What does your PTA pay for?

[plipplops]

That's it really. Trying to look at what our PTA pays for - we want to be inclusive, have as big a positive impact on as many children as possible and be visible so parents can understand the point in it all. I'd be interested to hear what your PTAs pay for...

This academic year in a school of over 500:

• Christmas present book for each child (chosen by class teachers so hopefully appropriate!)
• Coach to Young Voices concert for school choir
• £50 per class to improve/create a reading corner (that's £1000)
• Working towards re-vamping the Reception playground (looking to raise £1000 and will use another £1000 from funds we already have)
• Year 6 leavers party

We haven't spent much for a few years so have a bit of a surplus.

Ours just paid for a new set of playground equipment. Climbing frames, slides etc.

Every year they pay for the year six graduation hoo-haa.

We subsidise things like eg a trip to the pantomime at Christmas, so that it is affordable for all the families (and we cover the cost for children whose parents can't/won't pay, but no one outside of the PTA would be aware of that, otherwise loads of people wouldn't pay). We pay for additional books, for technology, for little things like stickers for the teachers to give the children as treats, for outdoor play equipment.

It used to be that we paid for things that were 'treats', above and beyond the normal school running costs, but increasingly as budgets are cut, we find ourselves having to buy books etc.

oh, and a Christmas party for the infant classes.

Similar to above but ours also pays for and maintains a school mini bus

Playground equipment, visiting theatre groups, toys and learning equipment for early years, yr 6 leavers photobooks, electronic learning aids such as Ipads. The school council as well as the staff have a say. Each class takes turns to run a cake sale once a year and use the profits for their choice of things for their classroom, books, equipment, etc. Also one cake sale a year by the PTA committee for an external charity.

They've paid for the paint on the playground to be redone. The children's Christmas parties. Santa visit for the infant school. New books for the school. The school minibus was bought by the PTA a few years ago.

There's probably other stuff that I'm not aware of too.

A contribution to the cost of coaches for trips
Halloween disco (that no one wants)

Primarily lasting things such as: ipads, playground equipment, wet play toys, book corners, picnic tables/rugs.
Also some visitors to whole school such as authors or visiting theatre.
Year 6 leavers shirts

Occasional low cost other bits and bobs.

We do not subsidise class trips (except for a very very very good reason).

Discos are paid for by those attending!

ex-PTA myself, but I know the money raised is still spent on the same kind of things: sports and playground equipment, refurbishing/updating the library, subsidising the pantomime trip at Christmas, that kind of thing. Occasionally there's a bigger drive to fundraise towards contributions to a building project (CofE VA school), but it's up to the PTA how much they give.

They fund the minibus, have paid for playground resources (new benches, scooter track), pay for workshops, and bought additional PE equipment.

They run discos, social evenings (great in a school with a v high number of children with ASD) and other events, but these raise money even at a charge of £2 including hotdog, squash and icecream.

I'm on the equivalent of PTA (Scotland) for primary of 170 pupils. We raise & spend about £4k a year. Recent years include

• Panto at Xmas - subsidise visiting group one year, trip out to theatre alternate years
• laptops & associated kit (we saved up!)
• classroom interactive white boards
• parentmail system (allows school to email parents so don't have to send home paper letters)
• Xmas parties - this is juice/crisps /small prize or two per class, plus santa present for P1
• end of term disco (all years) - dj in school Hall, juice, crisps
• playground equipment (about £200 per term)
• class floats - this is about £50 given to each class teacher to choose to spend as they like for their class - might buy specific craft items, reward stickers, etc

Most parents don't realise that we've paid for so much hardware etc. They think we spend money putting on school discos (we run these, but they either breakeven or raise a little bit of funds) and paying for P7 graduation (we don't pay for that, but do have the P7s run a stall at the summer fair and keep the takings to fund their plans)...

In the last 3 years we've bought iPads, kindles, a new sports kit for the football/netball teams and a new sound system for the hall.
we're saving to revamp the outside areas and sort out the pond (which will be a very long term project).
We also buy each child a Christmas present and the year 6 leavers a year book and hoodie and we pay for their leavers party.
We paid for a local play farm to bring reindeers and Santa to the reception class this Christmas.
We don't pay for class trips, we would only be able to contribute a couple of ££ per child and we would rather spend the money on other things.

Ours tends to buy iPads and playground equipment. We also put on discos and socials, but we sell food/drink/glow sticks etc so, even with a 'give only what you can afford' entry fee, they generally make a profit.

I have heard of PTAs paying for things like peripatetic music and arts teachers and subsidising after school clubs, but sadly have been unable to get the rest of our committee interested in any of those ideas.

Supplement to the costs of the panto

currently saving for decent playground equipment

IT resources, last year they bought ipads and several laptop programs

We raised nearly £13k last year, btw, so could afford to do these things.

Our main criterion is that it has to benefit everyone equally so kit for sports teams, after school clubs etc wouldn't get funded. If it is specific to one year or KS that is ok on the assumption that every child will pass through that stage.

Funding of outdoor forest school equipment (8k donated this year for that alone), extra reading books for each class library, funding extras such as poets to come in for the day, normally pay for a christmas pantomime to come in and do a show for the whole school, contribution towards ipads (school has enough for 3 classes to use so we didn't pay for all of them). Also a party/disco for the Y6 leavers and normally a contribution towards t shirts for them.

We don't fund discos/parties as these are paid for by the people who attend.
We hold regular film nights where we charge £3 per child and that includes giving them a hotdog, drink and popcorn and we make £200+ per event.

Extra equipment for playground
Extra reading books for P1 and P2
Tea/coffee/buns for after First Communion mass - same for Confirmation
Selection box for every pupil at Christmas
BBQ for P7s before they leave
A yearbook and hoody for every P7
Blocks of lessons are bought for coaches for PE for all years

I'm in NI

A PTA Treasurer here:

• We pay for the Xmas Panto at the school for all children c. £500
• Lots of reading books for KS1 last year - as all the school's budget went to KS2
• We just funded 30 ipads for any class to use at a time + two spare ipads
• Outdoor equipment for the children including Poddley
• We give each class teacher £100 at Xmas that they can choose what to buy for their class
• We pay to support/maintain the school garden/garden club
• We chip in to fund the new parent's Cheese & Wine
• We support the school reading scheme for KS2 with prizes such as book tokens

Playground equipment for lunch and break - permanent table tennis tables, games painted onto the playground surface, both have been very successful
Pantomime trip for whole school every other year
Library books
Gardening equipment for kids
Subsidise transport for school trips
Contribute towards upkeep of the swimming pool
Organise discos, film nights, summer sleep over on the field, but these things fund themselves, as there is a fee to attend

So far this year ours has paid for an travelling panto to come in at X mas, and has regenerated an outdoor area and turned it into an outdoor classroom. They usually buy some books each year too.

Recently ours has paid for an outdoor classroom, interactive white boards, a PA system, a cooker in the staff room (for class use, not just heating up teacher lunches!), new curtains in both school halls, we used to pay for all year 3s to have their own recorder, but don't do this since our music specialist left as the new one doesn't offer recorder.

Toys
Reading areas in all classes
IT
Baking
Author / Theatre visits to school

They don't help with trips as ours only purchases items that all children benefit from not just a few.