'I love our PTA' - said no one, ever

[DownToTheSeaAgain]

I am on a PTA (secondary) and I want to get more parents engaged with us and the school. Not just to help at events and donate to causes but so they feel more connected to what the PTA are doing for the school and their kids. So they feel so enthused by it that they want to have an input.

I'm looking for ideas. Services we can offer parents to help them feel more warm and fuzzy about the idea of fundraising for the school.

To give a bit of context it is an inner London comprehensive with a very mixed intake. The kids do well and it is a very oversubscribed school. The only thing you have to do to get in is live nearby. It is generally a happy place but like most schools it is strapped for cash to provide extras and sometimes even basics.

The PTA is small. It has put on some very successful events and initiated some innovative fundraising in the past but it also runs things that are not about fundraising but are about community.

Suggestions for things we can do for new/ existing parents to help them feel closer to us/ the school would be really welcome.

Complaints about how PTA's are cliquey etc are less relevant or helpful. I'm looking for ideas as to how to reach out. What would you like your (secondary) PTA to do for you?

Honestly. I as a parent I would just like the school to give out the PTA bank account details and I could transfer them some money.

Ours does a curry and quiz night with a bar for new the Y7 families in n September/October time.

it's v popular as new families are keen to be connected and involved in their child's new school - I guess this sentiment tails off as the kids go through school!

The family who run our local Indian restaurant (whose pupils attend the school) do the food with the help of the school cooks, the Head is the quiz master and the PTA do the bar, clear tables and sell raffle tickets.

Agree that directly listing how people can donate without involvement and what the money typically goes to is useful - I sympathise, especially if you’ve been involved at primary with pta.

Oh yes and the school do just set up an optional £10 donation on Parentpay so parents can contribute to the school financially without having to attend events!

The PTA sell drinks and snacks at all school events- sports days, shows etc

Meet the governers night - sell tea and ciffe and a couple of biscuits - amazing how much money that makes. Brief overview speech then general chatting
Set each governer up on a seperate table - let parents chat / offer up ideas / feedback in a relaxed atmosphere

OOH I like the idea of a meet the Governors night. But I am not sure how much power we would have to organise this. One of our problems is doing things that create more work for the school. In an ideal world we'd organise a 'meet your child's teachers for more than a nano second once a year at parents evening' night but that's a non starter for obvious reasons.

We do already provide drinks etc at events but it is my feeling that this puts a huge strain on a very small group of people and leads to burn out among committee members very quickly.

We're going to redesign the info for new parents. I think those who have suggested are correct in that this is where we need to focus our energy. I'd like to include some 'things we do for parents' in it though.

Thank you all for your suggestions so far

Ours runs a crèche for school events.
So you can go to parents evening/concert/play that your older child is involved in and leave the younger one at the crèche for a donation.

@cohle that is interesting. How is the creche staffed? Are those running it qualified childcare people in any way or just other parents. I can forsee potential safeguarding issues but it would very much be something good for the parents, helping them in their relationship with the school.

I think the Pta need to really sell to parents what they spend the money on, and how it directly benefits the children. I think the PTA are great but they are always asking for money. I’ve found just like the same people offer help, it here is also a core group of people that buy things, but cakes and raffle tickets, sponsor their child to scoot round the playgroup.
The rest of the school don’t bother and don’t want to so it can get a bit much when another request for money comes out.

If I knew there was a reason I would feel more inclined to participate.

Our primary doesn't even have a PTA/friends of the school anymore, they had to close it down because not enough parents were involved in it.

Our secondary school pta runs joint events with 2 feeder primary schools, such as a sponsored run, quiz nights and even a DJ club night in a local venue. All 3 friends groups set them up together and the money raised is split 3 ways. Then parents are already aware of the secondary pta and what it does before their kids get there

The joint events thing is a fantastic idea. Thanks

I didn’t realise secondary schools have PTAs!

Anyway these are some things my DCs primary PTA have arranged and it’s is a Really great PTA with a proper community feel and raises an absolute fortune for school.

Family yoga sessions
Asked for parent volunteers to teach different skills/hobbies for extra curricular clubs (sewing, dance etc)
Free!! Language classes for a specific language (relevant to the area we are in)
Strictly come dancing completion for parents
Send out/share loads of information about local community events that families would be interested in (like internet safety events, blood drives, family fun days etc)
Shared the business pages of parents of the school on the PTA fb page
Put out regular requests for suggestions as to what parents would like for the next fundraiser and extra curricular clubs etc.
Celebrating all the school’s achievements (pupil of week, sports wins, spelling bee wonder etc)

Basically they are really active on their FB page and constantly inviting input From the parents.

The crèche is usually staffed by one teacher and then parent volunteers. I think the volunteers are dbs checked. I also believe you're limited to two hours for ofsted related reasons.

Apologies, I'm not involved in running it so I'm not entirely familiar with the details!

Thanks @Cohle

I'm on secondary PTA too.

Definitely recommend a Facebook group called PTA Ideas Exchange. It's dominated by primaries but there's a growing group of secondary PTA members on there too and some things work for both.

That’s really difficult for Secondary
I’m Chair of my sons school PTA (and The Head DOES actually say she loves us, as do plenty of Parents and teachers) and although I’ve really enjoyed it and thankfully haven’t come across any of the PTA horror stories I’ve heard about on here I won’t be sorry to give it up when he leaves in July. The Head has asked me to stay on but I won’t and I’m not joining his PTA at Secondary either, I just feel like I’m done now.

@Hoppinggreen we're not complaining about being on the PTA but seeking ways to reach other parents with things that might help them feel more engaged with the school/ us. For example we've got a Facebook group (not page) for parents that works well but there might be other things out there.

I know, I was just commiserating ( not very helpful, sorry) as it can be very hard to engage parents at a Primary, let alone Secondary when a lot feel they have already done their bit

Things is we're no trying to recruit them to cake baking or manning a stall (we don't do much of this sort of stuff anyway) but to come up with things that we can do that might be of service to them and which might in the long term help them feel more emotionally connected to the fundraising work we do in the long term.

I'm just not sure what we can do but there have been some great ideas here.