PTA fundraising ideas

[Youkilledmyfatherpreparetodie]

Hello - would any PTA members or parents share with me any interesting events they've organised? Ours is a bit struck in its ways and I would like to try something new. Thank you!

One thing my kids’ school does every year is ‘Break the Rules Day’. There are five or six school rules which children are allowed to break but only for one day. For each broken rule, children must pay a fine of £1.
• School uniform must be worn
• Water only in drink bottles
• School shoes must be worn
• Sensible hair styles only
• Healthy snacks only at snack time

(It’s basically a glorified non-uniform day but the kids love it).

They also do the following:
• Each class hosts a bun sale once per year outside in the playground at home time. 50p per bun.

• Discos for KS1 and KS2 (twice per year)
• Christmas fair
• Summer fair
• Quiz night +bar
• Non-uniform day on the day before each fair asks children to bring a tombola prize instead of money. These are then won at the fair and raise more money than

Our primary does chocolate bingo just before Easter. Think they buy up all the £1 eggs and it's a very popular evening!

Thanks for all these great suggestions. Love the break the rules day and I bet the kids do too!

One more common in special forces and espionage agencies Spys vs Spys type event

Tiny village primary - we do/ have done:

Christmas Raffle
Cake Sale after Halloween party
Break the Rules Day
Wear What You Love Day (Valentines)
Act the Fool Day (April Fool's)
Frozen Friday's (ice poles after school in summer)
Refreshments stand at Village Fete
Refreshments stand at Sports Day
Non-uniform days
Secondhand Uniform sales
Halloween Car Safari (during Covid)
Tea Towels
Tombolas

Our primary used to make a big chunk of money selling Xmas trees.

Our PTA had a quiz night every year. Ticket price included fish and chips (delivered from local shop), and there was a bar. Whichever team won it was responsible for setting the questions the following year. It was a good formula, and a sell out every year.

Another local school organises a 10k race. It's on a Greenway/footpaths, so no road closures needed. Parents and kids marshall. Very little outlay (medals, insurance mainly), but it raises a LOT of money- runners pay £20 to enter, and the reach is far beyond school parents. It sells out, and the school don't need to do anything else all year. There's a great community feeling around it.

Ours is a primary with about 240 do a summer and Xmas fayre - each raises over £3k, Christmas cards each year - makes about £600 and tea towels every other year - another £700 or so.also break the rules day and pay £1 to not wear uniform- these can raise a few £100 on their own. We also do some other smaller things and do a school disco for kids that is free with some of the money raised. We are in average income population, but people do seem to support the school, and having events also helps a sense of community. Need to do more evening events though for parents.

A local school does ice cream Friday through the summer term - they buy loads of ice lollies in multipacks from Aldi and sell them for £1 each after school - it seems like the whole school queues up to buy one.

My dd's primary used to do this in the summer term - used to make about £100 a week - lovely end to the week.

Our school has had a circus in (think they had to work hard to sell the tickets) with stalls to sell tat, books and snacks to go with it. They sell ice pops (Mr freeze?) For £1 on a Friday in the summer term, do Easter hunt around the playground (sheet to fill in and different bunnies to find on laminated sheets), big Christmas fair including meeting Santa and craft activities in the forest school area. School discos.

Bit judgemental saying states school couldn't afford it

Kids love a disco
Or
Show a film and give them hotdogs

Our pta ran an inflatables event on school filed after school which was popular.

Summer fete...a lot of hard work this one.

We do ice lolly Friday at our school. In the winter it's hot chocolate Friday. In our area one of our local softplays does PTA sessions in the summer. Every term time Monday and Wednesday evenings from mid May a school can hire the soft play for upto 70 kids for £25. It's not exclusive use. It includes 90 minutes play, a small hot dog and juice. The PTA then sell the tickets for around £4 a child (ours usually have a early years session, a ks1 session and a KS2 session). It does really well usually. Any spare tickets after the deadline day can be bought for family or friends in the specified age range at other schools so all our tickets usually get sold. People can pay for siblings at the soft play for normal price so older or younger siblings can attend sessions. Almost everyone has a drink and some kind of food as only the kids on pta tickets get a hot dog. So the soft play also generally do quite well out of it. They bake extra cakes for PTA nights and they usually completely sell out on our PTA nights.