To ask the PTA mums

[user1495362060]

Do you really believe that PTA organized events are an effective way to raise funds for school needs?

(I have absolutely nothing against those events - i think they are great for socializing for those who want it! Perhaps it would be better if there was less sugar and plastic and more male participation. I just can’t wrap my mind around the fact that you try to coax money out of parents by offering them cookies and lottery tickets )

I believe that 95 percent of the parents would donate say 10 pounds a year for whatever kind of supplies their child’s class needs

No, they wouldn’t. The closest get to asking for cash is a smarties tube fundraiser (kids send back tubes filled with 20ps) and we get nothing like 95% back.

a smarties tube fundraiser (kids send back tubes filled with 20ps) and we get nothing like 95% back.

We did this a couple of years ago, sent out 375 tubes and got about 100 back. And we said not just 20p coins, 5p and 1p fine too. Also lots of moaning from the uninvolved parents about giving their children chocolate.

I have offered over 4 schools and what feels like a million years the opportunity to donate instead of contribute (not perfect descriptions but you know what I mean) and very few people do.
Incidentally, i don't like things like the Smartie tube. That many 20ps is a huge amount for some families, and can be really divisive.

Incidentally, i don't like things like the Smartie tube. That many 20ps is a huge amount for some families, and can be really divisive.

Oh I’m not saying it’s the perfect way of raising funds, and no one keeps tabs on who returns what anyway and given the small numbers that are returned it’s presumably not known that it’s not compulsory, but it was just a response to the OP’s statement that 95% of parents would donate, when this experience would go a way to suggesting that’s not true.

FleurDelacoeur your PTA probably did make a lot more money by being profit focussed but did it still stay fun for the kids?
We also track how much money each of our stalls make and we make sure we run the most profitable but we also keep some stalls that we know never make money but the kids love e.g. Bouncy Castle and slide has a £200 outlay and we might break even rather than make a profit but if we cut it the kids would miss it.
We try to balance making money with community building within the school. So not everything makes money but the kids enjoy it and it brings everyone together.

I think it depends entirely on the brains behind the PTA and the organisation.

I've been part of a few in my time. One school had some very good business brains on committee.

This changed it from a fumbling low income revenue stream to something substantial.
This group organised a pitch at a regional popular event and did fundraising on this particular day of the year. This single day provided us with 50% of total revenue for the year.

Another well run PTA at a school in the locality do just a single event for the year. This provides huge revenue and is all they need. The PTA was then free to organise other occasions such as Easter and the Christmas events for the children without the emphasis always being to make a profit.

When schools are so underfunded fundraising is necessary - direct appeals for cash get criticised in the Daily Mail.

Fleur when I was HonTreas we looked at everything in minute detail. That was the year that we stopped having refreshments at meetings, for example, because it was £50 for naice wine and olives from the local deli so the four meetings to organise a disco cancelled out the profit from said disco, whereas the new committee were quite happy with a brew and a biscuit. We also drilled down affordability per stall and realised that the bar which should have made a thumping profit barely broke even because we were supplying nice things but too embarrassed to charge accordingly.

I agree with pps though that the twin roles of the PTA (fundraising v community building) can be at odds and it's important to establish for each event which role it is primarily playing, rather than trying to be all things at all times.

Our PTA raised around 15,000 last year, therefore I would say the events are an effective way to raise money. Bearing in mind this was for a 2-form entry Junior school plus 2 SEN classes. Even when the children from the attached Infant participated it was more than a larger primary school managed to achieve. We are now a merged primary and I heard that the 2017/2018 results are so far on par at least.

Our main events are the fair and firework night. We only introduced fireworks 3 years ago and they are a hit, it raises around 1/3 of the overall funds each year.

We have a proper Summer fair every other year incl. external stalls. In the years inbetween we have a circus with a small fair attached like class stalls, BBQ and bar.

Otherwise we have a disco each term (KS1 and KS2 separate events), movie night (KS2 only) and a quiz night each year plus some other events.

Cake sales are once a months, we sell ice cream on hot days during Summer term and hot chocolate on Fridays in Autum/Spring term, depending on weather. The latter one is a hit, not only for the children but also with the parents who wait in the cold.

