What events and fair stalls work well for your primary's PTA?

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Our school PTA is looking afresh at the fair held each summer. Which stalls work well for your school in terms of attracting families to come to the fair and raising funds? We have a slight issue of some classes not really getting involved so far and therefore any ways we can bring them in would be great e.g. having a competition to raise the most between classes.

Also which other events have worked well for you?

Not so much a fair thing, but DS's school runs a family photography day once a year. They get a professional photographer in and you book a 10 min slot for £10. The PTA probably gets a cut of photos ordered too. Great a couple of months before Christmas!

Beat the goalie. Massive hit anywhere I've ever been

face painting, bouncy castle, temporary tattoos (stuck on with water), henna tattoos (proved popular last time), spray on hair colour, mini manicure (short file of nails and then a coat of nail polish), sparkly make up and glitter spray. Lucky dip - we had one for girls and one for boys, tombola, etc. Build a bear type things (the stall holder had the bear skins and stuffing separate and you made them up at home - also sold outfits)

A lot of the above is aimed at girls, sorry

Thanks so far. Keep it coming!

The photographer one could work, either as part of the fair or otherwise, as we have a fantastic one among the parents.

Jam jar tombola;kids bring in jars filled with sweets from home (or plastic cups, we give those out) which go on a tombola stall, competition amongst classes to bring in the most. We get 800+ from 420
Kids and the tombola stall always sells out!

Chocolate tombola - chocolate is donated in return for a non-uniform day.

Teddy bear tombola always very popular round here. For about 6 weeks before the fete they have "Teddy Bear Tuesday" and all children are encouraged to bring in a no-longer-wanted soft toys. Then - bizzarely - the children all buy lots of tickets and wine back not only their old soft toys but also everyone else's
Some keen mum washes all the soft toys before putting them on the stall

chucking wet sponges at teachers is always very popular too

Fill jam jars at home with stuff your kids have but no longer want ie small toys, pencils, cracker presents, clips, party bag style plastic shite. Sell for a pound. The kids go mad for it and it's good for recycling too.

Our school gives each class a stall to be responsible for manning for the whole fair - minimum of 2 parents per hour. We have done much better with volunteers that way. HTH.

The best ones are usually chocolate and bottle tombolas, prize every time games, lucky dip, bouncy castle.

Our cheapest and easiest is a film night, license is v cheap and easy to get, we charge £3.50 a child which includes a drink and a bag of crisps, and we usually get around 150-180 tickets sold. Profit ratio v high on this one but not a massive absolute turnover. Our biggest absolute numbers fund raiser is our summer barbeque, usually raises about £6k+, but it is much more intensive and expensive to organise. Tickets are £6 per adult. We're lucky that some parents are pub owners and they use their contacts to get us a hog roast & barbeque at cost, which they also man, selling £3 per bap and £2 for jumbo hot dogs. We have a local cricket club which loan us their grounds and buildings, and we get a share of the bar profits. We hire a kids entertainer and bouncy castle, and a grown up singer/performer. Pimms by the glass is v v popular, and we do an inside disco with tattoos, glow sticks etc for the kids - 50p a pop. Usually the bbq is delegated to a different year group's parents each time, and the organisation effort is led by that year group's parent who's on the PTA, iyswim.

Jarola (already referred to) - jamjars from home filled with anything you like. Cheaper tickets than tombola, every one a winner. Always sells out!

& yes, summer BBQ always wildly popular, esp as most tickets sold in advance so even if weather is rubbish you've already got the money - though when turnout is down you get less from sideshows

Mocktail stall, virgin pina colada, non alcoholic pimms, sparkling water with grape juice, layered juice & smoothie etc, fruit garnish, fancy straw or paper parasol. Tasty treat for all.

Food wise ours does - BBQ, strawberries, drinks, popcorn, decorate your own fairy cake (very popular with infants) but also very sticky! and add your own topping to the mini pot of ice-cream.

Like the sound of the mock tails stall especially for the cynical older kids.

Throwing a wet sponge at a teacher always seems to be very popular. I always feel sorry for the male staff as it always seems to be them in the stocks!!

Chocolate tombolas always work well as they appear to kids and parents alike.

Ours do a money tree
Every child sent home from school with empty envelope with instructions to full it with coins to max £2
Kids buy an envelope for 50p and get to keep contents. Of course they spend it all at the fair.
So it's a double whammy on money

That sounds great Mini given they spend it there anyway.

For our class stall at the Christmas fair we did Pick a Lolly and cleared over £170 profit. A local shop donated the lollies, and a few of the parents and I cleared out our present drawers for duplicated or unwanted presents and books. Every child 'won' a lolly and about 50% won a bigger prize. We are doing it again for the Summer fair.

We have more people willing to help, now that a percentage of the money raised from the class stalls goes directly to the class.

Local businesses sponsored the book bag flyer (with the idea that it stays on the notice board for a few weeks, you can make this more attractive by ensuring flyer is kept by doing something like 'free raffle ticket with this flyer'). Also, sponsorship of a large printed banner which is displayed outside the school for a few weeks. Estate agents, family lawyers and local accountants are worth speaking to.

As a different fundraiser our PTFA sells ice lollies every Fri after school. They sell them for 50p each, and I saw in Tesco that the ones they were selling were 8 for £1! A great return. I'd say that most kids have them and the school has ninety kids. A real earner if you do it every week.

I don't know how profitable individual stalls are, but the school always does very well at fairs (Christmas and summer). There's always a loot bag stall - party bag type bags filled with sweets and little toys, sold for a pound each. They always sell out. Old and drink at the summer one - BBQ, cake, strawberries and cream, and a bar. Inflatables for the kids, and mini go karts.

The summer one's best, and always seems to get good weather. It's a nice mix of stuff for the kids to do, food and drink, a few bits of old-school tat (to bola and jumble etc), but also a few local businesses who pay for stalls so you can actually buy something nice.

Christmas one does my head in cos it's all indoors and very crowded, missed a couple of years but went back last year as I'd volunteered to paint faces, and DD is old enough to be let loose with a few quid. I think this year her year will be doing games in their classroom - something the older ones do, and a handy way of making sure families turn up, you have to if your child is very proud dog their Santa hoopla, don't you? Plus both fairs have some performance elements (singing at Christmas, maypole dancing in the summer) that encourage people to show up.