To ask how you encourage people to help at school events?

[JohnCusacksWife]

Just that really....we have a school roll of just under 250 but can only ever muster the same 10 or so helpers for fundraising events. How do we engage and enthuse other parents to help, even for an hour or two? We've tried everything we can think of but to no avail. At this rate our fundraising will diminish which means no food/gifts at Christmas parties, no leavers do, no IT purchases or major sports kit for the school. All advice is much appreciated!

My old school used to just approach you and say "Ate you coming to the fete? You can man x stall at x time, or y stall at y time, which would you prefer?". Or "What cake should I put you down for? Oh you don't bake? I'll put you down for rice crispie cakes, everybody can do those.".

Seriously though, asking individually helps. It's much harder to ignore somebody asking directly, or saying they want you particularly, rather than general 'you'.

We've made it very clear we are desperate for help and welcome everyone with open arms

But so far, only parents and carers from the school?

If you want to see a change, I think you have to make a change and cast your net much further.

Because although the nursery is attached tonschoolmits technically separate and any funds we raise go tothe school and not the nursery. Ridiculous I know but that's local authorities for you!

Honestly? Stop being a martyr and chuck it in. The school will not grind to a halt. If the school are struggling to fund purchase of essential equipment then the Head and Governors are not managing their considerable budget properly.

MayPolist makes some good suggestions about how extras should be funded.

DD is in Year 4 and I find the PTA's constant badgering for help/money a pain in the backside. I think they get more out of being members of the committee than the kids get out of their fundraising efforts.

I think you need to be specific in asking for what you need and make it clear that signing up to one job doesn't mean you'll be expected to do more jobs. I'm one of those parents that's happy to do things from home and happy to give a couple of hours over to helping a events, but I was always reluctant to go to meetings when the PTA were asking people along because I knew I'd get roped into doing things I didn't have time for.

At my last school we had this problem, so much that there wasn't even a PTA to do anything. Just the teachers busting a gut trying to fundraise for all the extras that the school budget didn't allow for. It had become such an expectation of the parents that they were (dare I say) entitled to all of the little extras without putting any effort in themselves.

So we stopped.

No fetes, no school play, no dances, no new sports equipment, no new books for the library, no new computers, nothing but what was covered in our budget, and no out of hours activities or extra-curricular activities run by the teachers.

When the complaints started, we pointed out that if no parents were willing to do any of the fundraising. The cheekier teachers amongst us would usually respond with 'thanks so much for pointing that out, and I'm thrilled you've offered to coordinate the . I'll let the principal know you're going to be arranging everything."

We ended up putting in a voluntary fundraising fee at the start of each year. Pay a certain amount and you're exempt from getting raffle tickets/pie drive forms/chocolates/etc during the year. Amazing how many parents were suddenly able to pay to fee once per year, and we still got a decent fundraising budget to work with (and saved us a lot of time because we were able to cut out a couple of the fundraising activities we had previous run).

Following - we have 200 families at our school and about 6 regular helpers.

Mona, our head has hardly any budget, after paying the teachers. Hardly anything. Every major purchase in recent years has been via the PC. And we don't have Governors.

Really not being a martyr. Just trying to pick the collective brains of MN and learning from others experience, that's all.

Are you in the UK? If so, then your Head will have a budget which will cover purchases of IT and Sports equipment!

Yes I am and no she doesn't.

....at least not enough to buy anything major like whiteboards or large PEKit. Bean bags and pencils we can manage within budget. Most other things are parent funded.

They may have a budget but it tends to be insufficient, particularly if the Government change the curriculum (e.g ICT becoming more programming-based with no increases in funding)

well we are charged for any extra curricular clubs that our Dc wanbt to attend. School plays- how do they cost the school money- we are expected to provide costumes and propsThere is only the licence which is usually about a tenner. The county library supply books to the school library.School fetes are grim!
best things are 100 club which require verey littl e effort. Or race night where an outside company runs it and you just hire the hall. What is shit are fetes and summer fairs where you have to bake cakes which are often sold at less than the cost of making them, fill jars with sweets or toys.they are so much organisation and work and not enjoyable at all to anyone over 10.

We have less than hundred students.
Still have money allocated in the budget for IT. Think head said we had a bit more because of the IT curriculum change.

Also talk to Stone. They recycle old PCs that are donated from schools and private companies when they upgrade. They will, iirc, send a rep to see your needs and look at viable options based on the school budget.

Fair enough, May. You don't like school fairs... I know they're not everyone's cup of tea.

Why can't you just do loads of fancy dress days and ask for a pound.

Cake sales per class, so once a week on a Friday. All the money raised goes to that class to spend.
Instead of asking parents to bake cakes, tell them even shop bought will be accepted.

Raffle tickets are a good way to earn money. Get children to bring in unwanted gifts and small items to enter into the raffle. Perhaps do a big one after Christmas so people give in their unwanted gifts?

For help, put up a list of all childrens names in the class and then a list of things that need doing/bringing in. Stick this outside classroom door. In a letter ask parents to write down next to their child's name what they can do to help.

I'd do a questionnaire to ask parents how they'd be happy to help. I can't physically help as I have a 18m old but I'm glad I can help with baking things and sending bits and bobs in.

