Is there an alternative to the school Fair/Fete?

[PTAblues]

So we had our winter fete last weekend and I've come away pissed off as usual. We have quite a large PTA but it's basically 4 or 5 people doing all the work. Lots of others floating about pissing on everyone elses' chips, bitching and getting very little done. New ideas met with lots of eye rolling. Almost impossible to get helpers for the day. Not much support from the school- except the same few teachers. Same old, same old.

We raise a reasonable amount of money because we have a biggish school - mostly from the Raffle.

But we have 2 Fayres a year- another one in June. I can't bear it. I spend the 6 weeks before working flat out in my spare time. I know I don't have to etc etc.

Has anyone come up with an alternative to a fair/fete at any time of year that could make us the same sort of money. One a year wouldn't seem so bad if we could do something else.

Similar to the 100 Club, I used to run a Bonus Ball Club. No outlay, little work and each 'board' would rake in £1000 per year. You need

50 people for each board and each choose a number between 1 and 50. If your number comes up as the bonus ball in the main Saturday lottery draw you win! It was £1 a week stake, £25 prize money to the winner and £25 to the school. At one point I was running three boards so we raised about £3000 that year, not bad for a small infants school I think the punters paid £10 direct debit every 10 weeks iirc.

organise a really good raffle with lots of really good prizes that people want to win. get professional tickets printed and get a local estate agent to sponsor prizes, ask local businesses/restaurants/school contractors to contribute; get parents to use their friends/contacts to get prizes or deep discounts. We are in east london (free school meals central) and prizes included micro scooters, kindle fire, meal voucher, hamper of books...... it is really easy to sell tickets when the prizes are good :) Also people who can't help with time to organise a fete can normally sell a few books so it helps to spread the load a bit.

Teen I'm not involved with PTA because it's very cliquey and I got bored of the rejection. They do succesful film nights though. We are single form entry school. They run an infant and junior nights separately, straight after school usually on consecutive nights. We pay £2.50 per child and this includes squash and hot dog. There are additional crisps and sweets available for purchase - I usually send 30-50p per child and this covers some space raiders and pick and mix type stuff. No parents stay, but they have plenty of helpers including most of the dinner ladies and some of the afterschool care people (who take the afterschool kids back to club afterwards. I doubt very much there is licensing! If it's a PG film, parents have to sign a waiver. Not sure how much they make from the film nights, but they are well attended and I would imagine the outlay is minimal. They buy the hot dogs once they know how many are coming, and the sweets are also sold at discos so not a risk to purchase up front.

I would far rather pay for things like this (films, discos etc.) that the DC enjoy than spend ages making cakes that I don't want to buy back because they have been squashed and sneezed all over! Ditto sponsored events (not sure the kids really enjoy them, so it's just a straight donation really) and raffles with unappealing prizes that I just donate back next time.

Quietly Thanks for the film night info.

I think people have x amount they are prepared to spend at a Fayre, therefore lots of cheap fun things to do makes it a nicer experience for the children.

One thing our school did was a summer BBQ - you could bring your own food or buy burgers etc. emphasis was on inclusion but it still raised funds.

Our school did a camping event last year for the first time instead of a summer fair. I didn't go, but hear it was really good. Charge an amount per pitch, run a BBQ for dinner, organise a few games or a film screening, provide bacon rolls for breakfast. Still some work involved but might revitalise parents who are feeling a bit fed up with the same old same old.

Dd's old school used to do the weekly Lotto so £1 for a number and £25 prize for the person with the bonus ball. That gave £24 per week profit to the school. It was a small school but each number sold every week and so over the course of the school year would have made around £900. I suppose depending on demand you could have two boards of different colours.

We generated a £1000 pound once on a sponsored bounce - hired a bouncy castle, the school at the time was small -only up to year 4. The children loved it, and it was pretty easy to organise. I think we gave prizes to the children that raised the most money.

The school has changed to include year 5 and 6 because all middle schools have closed. A similar event was organised with key stage 1 bouncing and key stage 2 running laps round the field.

The PTA at my DD3's school last summer organised a circus rather than the summer fair. It was amazing - they had a small circus group with a 'big top' tent pitched all week at the school (and the children all got to visit during school hours for workshops and activities), before about four shows over the weekend. They had to sell a certain amount of tickets for it all to break even, but I think it made a healthy profit in the end. They then sold ice creams and food/drink before and after.
Compared to the organisation of a school fair, and for the sense of something 'different', I'd say it was a great success. Our family really enjoyed it anyway.

