PTA Stuff 09...

[Ingles2]

Don't know if anyone is interested but thought I'd start a PTA thread.
I'm now so ostracised in the playground I thought I'd see if I could manage it here too.
Seriously though, I'm hoping someone can recommend a calendar company from the many millions that offer fund raising ones?
Anyone had a good experience?
In return I can tell you that Northbrookfundraising / wrapping paper was great at Xmas. Cheap, really good quality, really good service, will definitely be doing it again.
Fingers crossed someone will talk to me....
signed... a very lonely chair

[Ingles2]

oh that just about says it all!!!!
no-one wants to talk to me here either

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

I am one of the despised PTA people but can't help you on calendars I'm afraid. We really struggle to get people to buy that sort of stuff at our school. People still refer in hushed tones to the great teatowel disaster of 2004. (There are still plenty left if you want some. They'll probably have most of the right names on.) And with the recession it's not going to get any easier in 09.

[ChasingSquirrels]

no idea on calendars, but Bags2School is worth a look for an easy £100-£200 (or more depending on the size of the school) if you don't already do it.

[Ingles2]

LOL LGP. can visualize the tea towel disaster quite easily.
Totally agree about the recession though . Have been trying to convince the rest of the committee for weeks now, that putting on balls with £40 a head tickets is too risky.
They're not listening to me either
Because we live in a really chocolate box town, I thought we could run a photo competition at school and make the calendar from that. Get it in the local shops even.
What events are you planning? and... can I pinch them?

[gremlindolphin]

Hello lonely Chair, I'm a chair too, don't be lonely there are lots of us on here.

Last Xmas 08 we did Xmas Cards and raised £400 and tea towels too another £400 - only 3 left which is fab. They both went down a storm. Its the second year of doing the cards. The company we used for both is here:

www.christmascardsforschools.co.uk

We are going to have a break from the cards this year and are going to do calendars. I have got a prof photographer parent to agree to take the photos and we have 12 classes so are going to do a picture for each month with the children dressed/accessorised accordingly ie buckets and spades in August, Santa hats in Dec, red hearts in Feb etc. We are planning to use this company:

www.schoolcalendarco.co.uk

Hope that helps!

[Ingles2]

we've got bags2school booked in already. Was hoping for £500... is that completely unrealistic then?

[ChasingSquirrels]

don't know, we got £174 then £150. But only 100 children / 85 families at the school.

[Ingles2]

That sounds good gremlin
I'll check them out

[Ingles2]

ok...we're 2 schools next door to each other 500 dc's in total

[gremlindolphin]

Do you do EcoSchools etc? I co-ordinated our school Travel Plan year before last and we got £6,000 to spend on and support travel related improvements and initiatives to improve walking to school.

[Ingles2]

Yep. I think we're an Ecoschool already.
But Thanks for the thought

[seeker]

Cake stall. We do one every second Friday - and make about 120-130 quid every time. Money for old rope, as they say.

[robinia]

Blimey £120 for a cake sale? We make about £30 - probably cause most of the cake donated is pre-packaged rubbish

[kitkatqueen]

Hiya I just joined the pta at my daughters school and it is really struggling - I don't have much to give to this thread at the mo but hope you won't mind if I lurk a little!!

Excellent idea for a thread.

KKQ xx

[Ali4cotswolds]

Hello everyone !

We are currently finding that we need to do either book-bag fundraising or events that by involving the kids, parents automatically get roped in.

With Easter coming up we are going to hold a Bunny themed beetle drive at the village hall - the kids really want to do it and so parents have to come along!
Also we have had a 'popcorn event' where we also happen to show a movie that we play through the whiteboards at school. This way you get around licensing rules as you are selling tickets 4 popcorn not the movie. We run 2 movies -U-rated open to all and a PG for Y4 upwards. Just ensure parents know what is going to be shown so they can decide its appropriate for their child. Space is limited and as numbers are restricted tickets sell like hotcakes !

[seeker]

Robinia - we are a VERY big school. And we do masses of publicity for it, so that people remember to bring money. ANd it's a regular event now, so people expect it. That's a bit of a double edged sword, actually - we get people treating us like Tesco and getting cross because we don't have any of the "pink glittery ones you had last time" left!

[Ingles2]

ooo hello again. Thanks for your ideas so far...
We did a beetle drive recently and it went down well. Raised about £80 with no effort.
We're also planning a film night next month but are paying for the license. £75 per showing via NCPTA and are charging £2.50 including popcorn. I'll let you know how it goes.
I'd love to do more cake sales, but the schools clubs do those to raise funds. like gardening club etc.
We going to try selling ice cream after school on fridays in the summer.
How much are you all hoping to raise? and for what?
We need to raise £5000 to furnish the new library. I'm worried we won't make it with the economy being so bad.
Can but try I guess....

[Ingles2]

Actually got to tell you about this event in case anyone can do it.
my village pre-school managed to persuade the local pub to put on a night for them. Pub provided curry and venue free. Pre school sold tickets for £5 per adult, kids free. Pub took money from bar and did well. pre-school put on a couple of games etc and with entry fee took £1200!
I thought that was fantastic....there must be other pubs who could do with some publicity and pulling in punters for the cost of a curry.

[PandaG]

sponsored bounce. groups of 5 children (depending on size of child/bouncy castle) get 1 min to do as many bounces as possible. lots of fun, not too much stress to organise (is the only sponsored event we do a year) and raises (in a school of 340ish) towards £3000.

Am ex chair of PTA, on committee still for final year!

[PeachyBAHonsPRSCertOnRequest]

We ask fro money for teatowels before rodering LOL. We are mean like that.

This yer we have a male voice chior booked (in Wales, they sing with the kids, v good last year)

usuals fayres

and not much else

oh yes the new memebrs want to organise a farmers market for early Amrch.

I will be gone by then (child moving school) but I wish them luck.

[MummyDoIt]

Can I join this thread? I've been on our PTA for a year now. Our big fundraisers of summer fete and Christmas Fair do very well but we struggle to get people interested in the social events which are also our smaller fundraisers so I'd be interested if anyone had any ideas. Ingles2, your film night sounds good. Who are NCPTA?

[GossipMonger]

I am Vice Chair and was going to start a thread on fundraising.

We do the Film Nights which go down a storm.
Kids on the Catwalk
Quiz Night
Bags to School
Seeds for the garden

Will look at calendars and cards.

WHAT IS A BEETLE DRIVE????????

[SoupDragon]

I think £500 from Bag2School is optimistic. We're a 700+ pupil school and go £561 from the 2 collections combined last year. Still worth doing.

[PeachyBAHonsPRSCertOnRequest]

I'm Secretary ATM.

W're looking at a quiz night and doing picture framng but struggle to get apents to do things like seed nights and have vene limitations.

School summer fayre by far biggest event.

not expecting masses this year as we know aprents struggling for basics.

[SoupDragon]

Kid's discos go down well. We run 3 for Y1/2 3/4 5/6 and a christmas party for nursery/R. 1 set per term last school year raised £2139