Bigredball, a questionnaire's a great idea. Perhaps we could ask people what fundraising ideas they could support and/or what activities we should no longer fund. At least that would give us an idea of how valued they are. If they're not valued I guess we just ditch them. We've always been scared to do that but if it was based on parents views then it would be an easier decision.

I'd happily pay an upfront fundraising fee instead of being asked to contribute to stuff throughout the year.

Have you tried asking them why they won't help. We had a very similar issue at my school so a questionnaire was sent out. About a third of the school replied and an overwhelming amount said that they didn't help because they found the PTA too cliquey! A lot said it was way too time consuming but would help out at the occasion event. As a result, we changed the way we organised volunteers. It's definitely worth asking... It may be something silly like perceived cliquey-ness.
It's also worth setting up a meeting with the head teacher and work with them to rally the troops. After all, it's in their interest too. No PTA- less funds

Also look at the cost return of some activities - some things take a heap of time, but generate a small amount - dump them. Do the "easy" things, cake stalls (if you get people baking, otherwise you're doing it all yourself), christmas cards the children design and you buy and get a cut of the purchase price, our school made a bit from buying christmas trees - ordered to be delivered to school (you had to order and pay beforehand), then at pickup had a small cake stall/mulled wine and carols playing (our choir sang one year). Bit of a pffaff chasing up orders and money, but was essentially one morning of time for fundraisers.

We also made a packet off a fun run within the school grounds (bit like an obstacle course) to raise money for solar panels for the school - when the parents knew what it was going towards, and the pestering of children to all fundraise it made a heap. They ran it during school time (one class at a time) and had costumes/accessories etc.

Its a nightmare! In some how ended up going on the pta in a fit of new parent enthusiasm and by the end, I hated the school, the parents, the teachers, everyone. It really affected my relationship with the school and volunteering in general. I now put my name down for a stall because I know how disheartening it is not to get people, but hardly have a relationship with the school apart from that. I don't volunteer for anything now. My stock answer is 'sorry, I'm working'. It does sound terrible, but it was horrible and I was trapped by my not wanting to let the other pta members down by quitting. I would happily have left the school to get out of it!

I'm in the US currently but have done PTA stuff on both sides of the pond, and it's pretty much the same story in terms of a core set of volunteers helping out with every event. But the single most effective tool we use here is a free online sign up programme called 'Sign Up Genius'. I think (?) it would work in the UK from an IT point of view.

Basically, you create an event within the programme, give lots of details, then email the link to every parent (having previously gained their permission to be contacted). The parent then can log in, select a slot, and sign up to help out/donate food/help from home...whatever is needed.

Sign Up Genius really helps with organizing support because it's quick, free and easy to get your message across to parents, as long as they're online.

Set up a Facebook page and really shout about where the money raised will be spent, or where it has been invested. Keep it fun and make it colorful, interesting and regularly updated. Take photos (obv check first with school to ensure privacy where needed) and make sure parents know that without these events, the extras enjoyed by their kids, such as school trips, will stop.

I don't volunteer for the PTA because:

1.I don't have time (work FT, 3 primary aged children, do shifts)

1. I perceive the PTA as cliquey - same group of smug mums - mostly SAHMs - although this isn't a dig at SAHMs - who stand together in the playground and whose children get chosen for everything. The ones who aren't SAHMs have bagged jobs as Teaching Assistants which I perceive as Jobs for the Boys. Again, this is a PERCEPTION. One to one, a lot of the PTA women are perfectly nice, friendly ladies.

However, if someone came up to me in the playground and ask me specifically to volunteer for a specific job, I would do it if I physically could!

So that might work for you also.

Never been on a PTA, but for my DCs' primary school main fundraiser (annual gala) all families (400-500?) were rung up and asked if they could help in any way at all. This was very labour intensive but did work well - it's harder to say no when someone asks direct, and also caught the large number of parents who work FT and might not be in the playground that often... Also having a variety of roles helps - eg for a gala, larger jobs like co-ordinating stalls, smaller ones like sewing / craft / making sweets / fudge, or donating an item for an auction. I think it is important to have some jobs that a few people can share, or some jobs that are smaller and not too much commitment.

DCs' intermediate is harder, as parents aren't so involved with the school and rarely go in, and the PTA fell over for a while as no-one wanted to do it...however a few parents have tried to divvy up responsibility as much as they can so jobs aren't too big, and have tried different things eg, ditched the gala and done fundraising evenings instead. Seems to be working well so far but you're right OP it's always the same parents putting heir hands up.

Not read other posts, so please excuse if this is a repeat. I would make sure to clearly separate volunteer opportunities into skill sets AND make sure that you have options that can be done from home. I have always been willing to donate time to my children's schools, but could only do so from home. I always put on the surveys that go out in the beginning of the year that I need jobs that can be done from home and never get approached with those types of jobs. After a couple of years, I started carving out the jobs myself and then volunteering for them. If I had sat around waiting for someone to give me the job, it never would have happened because it was too intertwined with another job. For example, I have always done the school roster at my kids' schools, but that job used to be connected with either collecting advertising or handing out the rosters or collecting the names by hand. I separted the collating of the names and putting them into an organized list and printing the roster from all the in person jobs which were then assigned to someone who liked/had time to interact with people, but who might not be terribly good at organizing everything.