has been issues in the past with disgruntled parents whose emails have been used inappropriately.
  • Please cc the Chair (Jayne Russell) on all class PTFA emails.
  • No PTFA money is to spent without approval from Chair and Treasurer in advance (Jayne Russell & Tom O’Sullivan) and expense forms need to be filled out with receipts for anything spent.
  1. AOB–Any positives/negatives/problems – please let us know xx

NEXT PTFA MEETING – MONDAY 12TH DECEMBER

(always the 2nd Monday of the month, unless in holidays)