to ask what your kids and school enjoyed the most that was funded by the PTA?

[WhirlAndTwirl]

Hello, posting here for traffic.
If you are/were a parent or a teacher of a primary school kids, what projects, educational trips, equipment were the most beneficial or enjoyable?
Our school has nearly £10K PTA funds raised and looking for the ideas to enhance their learning and time at school.
Have you had any external suppliers come in to show or teach the kids anything new that they loved?
Did any play equipment go down very well and lots of kids enjoy using it?
Anything to encourage sports? Learning about nature?
Outdoor installations?

If you have any links, please include them.
Our school is in the South East of England in a village with a big field.
Thank you

The pta as my kids school bought a bouncy castle that used a fetes saving money . Use at fun day in school as well .
They also bought wooden hut like a big summer house so children can be taught out side . The school does not have much out side space . And now use every inch.

Our PTA is fabulous they have funded so many things, in the last few years...

New sound system for the school hall (so we can actually hear things!)
New outdoor multi use games area (MUGA)
Trim trail play equipment
Climbing frame and 2 large slides
Annual pantomime (in school)
Costumes for nativity and summer concert
P7 leavers hoodies

The head teacher won’t let the pta pay for anything that she thinks should come from school budget like classroom resources (so the council can’t slash budget on the pretence the pta will fill the gap), so it’s almost always fun extras!

They raise around £15-20k per year.

Play equipment, panto visits and Art Solutions www.artsolutions.org.uk which created amazing work from the kids that is still in place about 5 years later.

Thank you. Did anyone's school create a vegetable patch and did you think it was a good idea? or was it overgrown by the end of first term?

Subsidised leavers’ hoodies. Buddy bus and bench. What would be amazing but there is never enough money would be those sunsail/ shade type things for the playground. It gets the full sun and there are very few shady places. A couple of the nurseries / preschools have them and they have made such a difference to outdoor play and sun safety.

My children's primary school created a vegetable patch one year and it was really good for a while. And then the teacher that was keen on running a gardening club left and it pretty much got left neglected.

Anything that needs regular maintenance could have the same issue. You are asking for a high level of commitment, either from staff or future parents, to keep it going.

At the secondary school mine now attend, a PTA group bought a set of brass and woodwind instruments which are used every year to form a year 7 band. They get the instrument, free for a year, with heavily subsided group lessons, and with together as a band. It's been sustained for years and the school has got a lot of educational value out of those instruments. But again you do need the long term commitment to keep something like that running.

I would echo the other poster who asked if the school has a development plan. Does the head not have a wish list for things that they would like to see PTA money spent on?

The biggest fundraiser our school does is a chocolate tombola, kids have a non school uniform day where they bring in some6 chocolate as donation and all chocolate goes towards the stall at the fete. It raises a huge amount! This year they are doing a bottle tombola for a different non school uniform day :)

Not quite the same but we have a gardening club relying on parental help / involvement. The kids love it which of course is what is important but only a minority of the parents go and most of those that do seem to hate going. If I never had to do the club again it would be too soon. So yes, we have something similar to a vegetable garden. Kids love it. Parents wish it had never been thought of!

Ours has funded free swimming at the local pool over the holidays for all Primary pupils. Kids under 8 get an adult in for free with them. It's been really popular and give the children something to keep them occupied as well as getting exercise over the holidays.

What does the Head need to deliver the curriculum?

Lots of the ideas on here are extras that would take a lot of additional staffing resource to deliver and maintain.

Ours funded gardening boxes (which included veg and flowers) for infants. It was mixed. The ones in Reception were maintained by a brilliant teacher the whole time kids were there, IIRC Reception kids used the stuff they had grown in their end of year picnic and really loved it - so that was an excellent investment for them. But the plants all died in the year 1 boxes and they were overgrown with weeds by the end of the first year. As others have said - gardening relies on a significant commitment from someone and are only as good as that commitment.

A local school is fund raising for poly tunnel so the fruit and veg can rasie and eaten by the end of summer term .
And permanence things are great too.

Buddy bus and bench. Pleased to hear yours worked. Ours (bench) is apparently never used- seems like the only thing worse than having no-one to play with is everyone else knowing it.

I also agree that best to avoid things that require additional commitment from teachers and parents. It's enough of a struggle to get volunteers for existing things, especially lower down the school.

I do kind of agree about the "long duration vs. one off" events, even though Kelly Holmes was amazing- that said, the fundraising set up at our school is slightly different so it's probably not even a relevant thing to have mentioned- sorry.

David walliams
Those creature workshops with lizards, snakes etc
Skipping workshop
Ddmix dance
iPads

Playground equipment

Each teacher gets a £50 float for the (year??)

Nature garden

We've funded repainting the playground and providing playground items like hula hoops, skipping ropes and some giant games.

Funded starting an allotment which is lovely and well used (clearing the ground with a digger, making raised beds and a poly tunnel).

Subsidise a summer and christmas trip for the whole school.

Recently gave the school a sum of money to buy forest school equipment after a teacher trained to deliver this (I think it mainly went on tools).

A selection of board games for each class for rainy days when they need to have lunch inside

3 Beehives, bees and a beekeeper who comes in every Friday afternoon to talk to 10 children about them. Oh, and 10 bee suits - from Reception size up to Year six!

Johnny, yes, good point, I think that is a massive risk with buddy bus type things actually. Perhaps it depends on the individual school / luck whether it works or not.

Plus the bus works better than the bench - less obvious and more of a playground toy it seems.

At primary outdoor play equipment. (Big climbing frame stuff.) At secondary subsidising residential visits so whole tutor groups could go.

A wildlife garden is lower maintenance than vegetables and flowers and can be added to by classes as well as used for projects like ‘make a Bug House’ or decorating/planting in old wellies. If you live in an area that has a Wildlife Officer (either Council or local nature reserve) they could come in, do an assembly and class visits and advise.

Playground equipment always goes down well. Involve the School Council if there is one and ask the children what they would like - you can filter out things like Ice Rink or Skate Park in the planning stages

Our school has an outdoor classroom that the kids always love when they get out for classes not that often in Scotland

They also have 2 different play frames, one for P1-3 and one for P4-7

They've recently had the football pitch changed to Astro turf, welcomed by all parents since they're much less likely to come home head to toe in mud.

Every year we have sports day in the morning and that afternoon there are funfair rides for the kids all free to use, it's sports day today and kids are so excited.

We're very lucky to be in such a well funded school with great head and PTA.

Interactive white boards for all classrooms and the main hall, iPads that get used a lot, sprucing up up the playground with really good games ‘markings’ 4 square that kind of thing, trails and mazes, new gym and music equipment including outdoor stuff that gets used at playtime

On and a veggie garden and giant board games - not necessarily all ‘exciting’ in the way that getting some famous person in but something that benefits all the kids for many years and helps the school keep up to date.

Playground equipment and school trips.