School Mufti day but only if you bring a tombola prize?????

[karise]

Am a right to feel like I'm being taken for a ride?
School christmas cards, teatowels etc fine. Then we have a choice. But nobody wants their child to be the only one in school with their uniform on for mufti day so we all go along with it like twits
It just feels like mass bullying to me or am I being over the top?

Boffin I did a fashion show at my school as a fund raiser and had a bishop and varous priests there and they thought it was fabulous.

This was certainly true about theatre trips in the schools I worked in. But perhaps efforts need to be more focused? Or the extended schooling initiative and voluntary sector ought to be involved in this rather than teachers?

My point exactly, twinset. It's good fun to do this sort of thing. It's not like we're proposing a Year 10 lapdancing initiative, is it?

Ours was a fairtrade fashion show, there were a few raised eyebrows as the girls tottered down with full makeup and high heels.

But it was such great experience for them, they got the venue, clothes, training etc.

Did you model as well, twinset?

Actually I might be able to resurrect the idea if it was prefixed by the words 'Fair Trade'.

I wish they raised money for charity rather than for things like digital cameras for ecah classroom at our school.

I wasn;t on the catwalk but floated about in some clothes.

We got the clothes on sale or return, the kids blagged the room for free. We used contacts to get lighting, music etc. Art department designed the set.

Also sold fairtrade products, did a raffle etc.

They made a profit but more importantly it was a great experience.

'I would really like the PTA to do more than perpetual amateurish fundraising, and do things like really engage with educational and social issues at the school, to do with the children'

This is interesting, BOffin.

For one, our school need the funds we raise - for example, our old playground equipment is verging on unsafe, and without PTA funds it would be taken down but not replaced. I'm sure PTA fundraising is amateurish in the main, but I don't know of any other way to raise such sums for the school. (However, the people who run your PTA sound like loons - we'd bite your hand off if you were one of our parents and came to us with fresh ideas.)

On your other point - I doubt that our head/governing body would be happy about the PTA engaging directly with the pupils in this way - I suspect they'd see that sort of thing as the responsibility of the staff. PTA = fundraising, at least as far as our head's concerned, I think.

twinset - did you go to M St L?

Hey, Policywonk, I am defecting over to your school now then. It would be nice to be appreciated for a change instead of f***g patronised.

VanessaParody What is M st L?

'I would really like the PTA to do more than perpetual amateurish fundraising, and do things like really engage with educational and social issues at the school, to do with the children'

What sort of things did you have in mind? We're always trying to think of new things to do.

We have a fashion show at school every two years, and we totally fund a school in Burma with the donations.

Can I just say, that it is so so lovely to see how much the Teachers on this thread care about the Kids they teach....

We have been, all in all, very lucky with our Kids teachers....but es had a very very lovely one in year 5 and 6, and it made such a massive difference to him....
I know not really in context with this thread...but read the past few pages, and just thought just how lovely teachers can be to teh Kids that really really need it!
Hope I am not coming across as stupid and patronizing....

Hello Seeker. The secret is surely in copying commercial activities inventively, to really divert peoples' disposable incomes whilst saving them time and/or stress. Such is the modern age. That way the tight margins are balanced with an improved enjoyment factor, involving people more closely with the PTA and associating it with nice, helpful things rather than just being hounded for money and time. These are just some ideas off the top of my head.

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1. Offer hand/foot/shoulder massages at school fetes for a fee. Train some parents to do this if required - local FE college might help. £3-£5 for 10 minutes.

1. Have wellness evenings or weekends (with childcare if necessary) for tired parents. This could even include free advice from a local gym or FE college about toning exercises you can do at home whilst knackered in the evening, cookery advice from a local chef on meals to make in 20 minutes, and meditation or relaxation exercises courtesy of the local NCT or even NHS midwifery service. £10+ for the evening including tea and coffee and nibbles, and some sort of wellness pack of freebies you have negotiated (free swimming vouchers from local council; toiletry samples; some form of chocolate or other delicacy; herb tea samples; whatever you can persuade national and local firms to chip in with).

1. Run some sort of babysitting circle or school run/car share referral scheme with a fee to the PTA per use. If you can set up an online system, so much the better. £2 per use.

1. (If space permits) Allow dry cleaning to be picked up and dropped off on the premises once a week by a local firm with a van, charging 50p per item for the service.

1. Always sell alcohol at school events, especially real ale and Pimms in the summer, and real ale and mulled wine in the winter, presumably with free mince pie. Get local publicans involved running this in return for a proportion of the profits. Good profits here.

1. Sell a really amazing relocation pack to local estate agents (once the property market recovers, probably). Update it quarterly. Subscription charge from estate agents?

1. Hold swishing parties where people swap clothes. Also get a local speaker in to give style advice. Charge £5 for a ticket to attend including a free drink, and £2 or £3 per successful 'swish'.

1. (Spring) Offer to plant up people's outdoor tubs and window boxes up if they drop them off, for a fixed fee, with 3 choices of colour (red/pink; purple/yellow or silver/white). Try to get local garden centre to give you compost and trays of pansies and so on for free to help keep down overheads. £5/£10/£15 per tub depending on size.

1. (Summer) Sell airport security friendly clear packs of toiletries that meet the regulations. Make them up from little donated bottles of toiletries people brings back from hotels, plus extra stuff from the cash and carry if necessary. £3-£5 a pack.

10. Get a local hairdresser in during the fete, or the day before school photo day, to cut children's hair for a fiver.

11. Have an amazing school website which is updated frequently so everyone needs to visit it a lot. Put an obvious Amazon referral link on there. Every purchase your parents make on Amazon will then lead to a percentage coming back to you, for no effort at all.

Have to go to make pancakes now or my youngest will be very upset, because I promised! I will keep thinking.