Do we need a thread for PTA chairs to come and scream into pillows?

[brightpompoms]

What a job? Who would do it?

We do, are we mad? Definitely but I do love it. But honestly sometimes it makes me want to scream.

I thought by the law of averages there must be a fair few Chairs on MN. So we may need a support thread to get through Christmas and beyond!

With a small amount of parents I'd give them all anonymous questionnaires (and make them genuinely anonymous) asking their views and how much time they'd be willing to give.

That'll give you a starting point.

That's interesting because discos and film nights are our go-to, low stress, easy money spinners. It's held in the school hall with teachers supervising and one or two of the "young and fun" teachers playing the tunes. School has big speakers and disco / stage lights (which the PTFA funded in a previous year, school use them for all the plays etc). We provide a drink and crisps or popcorn, and at the discos some glow sticks or similar. About 5 PTA helpers to dole out the refreshments so not too heavy on volunteers. We put the cost up to £5 a ticket last year and had record numbers.

The teachers are very supportive (ie allowing us to use the hall and staying late to supervise), and the office also keep an eye out for people who would like to attend but can't afford it. We've tried various ways of making events accessible from a monetary point of view - the office ladies are brilliant and discreetly hand out a few free tickets where necessary.

@BrightOrangeDahlias At no school where I have been on the pta have teachers ever done a disco for free. Mostly teachers don’t even show up. Just the link pta teacher and caretaker. We hired in a professional disco with disco lights etc. DC would not see teachers “playing tunes” as a big evening out here. They wanted the dance routines, the competitions, the whole lot. Boys too. Yes it made money but well over 300 dc in the school. Not 30. £5 a head for 30 DC less costs which most schools have, does not add up to much. Plus some parents won’t let dc go. The wrong type of event.

I guess that's the trick isn't it - finding out what works for your school, they're all so different. We're really lucky that the head and most of the staff are really supportive of our events and are usually happy to muck in. When we're chosing which events to run for the year, we sometimes ask the kids to vote (each class has a couple of kids who are on a "student council" type thing), and they've chosen discos a few times.

@APurpleSquirrel so good to hear of another tiny school. I think your donations idea is great. That's what we will do. I can't stand the thought of anyone missing out.

@mumda absolutely spot on. I always say all feedback is welcome and by the way our next meeting is....

@DreamingDaisies I bet the word 'chartered' in your job title meant you were a target for the finance role. Is that anything near a chartered accountant? We have two dads who are accountants and we just wore them down till one said yes to being our treasurer.

@InformEducateEntertain I found co chair of comp a really tuff role as those scary big kids can't be entertained by the same things.

@ARichtGoodDram good advice thanks. The trouble is it's hard to other and be in charge of a stall isn't it. So I'm hoping dads get involved too to ease the load.

@BrightOrangeDahlias I just love the idea of free tickets being discreetly handed out. One parent (who isn't well off) paid for two tickets for something when she only needed one. Just to put money in the pot to cover someone else. I almost cried with joy!

@TizerorFizz before I was a teacher I used to think it was a shame when teachers didn't get involved and stay late and come on Saturdays but then I trained as a teacher and I understood why.
I did stay but it's just more time away from your own kids and it's another strain on your life.

So I'm out school which only opened in September we've done a decorate a pumpkin competition. £1 an entry and it could be a real pumpkin or colour in an outline which we provided. That was easy enough.

Now for the next half term we are doing hot chocolate and toast £1 a week. Preferably payable as the whole half term so £7.

We've got a sum up machine from the off. Obviously I'm bank rolling things like this until we actually get money in the bank.
We've also joined Parentkind but a local society has paid our fee for us thank goodness.

I feel it's been a good start so far but already I'm cringing at asking for money from the same people.

When you get round to the summer, ice pop Fridays might work. You bring them frozen in a cold box, get them cheap, double the cost price, you would still be less than at a shop, and any left over can be refrozen for the next week so no wastage.

My PTA volunteer days are a long way behind me but what our school did, from memory (large inner city primary school, over 500 kids on roll):

Disco occasionally in the evening - no idea about this as my children weren't interested

Summer Fair - mostly out in the playground, weather permitting. Involved BBQ with several fathers (yes, I know, very gender stereotyped) grilling burgers and sausages, lots of buns and rolls to hand; Pimms stall; stalls that parents and members of the community could pay to take and sell off anything they liked (probably subject to approval from whoever did the bookings); tombola; etc etc

Christmas Fair - indoors. PTA got permission to use school kitchen (probably tougher to do this now) and sold hot turkey rolls - slice of turkey, stuffing, mayonnaise, cranberry relish, ?salad. Very popular. The turkeys were roasted in various people's homes and brought in to be sliced up. Stuffing probably ditto. Mulled wine stall. Santa's grotto, I think. Tombola. Stalls rented out as above. Raffle.

One issue I remember being raised was when parents who'd rented a stall did something identical to a PTA stall, e.g. tombola. Confusing and possibly the terms of renting a stall got tightened up as a result.

Cake Day. Once a term. Long-standing tradition at this school, but very dependent on goodwill from staff to facilitate it. Now that there's so much more focus on allergies and food intolerances it might be a lot tougher to do this. We had a hut in the playground which was used by the PTA. On the last day before half-term a group of volunteers went in there and set out hundreds of cakes and other baked goods donated by families. Many were from the supermarket but a lot were home-made. Every class in the school came in over the course of the day and each child picked a cake. They had to pay 20p each or something like that (it was a long time ago!). We made sure to have a few things bought in for children with known allergies, so they didn't get left out. I used to help with that and it was good fun.

