PTA ideas??

[Loulou161]

i am on the PTA (this is my second year) of a good sized school (approx 300 kids).
we struggle massively with getting parents to volunteer… we’ve tried everything!! As a result we’re having to cancel events because between the 4 of us we simply can’t do it alone!
ANY ideas on how to drum up some interest from parents?
we send out news letters regularly, we ask in all the WhatsApp groups, we’ve told them we can’t do events without them, then we get moaned at for not doing much for the kids?!?
it’s really disheartening and we’re thinking of stepping down.
so any advice really? Or things we could do to raise money that don’t need to be as hands on?
thanks

Our school sent an email saying they wanted to buy more books for the classroom libraries with a link to donate. They made the more than any other event. School isn’t happy with being a yearly thing.

I hate the summer fayre, I’m expected to volunteer but my youngest is now reception aged and I’m still not happy to roam around 100s of unknown adults while the school gates are open, my oldest also has SEN and may need to leave early but this isn’t commonly known.

@Notlookingforwardtosummer you have a genuine reason for not being able to volunteer at the summer fair (child with SEN).
Who is expecting you too?
Just tell the organiser "No I can't do it".

Pressure if the class whatapp group. Child has now told friends about her diagnosis but other wise people wouldn’t be able to tell on playground that she has SEN.

For me, I've checked out ( after being really keen on supporting our school).

When the academy trust agree a £250,000 salary for the CEO (MAT with 8 schools) in the same week as sending begging letters for each child in the trust to donate a new book…I’m done.

Though sorry, going back to the OP, a couple of ideas.

Easter Egg Tombola - each family donate an egg ( £1 egg is fine, bigger eggs create huge interest). Usual tombola, end of school day, over in half an hour and £300 earned.

A sponsored, decorated trike/ bike ride. EY/infant only. Trikes decorated at home, prizes awarded. Couple of laps of the playground. Especially successful as part of the summer fayre as families came and waited to watch it.

In a situation like that I would message the main organiser directly saying that you would like this kept private but you are unable to volunteer on the day due your child's SEN so please stop asking directly on the WhatsApp group.
(you don't have to give details of the SEN - nor in fact which child you are referring too)
If they keep harassing you over it inform the main chair (if that's a different person) or whoever the staff liaison is.
Anyone who says they can't volunteer on the day should be accepted they they can't.

Another vote here for 'just ask for how much cash you want, why and where to send it'.
No interest in attending or volunteering from anyone in our house due to work or just more interesting things to do than have to interact with strangers and kids.

They're not strangers to your children though. They're their classmates.

No, but their parents are, so why would I want to spend time with them? Also, doesn't mean my child knows all the kids as can't all be classmates.

Unless it's a really massive school primary school children do end up knowing each other - at least the ones of a similar age (ie Year 3 children will know the Yr 4s).
They will play together in the playground.
I'm curious.... have you actually asked your children they want to go to the Christmas/Summer fairs?
If they say no then that's fine. But the school is their community so it's a bit rotten to not take them to the Christmas fair once in a while.

Easiest thing is things like non uniform and ‘break the rules’ day (pay 50p per rule broken eg non uniform, hair dye, jewellery, bring a teddy, chocolate in lunchbox etc). A few posters to advertise, teachers collect money in registration (or have an online link for parents to pay) - can easily raise £1-3 per child which in bigger schools adds up. And crucially involves no volunteers, just teachers who are on board (I’m a teacher and happy to do this sort of thing more then give up my Saturday for a summer fair!)

sponsored events also can earn a reasonable amount but again need to be done in school time so may need some teacher input. My own school used to do a walk (PE lead planned it, teachers accompanied and it took all day so no planning, Woop!) and kids collected sponsorship. My daughters school have done a colour run (lots of organising) and a sponsored scoot/ride for little ones - again these were both organised by school rather than PTA and probably took a fair bit of teacher organising time.

PTA’s serve two main purposes in my opinion.

1. to raise money for the school for things they actually want.
2. to build, support and help the community of parents & carers by providing things they want and need.

If you focus on 2. first then 1. does become easier. As an ex chair of a PTA I found that some want just to give (offer them a series of fundraisers) and some want to take part (get them to organise a Disco if that’s what they’re asking for. Offer support in terms of finance & logistics but basically let them do it themselves. )

The danger with saying ‘we’re organising an X’ is if people aren’t that engaged with the concept of the X then it is very hard work on the committee.

