PTA in Independent School

[scottygirl]

Any advice on how to get parents involved in an independent school PTA, it is not a very wealthy school so the extra’s are raised by the PTA. It’s the same 5/10 parents that organise everything over many years. Do parents not get involved in Independent schools because they have already paid fees? not sure how to get them to volunteer. Any ideas?

Hi scotty - what our school does is every form needs to have one or two class reps, and that class rep is automatically on the PTA for that year. There are two heads of the PTA which are usually the same for 5-6 years, and from two different year groups (one older year group, one younger) so there's a bit of continuity just with those two people, but the rest of the PTA is that year's class reps from all years. There's a clear understanding in the parent contract received from the school that everyone is expected to do it once, but only once in the time that your child is at the school. The school facilitates this by sending out forms to all new parents for enrollment on the PTA mailing list. It seems to work well at our school, it shares the burden around and everyone has an equal share of involvement.

Our school also has PTA reps for each year and weekly meetings that other parents are welcome to attend.The rest of us don't tend to get involved as it's rather cliquey (might not be the case for your PTA).