We do the fairs at ours, but we also do an Xmas shopping evening which makes about £1500 and also Inflateable day in either July or aug. A company brings about 20 bouncy castles and we charge £5 per kid for about 3 hours on the inflateables.

We tried film nights but the kids were so rowdy, the head offered us £150 of his own money not to hold it again

Race nights work well at our place. They make over £1000 and again a company comes in to do the actual work. We just sell tickets and refreshments.

Our school also has the circus come on alternate summers. It is much less organising that the summer fair, but slightly less profitable.

At the school where I work the PTA do a children's Christmas bazaar. They set up in the hall one afternoon and the classes go in, buy presents for mum and dad and then wrap them. It's much easier and less hassle than an actualXmas Fayre and raises a lot of money.

We also sell refreshments at the carol concert and any plays. Film nights raise lots too as do things like the 100 club, Christmas cards designed by the children and sponsored events.

My daughters school does a Christmas Fayre. I'm on the PTA and am sick of the whining, moaning and bad organisation. Myself and another teacher friend always offer suggestions about making things simpler or easier, but nothing is allowed to change and they don't seem interested in shortcuts or properly organising anyone - just moaning that they've had to do all the work themselves again!

Proper delegation and being specific about what help is needed. Is so important. Oh, and not slagging off the teachers who can't/won't help at every event would help too! Our PTA mooted the idea of making the teachers take it in turns to run the summer fete at a recent meeting lol!

My eldest's school ran their Christmas Fayre starting at 2.30pm until about 7pm and year 5 and 6 ran nearly all the stalls, had a competition for best decorated stall. Lots of donated tatt as well as sweets. Bottle Tombala (donations for mufti), adopt a teddy (always plenty of donations for that one) etc.

So you got plenty of helpers (all the kids) it was a great learning opportunity for them. If you can get the head on board to use it as part of their learning then he can inform the PTA this is what is happening!

This was a small school with quite a "deprived" intake so sponsored events never made much money. Again lots of cheap tombolas so you got lots of goes for your money so you could spend a lot of time there spending your £20 and keeping the children entertained.

I once worked out our fayres only ever raised about £20 per family...

DD's school used to do Kidz On The Catwalk. Very little preparation needed - company turned up with clothes (primary age), children volunteered to model them, parents paid to come and watch the fashion show and for refreshments and PTA got a commission on any clothes purchased afterwards. The children really enjoyed it.

Also sold wrapping paper from a catalogue at Christmas for commission. Company was called something like Northbrook? Easy for one person to do by themselves as a self contained job (I did it for years!) - just do a covering letter to staple to each catalogue explaining what to do, collect the orders and make one master order, sort and distribute when it arrives. Didn't make a lot of money, but I always felt it was worth the effort.

School used to have a summer and Christmas fair, but gave up the Christmas one because it was too much effort getting people to help. Replaced it with a quiz night (£10 per ticket, including fish and chip supper) which was always well supported. Friend's school did a big Race Night, where you get films of horse races to bet on. Never been to one but she said they were very popular.

If you want to do a fete, then:

1. Allocate one 'stall' to each class - the teacher then organises or delegates to a parents they've asked to organise it.
2. Build up your stock of 'games' that are then run by Yr6s on the day (lolly sticks in a wooden board / splat the rat / football into a target / ping pong balls into jars / roll a 10p type things
3. send home a paper plate with each child earlier in the week and ask them to return it full of cakes on the morning of the fete (they won't all, but a FAR higher % will than otherwise bring cakes)
4. Have a 'none uniform day' a fortnight before, where the "charge" for being allowed to wear mufti is a bottle / jar / box of chocs / whatever for the tombola
5. Open the fete for the last hour of the school day - then children whose parents work can still come and spend their money, and then people who are picking up children are likely to come in for 1/2 hour, whereas they might not come back for an evening or on a Saturday.

Our PTA is selling Xmas trees this year. They are buying them wholesale and selling them for market price. They have about 90 trees pre ordered and will make nearly £1,700 profit, all of which will go to the school.