PTA raffle-all 4 of the Chair’s kids won the top prizes

[PTAcoincidence]

There was a PTA raffle at school this week to win Easter egg baskets. There were 4 huge baskets with around 10-12 eggs in each along with about 30 smaller baskets with a variety of eggs in them. Some had more eggs than others so between 3 and 6 eggs per basket. Lots of prizes, lots of happy kids at the Easter Fayre.
The raffle was drawn out of sight before the Fayre began with the dad of the 4 winning kids removing one huge basket from school before the rest of the baskets were even made up. Eyebrows were raised but you don’t cross the PTA mums I’m told.
Tickets were £2 each and approx 500 tickets purchased in total so a great fundraiser for the PTA. The chocolate was donated by the kids in exchange for wearing their own clothes as is the norm.
It is usually the PTA kids who win competitions, get chosen for the main
parts in plays etc and lots of parents roll their eyes and accept that’s the way it happens.
All 4 kids winning the top 4 prizes though? Surely that’s highly unlikely to be random and takes the biscuit? Or the Easter eggs in this case!
My dc won something and is very happy about winning so it’s not a case of sore loser before anyone accuses me of jealousy.

If this happened at your school would you think it was fixed or just luck?

YANBU = Fixed
YABU = Luck

And then they don't. Then they phone at the beginning of next term, wanting to know where their prize is because somebody's told them that they won - along with demands for the list of numbers (and the occasional magically identical ticket --after they've had a chance to go and buy what they think is a matching booklet).

Far too much experience of it.

@NeverDropYourMooncup a social group I attend has the rule if you aren't there for the draw you don't win.
If no one claims the number drawn - then another ticket is drawn.
(you can of course trust a friend to claim on your behalf if they are going to be there and giving them your tickets)

We can have loads of raffle prizes but people don't get to choose them. They start with the best" prizes and whoever's ticket is chosen wins that prize.

Yikes! Your parents sound awful. No drama here thankfully. 😬

That sounds awful. Are your prizes so amazing that they'd go to all that bother?

The surprisingly duplicated ticket (except it was from a different book style as I'd used the last of an older order for those ones) was for a Nivea travel toiletries bag.

Maybe they were hoping for the big prize of 2 bottles of Matteus Rosé that had been knocking around in the back of the store cupboard since the last raffle.

Worked in schools for over 35 years and raffle draws were always carried out publicly, at end of an event when many parents were present or at an assembly in front of all the children. Even during lockdowns, monthly 200 club draws were done in front of Head and members of staff. Results were always sent out via newsletter or email. Even so, there were a few times when a ‘high up’ PTA member won, like when a balloon ride was donated to school and it was won by the PTA chair’s mother or when a PTA member made a comment to child who was drawing out a ticket, ‘pull out the ticket with a pin in’ and, by pure luck, (there were definitely no pins in the bucket) the person who made the comment won 1st prize. A number of times if there were a number of prizes, families, or even an individual child, may have won more than 1 prize but for one family to win all 4 prizes over a number of years…I would never be buying a ticket again!!

Thank goodness there's never any of this jiggery pokery at any events I go to.
It's all so petty and pathetic.

Even if it wasn’t a fix, what selfish twats for taking all the prizes - don’t they know what happened to Augustus Gloop!!!!

I think it's well known it's all a huge fix. The PTA kids get everything and honestly I doubt they even win them they just keep going until the 'preferred' kids have their tickets drawn. My son has never won anything and I must of given them hundreds over the 3 years he's been in primary school. In fact it was only earlier this year when the PTA did a raffle for something or other and another non PTA mum went straight to the headteacher at the gate and said how it's completely unfair that the prizes are given solely to the children of the parents who have given the most money for raffle tickets and the headteacher agreed that's how it was done and they will look into it as the mum quite rightly mentioned how not every parent can give £20-£30 per raffle and the headteacher seemed completely perplexed that that was even an issue!! I've stopped doing them now because it's a huge scam and massively fixed. Same for the competitions as well it's always the same kids who win even if their designs are 💩

Honestly I’ve never noticed the prizes disproportionately going to the kids of the PTA at our school. With all respect, most raffle prizes are crap and I can’t imagine any of the PTA fixing anything to win them.
Of course the people who buy more tickets have better odds of winning though, that’s just how raffles work. I guess people could be limited as to how many tickets they can buy to make it more ‘fair’, but that would mean less money raised, and raising money is generally the point of the raffles.

I don't know where everyone is where it's well known that PTA raffles are a massive fix but it's never happened at any event I've been to - and that's loads.

Me either. Just another stick to beat volunteers with.

No jealousy in my eyes but raffle should have been drawn in front of the children or even by the children definitely a fix with the results but think if that’s what they to do so their children have an Easter then shame on them involved perhaps a quite chat with head something like this can be the start of kids being picked on some parents don’t see it like that these days (( they used to call the kids teachers pet didn’t know they included the parents too )) all children should have received an egg and all around the same size too

Raffle draw should have been public, seen by all, and done and ratified by someone not involved.

If all the children received the same sized egg then it wouldn’t really be a raffle… the whole point of a raffle is that it’s a competition. Some people win, some don’t. You buy tickets for a chance to win a prize.

Two years running as well?! Fix, absolutely no doubt a fix by a very dishonest PTA member. I would be complaining, even anonymously if needs be.

I didn’t say an huge egg but a 1 pound egg for each child that didn’t win .. all schools are different I suppose but the kids that didn’t win a huge prize in our Easter egg hunt and raffle got given a small egg from the bunny ..

Typical the PTA group is like another mean girl formation

Isn't that literally how gambling works? The more tickets you buy the more chance you have. Ultimately the raffle is to raise as much money as possible for the school. If I chuck in a fiver it's basically a donation and if I win something it's very good luck.

So if 100 people enter but they have to buy 150 pounds worth of prizes so everyone gets one how does the raffle make much profit?

People love to have a go at the PTA but they are probably the first to complain when the school can't fund extra things.

I don’t think our PTA receives much if any criticism. Just cynicism that the chair’s kids win the top prizes and that they can be cliquey. School mums are cliquey anyway so it’s not particular to the PTA. This year it’s been noticed, due to the PTA dad making off with the top prize before the draw, that things are more biased towards the PTA kids than usual.

The PTA get lots of volunteers. It’s not a big school and volunteers are often turned down with claims they don’t need more help than the usual 6-8 committee members even though they ask for help in emails and Facebook posts prior to events. The PTA work hard and do a lot for the school and fill in a lot of gaps in funding. I’m certainly not bashing them.

Maybe they bought more tickets but is suspicious. I’d give mine back if I was chair.

And buying a £1 egg for every child reduces the funds raised, which was the point of the raffle in the first place. Unless the parents want to fund all those eggs themselves?
A raffle is essentially a competition. Surely children know that some people win and some people lose?