Don't have to, they tell me they don't want to go. Much more interesting things to do. I guess if it is a small village with nothing else to do and small classes, then it could be different. But never lived somewhere like that. Most parents work and not close to the school and most kids do other things outside the school.

Also agree with a previous poster that sponsored events so do really well but you can’t overuse them or people get fed up. T towel printing with the children drawing is also a good one but again you risk fatigue if you do it every year.

The real challenge is I think that schools are dependent on funding from PTA as they’re so broke but PTAs can’t rely on having as many people staying at home as they might have used to. I think more and more schools will gradually move to asking for donations but by doing that you lose the community aspect of events.

Ok if your children don't have an interest in going then that's fine.
I do find it unusual that they've never wanted to - I've yet to meet a kid that doesn't want their face painted, to eat a cake, throw a wet sponge at a teacher and visit the Santa that looks suspiciously like the caretaker.
But obviously all kids are different.
(Incidentally the school my daughter attended was a London school with a lot of children who did out of school activities and lots of busy working parents - it's not always a village thing where nothing else is happening 😂)

Indeed. I've never met a kid who wants to do any of those things. I mean eat cake, yes, I know many kids who've wanted to do that....but rarely from a school bake sale. They view them with the same suspicion that adults do

I agree with this, lots assume it's for nice extras when in reality (sadly) the money has to be used for what used to be stuff the school could afford to buy from the budget.

We found giving more detail on the actual ask was helpful, sometimes saying we need you for x, y, z doesnt really convey the level of commitment or what you'll actually have to do. Not tonnes just like 2 hours on x date doing y.

I don't want to sound rude but your children sound unusual 😂

What we've had to do is essentially hibernate for a year. We have stuck to the bare minimum events and focussed on building volunteer capacity and looking at alternative ways of raising income. This was an alternative to everyone quitting because of the pressure/feeling of being taken for granted.

We have looked at QR codes that people can use to donate money, small grants etc. We are a registered charity so I would recommend sorting that if you're not already as it opens up advice and support available.

We joined easyfundraising as a Parent Council group. People sign up and the companies you buy from donate a % of their spend to your cause. Lots of big companies like amazon and Ebay are on there

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/

When I helped on PTA the most common excuse for not helping was "I have my children to look after"... which was the case of almost everyone who was helping. It was a very thin excuse on the first hearing... extremely thin after that.

The other noticeable one was that anyone who was rude about being asked was also the first to be wanting their dc to have whatever was being offered - eg creche run for younger siblings during school performances. I remember feeling bemused as I helped in one of these, having agreed with a friend that they would take my 2 for the first performance so I could help with the creche, and I would take their younger two for the second so they could do the creche, and the people who were queued up to hand their dc over were without exception people who were pretty nasty if ever they were asked to do something - even something small. They were also the first to have a strop if an event was cancelled due to lack of volunteers.

So I'd suggest:

1. Say they can bring younger ones along when possible
2. Support for people who do help, both against the people who make nasty comments, and the complainers who never help.

But also, do some social events, get-togethers, quiz nights etc which are cheap. People are more inclined to help out when they feel they're getting something out of it - and a welcoming friendly atmosphere will go a long way for that.
Appreciate the person who says they can give half an hour to blowing balloons (different school to the above, but having offered that as all I could do that day and to be moaned at the entire time for not doing more meant I never volunteered again), and don't give out big substantial presents to the top people (it's usually the same people anyway)

It does sound a bit rude. We understand that there are different people in the world. There are those that seem to love to throw themselves into school life - kids and parents. Then there are the others that don't. There are of course those that are enthusiastic for a few events a year only as well. It is not unusual at all. You possibly just don't notice if you are one of the involved-in-school people. There are many of us. And we don't call your children unusual.

@NoNewsisGood I apologise.
It was rude and I shouldn't have said it.
To be honest I was more enthusiastic about the school events than my daughter. She is autistic (but it was undiagnosed in primary school) and there were several events she didn't enjoy.
I apologise again 🙂

As others have said, I think people are more likely to volunteer if they know other PTA volunteers, and the way to do that is for them to go to meetings. I could never attend the PTA meetings at my DC’s primary school (always 8am on a school day) but if they’d varied the timing or offered other meetings/social events at a different time I might have gotten involved.

@SneakyScarves in the world of WhatsApp etc you don't really need to have formal meetings.
I think we did the annual AGM but that was it for the formal stuff.