PTA wellbeing events for parents, any idea?

[Tasha32]

I've been part of the school, I work at, PTA since around Christmas and alot of the events we do are fundraising for the school. As a school the staff have wellbeing events which are really great fun. I was thinking as part of the PTA maybe it would be an idea to have a wellbeing event for parents but rather than the usual event I want to do an event for discussions that are important for the parents such as support in different areas e.g after school activities, or workshops on different topics.
If anybody has any ideas or have done any events give me your suggestions or commet😊

Don’t do this. It would make the PTA look a bit mad and could alienate the parents.

Please bear in mind that every extra event you plan is another evening the already exhausted Head and staff have to attend.

@Tasha32 for new September starters if the school already do a parents information morning/evening (most schools do) then having a representative give a quick 5 minute "Hi I'm from the PTA - this is what we do" speech would probably be fine. Especially if your PTA sells secondhand uniforms - many new starter parents will be very grateful for that information.

While your heart is in the right place, realistically you are also being very naive.

Parents mostly appear to get on ok, but it is at a very superficial level. Then there are those that don't - competitiveness over who got star of the week/prize/part in nativity, perceived favoritism, judging of others, fall outs over kids friendships or party invites, classroom incidents, cliques, etc etc etc is rife.

Getting people with that kind of dynamic together in a room to discuss sensitive topics such as financial hardship and MH is both fool hardy and inappropriate for the PTA. It is also wasting PTA and parent engagement time on non fundraising activities.

Stick with the fun fundraising where parents who chose too can support the school and engage at that superficial level.

A spa type session with face masks and foot masks? Tea and biscuits. It would be a relaxer but a time for people to talk over tea

I've served on our PTA and am happy to support fun fundraising events so no negative feelings here.

I'd rather stick hot pokers in my eyes than attend 'well-being' events or 'what does the PTA do' meetings.

Please also remember if you go down the coffee morning route you are excluding working parents.

Stick to school fayres and quiz nights is my advice.

This is a wind up right?

You are not qualified because you did a course. Why would I take advice from a TA at school on something they aren't qualified in.

@Spirallingdownwards Today I have read about receptionists calling themselves medical professionals, a primary school pastoral care mentor calling themselves a mental health medic and a teacher (!)…..and now this TA who thinks they’re a qualified psychiatrist (or similar) 🙈

CPD is great but it doesn’t negate the need for a full degree or full qualification in that specific field.

I never said I was "qualified" I said I'd be able to give some advice from what I've been taught.

I put this post up for advice on well being events, not for negative digs so I think I'm going to leave the topic now. Thank you for people who put positive & respectful responses.

Absolutely this. Mufti day this, bottle day that, Amnesty day, school summer fete, sell cake day, ice lolly Fridays, school disco, tombola, etc.

some of us have jobs too 🤦🏻‍♀️

our PTA also recently announced they have 10k spare and not sure what to spend it on, so I will stop supporting them. (And have directly bought stuff the school asked for like books and toys for after school club)

Yes and plenty of people have told you that they either wouldn't go and your advice is as useless as a chocolate teapot and they wouldn't take it from a TA at school just because they attended a course.

They aren't negative digs but actual advice that such an event is a no goer.

Ps. I am qualified to give such advice as an ex PTA committee member and lawyer.

I agree with this completely. My dcs current school ask for a voluntary £10 donation per child every September, then they pretty much leave us alone the rest of the year apart from one event per term. Their previous school had constant pta events and it was so stressful. As if parents don't have enough to do.

@FlamingoYellow I would be so happy with this approach.

90% of our PTA is all junk food focused. The summer fair was awful, no games or rides, just chocolate tombola, sweets tombola, candy floss stall, snacks stall which only had crisps and chocolate etc.

You know that most of the time the PTA have jobs too? So they do it all on top of their jobs, often sacrificing spending time with their own kids at the summer fayre so that your kids can have a great time. But sure, you’re the only one sacrificing

I didn’t say I am sacrificing, I said it’s annoying. I don’t need non stop emails about another cake sale. Happy to donate £20 every school year without having to buy cheap UPF at every turn and occasion.

and how many dads participate in this nonsense? Exactly.

Quite a few dads at our school. They do all the food at our annual quiz and at the summer fayre, a lot of the set up, inflate, supervise and deflate the bouncy castles, organise the stalls, set up for the band and man the beat the goalie. In fact, I haven’t used my vagina for a single PTA related task!

Amazing. No dads at our school involved.
sounds like you have games and bouncy castles at your summer fair which is a massive difference to ours which only had tombolas and junk food stalls. It was boring and disappointing.

That is really crap that no dads are involved at your school. Maybe we are unusual, or lucky! Our fayre is great, a lot of work but we made 5k profit last summer 😊

@SuuzeeeQ without pointing out the obvious but.....
Have you given ideas for the summer fayre? Volunteered to help?
If you think it's "boring and disappointing" have you actually passed that opinion on?
Maybe this summer fayre could be fantastic - if you suggest ideas.

Yes I have given ideas and feedback. Since the announcement that they have too much money and don’t know what to spend it on, I have stopped caring and supporting. I am giving to the school directly when they ask eg at Christmas they asked for books (new ones) for the class libraries. Don’t quite understand why this isn’t funded by PTA, but as I said I don’t get involved anymore and won’t take kids to the summer fair this year.

@SuuzeeeQ actually that sounds acceptable from your side.
You tried 🙂
So many moan about school fayre's etc but never do anything to help change things.
Apologies if I sounded a bit bitchy 💐

This.

We have new intake in September so these parents may not know any about the PTA and what it is/does.

Er....every school has a new intake each September.

But PTAs existed back when I was at school in the dark ages. I doubt that many people will have no concept of what a PTA is, and @Needmorelego 's suggestion of a 3 minute slot at the induction event(s) would cover those who don't have any idea.

This is inappropriate. I think you're overstepping. It's not your place to advise parents!

The suggestion of a slot at the the information meeting is a good one. Not everyone will know all of what the PTA does (when I was at school there was no PTAs or if there was it wasn't well known, I'm 37 so not in the dark ages). Love the idea of leaflets for different aspects of support(so there if people want support but don't want to discuss with others at school) After some of the posts I think I'm going to put out a questionnaire to parents about what they think of the PTA as every school is different and I'd like to hear their views more.