Christmas Fair planning meeting 11th Oct 2024

Attendees: Lucia, Felicity, Bethany, Helianne, Michelle, Vladmir, Charity, Sandra, Elahe

Agenda

Actions from last meeting

● At the last meeting, it was raised that not everyone has social media. The PTA requested that our Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as the PTA website, be included in the school’s weekly newsletter, ensuring parents are aware of where to find important information and updates. The school newsletter of 20/9 included these details.

The end of term newletter’s which were posted on FB (which started in the Autumn 2023) have all been added to the website.

The website is also being included on the event posters on the school fences.

● It was also raised that parents did not know where the raised money was being spent. The committee has agreed that increased publicity should be given to how the funds have been utilised through our social media and website. So far for this year, we part-funded the KS1 library £6000 (the PTA committed to paying last school year however this was installed over the summer holidays and have not received the invoice yet), educational trips £4000, Yr 6 leavers party £1000 and scootability (Yrs1/2) £423. Scootability was a parent idea and feedback about the course from Miss Garvey was positive.

● Following on from the last point, it was also raised that a form should be distributed to all parents, students and staff to suggest how the money raised should be spent. This was discussed with Miss Garvey and she opted against this idea.

A form has been added to the PTA website to collect such suggestions and this will be advertised on our FB and Insta pages. However, the final decision will rest with Ms. Garvey, who has extensive knowledge of the most effective areas for fund utilisation.

● Disco food – the committee discussed that it was raised at the last meeting that more food should be offered at the disco. It was agreed that the food option would remain the same due to the duration of the disco. However, if a PTA member wanted to take on the role of coordinating the disco from start to finish, further discussions could be held. Although the final decision would be Miss Garvey’s. Michelle suggested juice to be offered to kids during the Disco. The idea was discussed in the meeting and it was raised that some parents are not happy to give juice to their children.

Christmas Fair 7.12.2024

● Wristbands – it has been agreed to continue with wristbands for the Christmas Fair and have a pre-sale as for the previous Summer Fair. The pre-sales will only be possible if we have volunteers to help. PAYG will be available at the fair and after feedback last year, ensure this is advertised

● Fair layout – feedback from the last fair was a layout plan of the fair would be a good idea. Felicity has been working on the new layout.

● Food - Hazel not able to help with this fair. The committee will look for alternatives, also Helianne will check with volunteers from last year.

● Craft – for the craft station at the fair, it was discussed and agreed by the committee this would be Santa letter writing. This idea was from a PTA facebook page and is easily produced on canva. The children can write a letter to Santa including their age, class, hobbies, Christmas wish list and the PTA will print out letters and return them to the child. These can be personalised to some degree using the letter they have written, different letters will be used if the child has a sibling to avoid siblings getting the same letter.

● Raffle – it was suggested last meeting that we may wish to consider moving the raffle to online. The committee discussed this as an option and discussed cost and possible scenarios. It was decided due to the fees involved that the traditional paper tickets would be used.

● Games – in line with our uniform slogan of ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ we want to reuse as many games as possible for the next fair or any new games must be low cost.

These are a few ideas old and new -

1. Pull the tinsel

2. Throw down Santa

3. Splat the Elf/Santa

4. Mini Golf

5. Rudolph’s poo in the loo

6. Peg Santa hat’s

7. Balls in the bucket

8. Throw Santa’s Welly

9. Mrs Claus’ – Bottle Challenge – match the bottle

10. Pick a card

11. Reindeer mail – Each envelope has a Reindeers name in it and they have the number of stamps – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph

12. ?

Mrs Wardlaw gave some notes/ideas for games that will be discussed afterwards.

In view of the lack of volunteers this year, it will be great to have as many teachers as possible to support the games and the remaining volunteers to help other places. Charity offered help from 1pm and cleaning. Elhae is keen to help as well.

AOB

Money raised since return from to school

● Ice-cream sale £79.45 (most ice-creams, all drinks/lollipops were bought last summer term, so cost was £5.90)

● Uniform sale £247.27

● Easyfundraising (no of people signed up 7) will report total each 3 months when paid out as this can go up and down when people use it for booking free cancellation for holidays etc and then cancel or change. The company held a webinar and one suggestion was having someone sign up people at an event. This would depend on the number of volunteers.

● Asda (promotion runs 2/9-30/11 and will be received within the first 3 months of 2025), just over £125

● To reduce text messages, Lucia will put up polls on whatsapps for volunteers for events.

● KK sale has been set for the 24th Oct (last day of term) and date agreed with the school. Kim has volunteered to collect the KK’s. Volunteers will be needed. The one-way system (in thru the double doors and out thru the single door) worked well. The only issue was payment was difficult and 1 dozen (£12) was not paid for. Shelli has suggested we have a payment 1st system. Therefore, we will set up a payment table and doughnuts behind. Once paid you will get a token with the number of doughnuts paid for. As much as it is nice to sell out fast, slowing it down will make it less chaotic. As drinks were sold at the ice-cream sales, the same could be done for the KK sale as well and anything left over will be for Christmas Fair.

The pre-orders have been slow so far however this does not seem any different to previous sales. The amount ordered will be less if the pre-orders are lower than expected.

Volunteers – Kim, Lucia, Felicity, Helianne.

● Miss Garvey agreed to a non-uniform day this half term to avoid 3 next half term. The date is the 18th Oct. The other dates 29th Nov and 6th Dec. Parents will be informed in advance in order to support the PTA with money or chocolates for the christmas fair.

● Poster pouches – a pack of these were purchased (5 in a pack). These allow posters to be interchangeable like the banner. 2 are placed at the entrance into the KS1 play area 2 are places at the entrance next to the carpark entrance and 1 at the back entrance. This will eliminate the need for laminating and reduce the use of cable ties. Cost of these were £19.73.

● Disco – the glow bracelets as an optional extra for the disco has been very popular so far.

● Gift aid – we had 2 donations last school year. The gift aid was £232.

● RNLI Lifesavers workshop 14th january (Free)

● Christmas jumper sale – this has been advertised on social media, via school email and on the poster pouches. To have a successful sale Felicity thinks we need at least 50 jumpers.

● Fundraising for Lucia has been approved

● Vladimir suggested the school could organise a kind of Olympia maths game, and he is happy to help with.

● Sandra suggested a calendar to be given to parents with all activities every 6 months