Bloody PTA

[Lollipop30]

Can I just can it?
Stupidly stepped forward to be chair. Nobody else wanted to do it and I’ve instantly regretted it. Can I just say I regret it and can’t do it actually? I’ve been it for one day 🤦‍♀️

I really really don’t want to do it. I’d managed to get just under 30 parents to say they were happy to help then went to the meeting said yes I’d be chair, managed to persuade vice and treasurer to stay. Then got told by the teachers not to expect any input from them and don’t expect to use school out of school time as they won’t be staying to keep it open, no events on a Friday or weekend and don’t run events away from school as they wouldn’t intend to come or support them.
They don’t run after school clubs etc at our school or do any events for the same reason.

Just feeling what’s the point?! Have I signed my own death warrant or can I back out?

The nightclub round the corner offered to host the school disco but we felt this was just a Bridge Too Far.

School do e-mail parents on our behalf but we also have a PTA e-mail account and people that sign up get updates. And a Facebook group which has been largely un-problematic so far. FB group not to be used to discuss individuals, just e.g. "Reminder meeting on Monday night".

Funnily enough the PTA are doing well and there's support from the teachers who get a lot back for their minimal effort.

The teachers don't get a lot back. The children do.

Funnily enough the PTA are doing well and there's support from the teachers who get a lot back for their minimal effort.

Imagine if someone said to a surgeon. I need you to do 3 extra hours on a Friday night, not doing your professional role but washing cars. When you have done that we will buy you some scalpels- just remember that you will get a lot back for that minimal effort.

Quit and tell them why. What good does pretending do?

*
Dear Head

I am writing to resign as PTA head. You may be surprised to receive this letter, so I will explain my reasons.

Following my agreeing to take the post (no one else being willing), I was informed by members of staff that:

• There would be no use of school premises out of regular school hours.
• I would not receive any assistance or support from the teaching staff.
• Events should not occur away from school premises.

Aside from the lack of support, you will be aware that working parents are generally unable to attend school hours events. Given the above constraints, the pool of potential volunteers would be minimal if not entirely erased.

Last year, the PTA brought in an additional £X. With support and encouragement, I believe the PTA could do much more to benefit the school. However, I am not willing to continue under current circumstances.

Yours

Y

kinglouiecatz a school keeper will be paid proper overtime for evening and weekend events. Teachers aren't paid overtime or given TOIL.

To suggest that teachers will loosen up and be happy to run a disco , organise games and be the heavy for behaviour for a couple of hours of their own time for £20 is mind blowing. I am surprised your school still has teachers, don't they get tired walking round all day with brooms stuck up their arses to save money on cleaners?

I don’t think any teachers should be asked to run anything. That’s not really being suggested and is a step too far. They are just being asked to cooperate.

The model that I’ve been involved with that works well, is to have a senior teacher on the committee. We had the Deputy Head. They liaised with the teachers and ensured the caretaker was booked if needed. Dates for the Christmas Fair and the Summer Fair were flagged well in advance. Teachers came to the main events like this but not every teacher on every occasion. They probably took it in turns. They didn’t set anything up and they didn’t take anything down. All the parents did this.

Other fund raising activities had little teacher input. Raffles, making teas and coffees, quiz evening (although there was nearly always a winning teachers’ team), disco and hot dog day were PTA parent run. Even the disco! And yes, we did have the gravitas to control the children.

The Deputy Head would also liaise with the Head and teachers over what the money should be spent on. We also had a few ideas of our own that went into the mix.

This model is used where I am a governor. As governors we take it in turns to go to PTA events too. The whole purpose of the PTA is to work together. We are seen to be acting as one for the good of the children and the school. Any school that cannot do the minimum and respect the parents is really poor. It just isn’t good enough.

Teachers have minimal involvement at our school.

An alternative is to ask for voluntary contributions and leave it there. Pitch it to the parents light-heartedly that you're saving them having to do costumes for dress up days, cakes for bake sales, sponsorship forms etc. One easy payment in the enclosed envelope and you'll go quietly. £400 would find new library books, £600 would fund a computer etc etc. You just have to make it mega-easy to pay, eg by accepting cash or cheques. If it's bank details only, not many will bother.