Yes, it is sugar but if DD gets an ice cream or cake I just don't give her anything at home.

@MrsHathaway I'm actually quite shocked than any PTA meetings are supplied with wine and olives paid for by fundraising! Never mind 4 meetings for one event. Crikey. We do most of the planning by e-mail. If there are biscuits at meetings it's probably thanks to the chair popping into the Coop on the way.

Copperbonnet - if you or anybody on the PTA found out tomorrow that you were expecting twins/triplets, you might well find a District Twins club helpful; or if one of your children were diagnosed with a condition, you barely knew anything about, you might find a support group for parents, SEN Helplines, a Parent Carer Forum, etc helpful?

All these groups have to be run by parent volunteers, who probably give just as much of their time to it, as the PTA do! Don't assume that just because parents are not on the PTA, they are taking advantage and not giving anything back to society; and actually they might have more experience of fund raising, organising events, etc than you! (I imagine organising say a NCT District Nearly New Sale is just as much work as a school Summer Fair?)

I don't see why PTA members see themselves as above criticism, without recognising they are not the only volunteers supporting children and families, at different stages of life!

Dozer If we get complained about by the Daily Mail we must be doing something right.

"I don't see why PTA members see themselves as above criticism,"

Why do you think they do?

When schools are so underfunded fundraising is necessary - direct appeals for cash get criticised in the Daily Mail.

If the Daily Mail thinks I'm doing it wrong then I take that as a sign I'm probably doing it right.

Don't assume that just because parents are not on the PTA, they are taking advantage and not giving anything back to society; and actually they might have more experience of fund raising, organising events, etc than you!

Guilin where have I said anything even close to this?

I never said that the PTA was “above criticism”.

My comments weren’t directed at helpful and constructive criticism. I didn’t even nearly imply that anyone saying “have you tried Xyz?” should hold their tongue.

My comments were directed at those people who don’t help but whine from the sidelines, moaning and bitching about how something is organised without ever suggesting alternatives.

I’ve seen the hardworking PTA Chair in tears because a stream of parents were so horrible about a bloody pub quiz when not one of them had improvements to suggest.

Apart from which in my personal experience the people who run the Twins Club, the local SEN playgroup, the NCT branch, the seniors lunch club and the pre-school play association are exactly the same women who run the PTA.

And none of them would
ever bitch from the sidelines because they know exactly how difficult these kinds of things are to organise.

I agree re DM, but it’d take a very confident and thick skinned head teacher / admissions authority to directly ask parents for money (risking tabloid censure and presumably also DfE disapproval).

But IMO more funding is what’s needed.

Not to mention their local council/local education authority. They also risk more criticism from parents etc on what they’re done with the money they have had for non staff costs. I wouldn’t fancy being a HT - whatever you spent the very limited resources on, somebody will think it’s wrong.

There’s an open debate in our school that the pta finds are paying for more things that should be from core council funds but there isn’t enough funding.

I think it is unfair that schools with rich parents get lots of extras due to the PTA whereas schools with lower income families might not. That is where PTAs feel wrong to me. We have both extremes in our town. One school has an amazing park and the other has a park that should be torn down. So sad.

robotic I agree. But I have no answer for it.

This came up at our school - the HT said that in more deprived areas the pupil premium is supposed to offset parental giving etc.

School That's ridiculous from the HT. PP is for closing the academic gap of PP kids. In no way does it buy the 'extras' that PTAs pay for!

Interesting - presumably PP money is being used to fund IT as that helps close the gap then? We’d need to see numbers. I’d urge anyone interested to find out the budget for non staff costs at their school and what it’s spent on.

The school has to be able to justify spending of the PP money, it has to go on stuff that isn't part of the 'general offer' of the school, though other pupils can piggy back on it.

e.g. English intervention, if you have 3 PP kids receiving this you could throw in another non-PP kid.
Or pay for revision guides for a PP child.

But you couldn't use it to pay for an iPad for every classroom, or free revision guides for all, or free swimming lessons for all, or 'mymaths' subscriptions for all.

Usual things would be maths / English / social skills/confidence intervention, educational resources for home use, subsidising the child for optional educational trips (eg an MFL trip).

That HT does not understand what PP money is for. Which is worrying!