PTA - Do you have class representatives?

[Ruprekt]

We are thinking of starting this now that we have more members on the PTA.

How does it work?
What do they do?

As much info as possible required please.

TIA

[BackforGood]

Sorry, no - only ever heard of it on MN, and I've been a parent at 6 schools to date, and taught at a few others.

[Ruprekt]

Apparently it works well (if only I knew what it was!!)

[merrymonsters]

Yes, we have. It helps to spread the load and is a good idea.

Each class has one or two class reps. The do a contact list for the class and organise evenings out/coffee mornings. For the Summer and Christmas Fairs, the class reps are allocated a stall for their class and the reps organise a rota of volunteers for that stall.

[Ruprekt]

Sounds good MerryMonsters.

Have copied and pasted that idea!

Anything else??

[Haberdashery]

Our school does it. The reps do a class list for circulation (handy for arranging to have a child over for tea if you never see the parents etc), we take on responsibility for collecting items for the class stall for summer/Christmas fair, we organise the contents of the hampers that each class puts together to be auctioned (usually themed by country or similar, so Indian hamper, Irish hamper, whatever), we make sure parents in the class know about cake sales etc, we make sure people know about coffee mornings and stuff. This year, I've shared the responsibility with two other mothers so we are doing a term each which is a good way of helping out a bit without it becoming a Huge Thing in your life, I think.

[Haberdashery]

I never go to the PSA meetings, btw. I just don't have time. But I do the donkey work in the playground of talking to class parents who maybe don't speak English well or don't have experience of the school system in this country and telling them about the cake sales or fairs or meet the teacher day or whatever and trying to get them involved with other stuff.

[Ruprekt]

copied pasted and bumped!

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

We have them, ideally two per class, mostly PTA committee members but no obligation to be. They purely do PTA stuff, ie organising class hampers for a raffle, rotas to man stalls at Christmas/summer fairs, helpers for cake sales etc. It works well. We don't do the class contact list thing or organise class based socials for parents on any sort of regular basis, in fact very rarely, mostly all the parents get on well and organise social stuff very well without the need for it, we do keep an eye out for parents of new children who might appreciate invitations for coffee etc.

[Ruprekt]

bump

[schoolchauffeur]

We did at my DCs prep- worked well. Someone was class rep for each class for one school year. At beginning of school year they updated the class contact list ( email/mobile numbers etc) and circulated it to make it easy for people to do party invites etc. Usually organised one event near start of school year for parents to get together especially if several new pupils in class- ranged from a drinks evening in a pub, to coffee meet up in a cafe etc No obligation to host fancy events at home- sometimes held in someones house but everyone else brought along the cakes etc
Also PTA would use that person to feed info round about social events, drum up support for things like quiz night, organise rota for class stall at fete etc
And finally if new kids joining class, rep would be given phone number of new parents and would call them to see if they had any questions etc
I did it for one stint for my DDs class and it wasn't particularly onerous.

[Ruprekt]

I think we might try it !!

[AbigailS]

"The reps do a class list for circulation (handy for arranging to have a child over for tea if you never see the parents etc)". With data protection and safeguarding we certainly wouldn't allow this.

[ramonaquimby]

Re data protection/safeguarding

Parents can choose to have their details on a shared class list, they are voluntary

[Ruprekt]

We are not allowed to hand out class lists either.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

No, I don't feel comfy with it either. If that was part of my class rep duties I would decline to be on the list myself. There are one or two parents in my school that I would not want to give my contact details to under any circumstances. Thankfully it has never been suggested.

[AbigailS]

I wish our school did this bit "They purely do PTA stuff, ie organising class hampers for a raffle, rotas to man stalls at Christmas/summer fairs, helpers for cake sales etc." (not the social side of it) as it would take a lot of work off the classteacher's shoulders - it is expected by the PTA that the teacher will arrange it all and represent their class to run stalls, etc. No easy when it clashes with my own DD's ballet exams, DS's football tournament, family wedding, etc.
My own opinions of a list for social purposes are it would be a nightmare. Organising the opting in, not knowing who in the end of the afternoon playground huddle, to approach to check, the fallouts it could cause when I refuse mine (or my DCs) details.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

That's a good point too, I would not really be able to go round asking for other people's details if I wasn't prepared to put out my own.

[UdderlyBanal]

We have class reps. It's fab. I asked all parents for contact details (could be vague) for DS1 and others did it for DS2. We update them from time to time but they are absolutely separate from the school list.

[talkingnonsense]

A class list could just be phone or email contact details- is great to check you have included everyone at parties, arrange lifts, etc. Is ok for data protection if voluntary and handled by parents, school not allowed to be involved.

[maillotjaune]

No, we asked but couldn't get enough interest - would have had them for 5 classes out of 14 and that was if all the normal committee members were class reps.

[schoolchauffeur]

Re data protection and class lists, the school can't give us the list so we put a note in the book bags of each child ( teachers happy to do this as they have found in the long term, that parents having this voluntary list saves them from a lot of admin) asking people to email me their details. We let people choose how they would like to be contacted so some people only give a mobile number, or only an email, or only a work number etc. The majority of people are happy to give at least two options, but we mostly used email- it was quicker and less intrusive/practical.

[Haberdashery]

With data protection and safeguarding we certainly wouldn't allow this.

I deal with this in my actual paid job. If you just ask your parents returning forms including email addresses to the class rep to sign a little slip confirming that they do not mind you sharing their details with other class parents, you are covered. Obviously any parent who does mind their details being shared can just be BCC'd in. And obviously you cannot share their details with anyone else other than class parents. It is entirely voluntary and done for no other reason than to make their lives easier.