I'm not saying it's great, but it might be better than nothing.

Maybe the teachers are following their unions instructions and taking action short of strike action and only working on tasks related to teaching or which can make up directed time?

^ what bubbles said is how it works at our primary

Parents organise but we need the support of the teachers for what we're doing and to attend some events. School directs where the money goes but we approve based on how closely it benefits the children.

OP - stepping away is exactly what I'd do too.

Most teachers at my school help out at PTA big events. It's actively encouraged, but if you can't manage, there's no blame/pressure. If no teachers will help at your school, I'd question what's going on behind the scenes/staff morale, tbh. It could be they're all really struggling/resentful of excess workload, or there's a poor relationship between management and teachers. We really enjoy the school fairs, where we do most of the stalls. It's a great chance to chat to parents informally, and have a wee laugh with the pupils/meet younger siblings.

We rotate the year group that send a staff rep to meetings around across the year. Stops it being one staff member having to do all "the PTA stuff" - so they sort out among the year group team who's going to hang back in school for it (sometimes teacher, sometimes TA) to relay messages between the staff and PTA really.

There's one event that the staff do tend to take quite a heavy role in, the rest of the time some do, some don't. We've got an unusual number of teachers who live very close to school though (and often have had their own children come through the school in the past) - I'd put it at 50% of the teaching staff (higher for TAs) live either in-catchment or close enough you're likely to run into them in the local supermarket (I know - lots of people's ideas of personal hell - but it means it's got to be insanely bad for us to get a snow closure at least!)

I'm still resisting being gently hassled to stand in our elections though! I don't DO people! (Although the prospect of a year of being "the PTA woman people avoid in the playground" does have a certain allure to it to get me the hell out of the playground politics!)

I see both sides of it - as a parent the kids love it if they go to an event and there are their teachers there doing stuff, but I chat a lot with the chief staffroom resister to it (just random vaguely teaching related stuff for a range of reasons) and I fully understand why they really strictly compartmentalise their life into work stuff and home stuff and work stays in the work hours box and that's that- because it's often the only way you can do teaching for an extended period of time and stay sane. I respect them having the metaphorical balls to do that to be fair.

We make a fairly hefty chunk of money toward the school though - not in the bonkers level of income but enough to have funded some fairly significant capital projects in addition to lots of bits and bobs for quality of life improvements.

I had a colleague who got the teachers' team disqualified from the PTA quiz night once though for arguing with the quizmaster! They sooooo got the piss ripped out of them (in a good natured way) the following Monday morning by all the parents.

Also worked in one school (pre-the days of internet on phones) where they took the PTA quiz night so seriously they had a family member at home sat by a pile of encyclopedias and kept running to the loo to call them up to find the answer out to questions they were stuck on. It was ridiculous behaviour and they'd done this for years (hard to prove what someone's doing on the loo but other people had grassed them up).

Never ever ever admit you can face paint though or you'll be on "turning 5 year old boys into Spiderman" duty for the remainder of your teaching career.

I’d have a meeting with the HT, explain that without the school and staffs support it can no longer exist.

Catelogue all the benefits the PTA have brought to the school to date: events held, community, money raised, how the school and children have benefitted.

Then I would send a letter to all the parents explaining how everyone benefits and if they want the PTA to continue to benefit their children they need to get involved.

If there’s no change I’d fuck right off knowing I tried to do something.

We’ve got a bloody brilliant PTA, because we have a fantastic chair who works incredibly hard, and a very supportive school.

Someone will resurrect it in time, I’m sure.

Vique I'm saying we don't need the teachers (although it helps) but we do need the janitorial staff. They're paid to be at the school at that time as it's attached to a community centre that's open in the evening and at weekends.

Where I teach, PTA events are mainly run by the staff. The parents complain that we don't have many activities after school, but expect us to run them all.

cloudy. I would suggest it needs to be the other way around. Teachers really should not run PTA events. Many teachers do run an after school club. Or a lunchtime club. As a teacher, I would raise this with the Head and see if there can be an effort to get the parents running the PTA. They may need encouragement and advice, but that’s a small price to pay!