has anyone organised a PTFA bonfire? how much did your insurance cost?

[Hatwoman]

our standard policy will only cover us if the bonfire is 100m away from school. We are a tiny primary with a small field and we don't have that sort of space -I'm waiting for a quote for an extra policy - but I just wondered if anyone has done this and if you could give me an idea what sort of money might be talking about. we're not having fireworks.

Sorry but we have been quoted £2K for fireworks and a bonfire just a fire is included in our standard insurance

£2k for insurance? or for the actual fireworks?
our standard policy covers a bonfire, and fireworks too - but it hs to be 100 metres away from the school buildings, which is 100 m we ain't got.

Insurance!
We regularly have fires much closer to the building

We had same problem with the 100m requirement, so dropped the bonfire and just went with fireworks around 7 years ago. We use an outside co for the fireworks (approx £2k cost for 20 minute display) so that they are using their own insurance. the PTA insurance is then just there for other non fireworks aspects of the event. This is for a large 2 form entry primary though so can attract enough participants to cover this and still make a very good profit (used to be £2k profit a few years ago when I was involved).

the whole thing's a nightmare tbh. we're a tiny village primary with 60 kids. we've got a load of garden waste so thought we'd have a small social event (ie not a fundraiser attracting non-schoolies) just a bit of mulled wine, some jacket pots and hot dogs round a fire - on the 4th so that people can go to big firework events on the saturday. with insurance, risk assessment, 100 metres it's starting to seem like more hassle than it's worth. tbh I wouldn;t mind if the insurance quote was £2k - because then I just say it's a no-goer.