PTA advice!

[GraceJaimeWillow]

Hi everyone!

I wanted some advice from other members of PTAs/PFAs/Primary School Friends Associations.

I have recently taken over a chair of my children’s primary schools PFA and we are planning an end of term disco in July.

The problem is, we are hitting brick walls put up by the head teacher!!

The main issue I want to get around is being able to serve food to the children. The disco is 4.30-6pm, food is needed. We have been told we won’t be able to serve hot dogs in buns....the reason, allergies, food hygiene, mess! We have been told we can serve sweets and crisps which I think is ridiculous, children need to be fed surely!!

Has anyone had any experience of servin food to children at an event? How did you get around the allergies? My understanding is that you don’t need a good hygiene safety certificate unless you are regularly serving food, this would be a one off.

Any advice on running a school disco would be very much appreciated!

Thanks is advance.

Grace

[Ihaventgottimeforthis]

An hour and a half is a crazy length of time for a primary disco. Our infants are zonked after 45 mins, juniors get an hour and that’s plenty.
We only give crisps & squash - the logistics of trying to give hot food to hundreds of psyched up overheated children who are running around screaming (which is what a school disco is) fills me with dread. A snack is fine, they can have an early or late tea on that night without it being a major drama. Much cheaper too just offering snacks. Head is right IMO.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheW1neGoes]

When I was in a primary school PTA the only food at the school disco was sweets, we weren't allowed to use the kitchen apart from the serving hatch and sink (the kitchen belonged to the catering company). Allergies is a real problem - we only served non-sweets type food at events where parents were in attendance to supervise. Hot food was only served at the summer fair where it could be barbecued to get round the kitchen issue. Presumably they'll be going home after school (or staying at after school club) and can have a snack beforehand then dinner afterwards.

[MollyDaydream]

An hour is plenty for a disco, crisps and squash only.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheW1neGoes]

And yes, an hour is long enough. Ours were split, an hour for infants, 15 mins changeover then an hour for juniors. A lot of the youngest infants found it a bit overwhelming even without loads of boistorous year 6s in the same space.

[TittyGolightly]

We aren’t allowed to give the kids sweets.

Our discos are an hour long. We sell hot dogs and juice cartons, water and little packs of biscuits.

It’s a relatively small school with few allergy sufferers.

[GraceJaimeWillow]

Thanks for your reply! We are a (very) small school, less than 100 children from year R to 6 so maybe the actual serving of the food wouldn’t be quite as hectic as in your average sized school!

That’s really helpful though, thank you.

[GraceJaimeWillow]

Now I’m thinking an hour would be enough!!! Thanks everyone 😊

[RancidOldHag]

I have never seen DC being fed, beyond crisps and squash (and sometimes drinks only) at a school disco.

I'm assuming you ask because it's on a school day. So there's going to be an awkward hour or so between end of school day and start if disco. What might be more welcome than food at the disco, is somewhere for DC to stay between school and the start of the event (possibly with a more substantial snack, and supervised changing into disco clothes) for those whose parents/carers/CMs have difficult working this round the needs of their other DC.

[TittyGolightly]

Our infant disco starts at 3:30pm.

[Ihaventgottimeforthis]

I’d definitely start with an hour, perhaps with a quiet area where young ones can go if all ages are in together and it gets a bit loud/overwhelming. Our other reason for just offering snacks is mess - they have crisps & drink in the lobby and disco in the hall, saves food getting chucked everywhere, floor slippy from spilt drink etc. But the kids are desperate to get back to the hall so tend to ram the food down v quickly. Discos are great, we charge £2 including snacks, the kids have a blast (especially if fancy dress) & it requires little planning & not too many volunteers. Good luck!

[Hadalifeonce]

We used to serve hod dogs/sausages in buns, and slices of fruit, apples & oranges. If children were allergic to anything on offer, their parents could provide food for their children, or they had to go without.

[Foxglovesandprimroses]

Our school staggers it - infants up to Y2 first from 5.30 to 6.30 , big ones later from 6.45 to 7.45. No food served, just squash and something like a cookie from what I recall.

[GraceJaimeWillow]

Thank you all 😊

[FrangipaniBlue]

Our discos are 1.5hrs and we have a "stall" where we sell sweets, crisps, carton drinks and hot dogs in buns.

We do a raffle, selling tickets on the door as people come in.

We also have a "stall" selling glow toys - you can buy them cheap from places like Poundland and Home Bargains and they sell like hot cakes!

If we sell out to capacity (120 tickets) we can make around £500 per disco from all this.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheW1neGoes]

We did not allow food and drink in the hall, it had to be consumed in an adjoining classroom. No glowsticks either because of the risk of a child chewing one.

[llangennith]

We do hot dogs and water for Film Night in junior school. 150 kids. We do the hot dog sausages in a giant hot water urn in the staff room. The kids queue up at the door and we hand them out, production line fashion If they want ketchup on it they go to the next table and we give them a squirt.
Never had any problems.
Glad our HT is more helpful than some others.

[llangennith]

Why doesn’t your disco start when the school day ends? Much easier for parents.

[Ihaventgottimeforthis]

Ours doesn't start when the school day ends because our volunteers are working parents too, and have often left work early or taken leave or are juggling their own kids. Also we have after-school clubs which use the Hall.
And we need time to set up. And kids want to go home and get changed, especially if its fancy dress, and they might have an early tea.
The timing of events generally revolves around what is best for the kids, then what is easiest for the volunteers, and then finally its the parents. Especially the ones who don't ever help and then come back with the 'Why didn't you do xyz, it would have been so much better/easier'.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheW1neGoes]

I imagine it's not always easy to get a DJ during the working day either as most of them will have day jobs. Ours started at 5 on Fridays as that suited working parents and staff (most teachers attended their key stage). Never had any complaints about timing. The school had a very tight catchment area so no pupils had far to go home and back though.

[TeenTimesTwo]

Some of the above schools are real killjoys.

Our primary did separate infants and juniors discos. Parents had to stay for infants, which gets round the 'eat glowsticks' issue. We didn't do hot food as each session only an hour long and we didn't start until 5 or 5:30 anyway. I think eating food + disco could be an issue, unless you had a break part way through which might work well.
But they have done film nights with pizza / hot dogs cooked up in the food tech room (not school kitchen).
Allergies are the responsibility of the parent at any PTA run events. Either the parent is with child, or child is old enough to know not to touch / eat stuff.

[MismatchedPJs]

Crisps and carton drinks here. Move the timings away from mealtimes if you can. Ours is later and the DC get the excitement of a late bedtime.

A quiet area is needed for those who find it a bit loud.

[Oriunda]

We run 2 discos. 330-415pm for infants. 15 mins reset then 430-6pm juniors.

We serve pizza, crisps and chocolate. Included in price - all children get same. Get pizza delivered so no hassle cooking - use warming ovens in kitchens. Working parents just ask non working parents to take their kids.

[FairySpringer]

Our discos are 1.5 hrs.
We alternate between hot dogs and pizza at the 3 discos we do each year. Pizza at £1 a slice is the easiest thing to do.

[Stompythedinosaur]

We do serve hotdogs at our disco. We send out a form before (via parentmail) which asks about allergies or dietary restrictions, someone catches relevent kids with their food while everyone else queues up for a hotdog.

I don't believe we need a food hygiene cert for a one off. We are allowed to use the school kitchen but it is easy to do hotdogs in a few slow cookers if need be. I don't see why hotdogs are messier than crisps, we do sweep the hall after the disco.