One of the things we used our funds for was to give each year 6 leaver a book as a leaving present. They picked the book themselves from a list which the volunteer organising this compiled. I did that once or twice and enjoyed it enormously but it was a lot of work, and expensive. Probably an outdated concept now in the days of Kindles, anyway.

We raised £115 with our Halloween disco this week (smallish school and we charged £2.50 a ticket which included a hot dog and drink of squash). Several teachers and TAs stayed to run the disco and the couple of PTA members who showed up did the refreshments.

Discos were one of our go-to's to make money, but in a small school of only 30 might be harder.

We did little things like 'how many different items can you fit in a raisin box.
Sold the boxes with raisins for eg 50p or maybe £1 and then they returned them with a list of items. Some were very inventive. Fun for the children, not really money making.

@TeenToTwenties yes we definitely want to do this. It sounds fab! Again we'd ask parents to pay for the half term as one ideally to save admin time.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g thanks for the comprehensive list of ideas and details. Brilliant

@Hopingforno2in2024 did you get a professional disco person in?

@TeenToTwenties did the person who could fit the most in a box win something?

DD year 5 had her Halloween disco this week. £4 a ticket, entrance only. No food/snacks/drink included though. DD came home with about 30 glow sticks) bracelets/necklaces 😊
The staff were on hand and even dressed up.
Year 6s were roped into collecting tickets

We basically cover our costs on the disco. The DJ costs 220! Hall hire is 40. We sell tickets at 3.50 including a snack.

re Items in the box.

We did a prize (choc bar?) and certificate (home made) for something like:
. Most items in the box
. Most inventive collection (someone did a kind of spy set)
. Funniest item
The last 2 we decided on after seeing the boxes so the only promised one was most items.

(The person who filled box with 100s and 1000s didn't win as they had to be different items.)

We said items were non returnable to stop diamond rings etc!

We used to only just cover costs at discos until we started buying glow sticks in bulk and selling on. [NB health & safety re glow sticks and infants, another reason to have parents supervising].

We don't do a disco, we do a Halloween Party which takes place partly in the school day - this means the teachers, HT & TA bring the children to the village hall & run all the games. We play a bit of music at the beginning (maybe 5-10mins) & the rest of the 2hrs is games where all the children (YrR-Yr6) participate - it's lovely as the bigger kids help the younger ones. Also means us PTA aren't responsible for the children.
We get cakes provided by parents; the kids get 2-3 cakes throughout & drinks & sweets as prizes.
We sell the leftover cake the following day(s) & ask for a donation for the non-uniform & between those takings we cover the cost of the hall & consumables & loo rolls.
I don't think an actual disco with just music would work with mixed ages/whole school.

I'd also advise looking to see if you can do any events with the local community - we help with the village fete & get a cut of the profits. We'd never be able to organise a fete or fair - too few volunteers & too much effort for us.

Something our local school did during Covid that the neighbourhood loved and paid to do to:

Christmas trail, and there may have been a Halloween one?

Volunteers put up posters of Christmas themed that the kids could colour in/decorate.

You paid the school for a copy of the trail. You went around the trail marked and wrote down letters on the posters and then submitted it as an entry into a prize draw.

I think even a small school could do this if they advertised on local FB/Next Door pages?

@APurpleSquirrel we are doing something similar for Christmas.
We have use of a hall where I run a playgroup. On the last week of term we aren't doing the playgroup so I'll set it up for the children's breakfast with Father Christmas. There will be a photo area, Xmas crafts and tuff trays. The hall is walking distance so it'll feel more like trip. However the teacher will be there as it's in school time.

I am on the committee at our secondary. Our biggest moneyspinners by far are the uniform sales. You get tons of donations so literally no overheads and we don't struggle too much to get volunteers to help sort and do the tills. It's also a great way for your volunteers to get to know each other.

May I ask when you hold your sales at Secondary? Ours is going to start this but interested in logistics as parents don't collect.

So our biggest one is end of June - ours has 'house' blouses all with different coloured logos, and the sale is usually the first Saturday following induction day, when all the girls who will be the new Year 7s in September find out which house they're in (and therefore which blouses they need). Then smaller ones in November and February. But we have a lot of logo'd stuff - blouse, blazer, all PE kit inc socks, and the jumper has to be right. It's literally only tights and socks you could get in M&S or a supermarket so a lot of people buy multiples of the full set. Anyone on FSM gets a discreet letter sent and is waved through.

Ah sorry I didn't understand first of all what you meant by 'parents don't collect'. Always held on Saturdays. After all we're all at work during the week as well. It's not like primary when there a core of people around during the day.

@brightpompoms Make sure the school do a risk assessment if DC are going off site. They also need adequate supervision for off site safety.

If you are worried about continually asking the same people for money you really will need to engage them in what you are doing. Imposing things on them to get money when so few parents are there risks turning parents off. I’ve always found it better to say what the PTA is going to do with the money. Have a plan you have worked up with your liaison teacher and have that as a target. Nothing to great or you won’t achieve it. You will also need to be aware some parents simply don’t have spare money.

Doing something for dc twice a term in your school is too much. The school will be asking parents for money too. I would honestly start by building up relationships with parents and do something there’s times a year. I would not have been keen on, in effect, paying a sub for half a term to get something my DC didn’t need: chocolate and toast! It’s work for the pta week. Do you want this commitment? What are you going to do if half the parents don’t want this? I’m also surprised at seeets and cakes being handed out at every opportunity. No wonder we have obese dc with poor teeth. There is a better way of raising money from parents.

Surely you are not subbing this personally? The school is allowed to put money in to prime activities.