fundraising for infant school

[olliepolly]

school has only just started again and I seem to have got myself roped in to the PTA/Friends. Our school is a lovely little infant school which unfortunately is under threat of closure.
We are trying to raise money for computer suite for the kids as well as fight the proposed closure.Does any one have any tried and tested ideas for successful money raising ? Ideas for school fayre and other events we could spread through the year gratefully received.

olliepolly - you'll find lots of really good ideas on other threads. Our xmas bazaar raises about 2500 , but a lot of work (and I love it). Baker Ross do a schools catalogue and all you do it hand out the catlogues, orders, payments and delivery are donen through the company themselves..arts and crafts catalogue .

Another favourite is a beetle drive, all you need are pencils paper and dice. The number you throw relates to part of the beetle (6 for a body, 1 for head, 2 for legs, 3 for antennae, 4 mouth and 5 eyes). the first to have a complete beetle shows beetle. Then the person with the most complete beetle moves to the next table clockwise, and the one with the least complete moves anti-clockwise.

Lindy is another fanatic who has brilliant ideas.

If you'd any help then you can e-mail

My dds school managed to raise 6000 pounds in one evening with an Auction of Promises. Whereby you get local businesses/parents to offer a promise and people bid for it. Things ranging from 7 nights babysitting/ 4 hrs gardening/a week in someones holiday cottage/parking space for a year near school (!) to facials/opticians services/music lessons/help with your kids party etc.

Other smaller things include MUFTI days, ice cream friday (PTA sells cornets after school), school discos, jumble sale, Xmas fayre, Art Saturdays (where you pay a fiver for 3hrs art and craft for your kids so you can do your Xmas shopping). I'll post more if I can remember. HTH.

make sure you find out which companies will double your fundraising or are interested in helping with local projects such as schools/IT.

For the school fayre, face painting, tombola, 'Splat the Rat', sell Mulled wine and a mince pie at Xmas Fayre. 'Race Nights' - horse racing on a projection screen, Cheese and Wine Evenings, Bingo, Quiz Nights. Sell Tea Towels, Mousemats, Calenders, Bookmarks etc with kids pics and/or school emblem on, some of these items can be made in house rather than using a company. Car boot sales, table top sales, craft fairs, charge for folks to have a table, also you could charge small entrance fee with the offer of a free tea/coffee/squash, refreshments usually make a good profit, so get everyone baking
Here's a link for more ideas www.sol.co.uk/s/sptc/leaflets/fund_raising_ideas.htm
We alo used to have a very successful bbq in July, a good way for the September intake children and parents to get to know the school. See if your local Scout Group has a large bbq you can borrow, they often have games that you can borrow for other events too.

Good luck with the fundraising

Thanks for the ideas.
Can you tell me what splat the rat is, sounds interesting.

Family Fun Day (bouncy castles, cycling track, football training, bbq etc.) raises lots of money for our school at low outlay. Also lots of fun with "Twaddling" - horse racing with wooden horses pulled along by winding in wires by "jockeys". Betting on the races, all horses have owner and jockey. Good fun for all ages.

Try 'soak the teacher' a really popular game to have at a school fete or fair - get a teacher to stand behind a screen with just a hole for their head to poke through, get a bucket of water with plenty of sponges and charge children 20p to throw three wet sponges at their sitting target.

Splat the rat is where you have to hit a toy rat when it emerges out of a tube like a drainpipe...really hard but great fun.

Another one is how far can you throw a rich tea biscuit (write your name on it so you can see the winner) and the birds do the clearing up at the end of the day!!!

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Forgot this one that our school do, which is quite a money spinner. Each clas has a themed Christmas card, where they draw a small picture with their name underneath. All the pictures are then printed on one card, but the added bonus is that on the back of the card is their class photo, that they have taken in Oct. It's a great one to send to relatives. They get sold in packs of 10 and the more packs you but the greater reduction you get. Say, 3.50 for 1, 6pounds for 2 etc. The pta takes a percentage after printing costs.

When my little sister was in infant school ( quite a while ago now..) every child in the school drew a self portrait and wrote their name underneath ( or teacher wrote it if they couldn't yet). Teachers also did a self-p. Then all the pics were printed onto tea towels with the school logo on and sold for about 50p each. (Maybe £2 now?)I thought this was a great idea - my dad still has ours now complete with little stick pic of my sister!