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!

@TizerorFizz lots of good points there. Hot chocolate and toast once a week at snack is a fairly standard pta thing in our area. It's not a huge outlay and it's a treat in the winter weeks leading to Xmas. This is just a trial. We might not repeat it but so far 75% signed up on the day it was launched.

It's £1 a week which people can pay as they go but most pay for the half term so minimal admin our end.

We are also wondering what we do if people don't pay and then kids want it. We don't any child left out.
So the £1 is a donation. Parents can actively opt out if they definitely don't want their child to have it. Then children who have booked get it and anyone who isn't on the list but would like some can have some. We are mindful of allergies too of course but there aren't any as yet.

Signing in as a new PTA co-Chair (there are three of us, all parents of reception children who are our eldest/only, so maybe we were naive in our enthusiasm!) We’ve been lucky enough to have a very supportive handover from our predecessors and a pretty large/well-engaged committee, including some brilliant teachers. Our school is three form entry and it’s still tricky enough to get volunteers - I can’t imagine trying to arrange anything with a pool of max 60 parents!

@tinyshoulders I think it's great to come in with enthusiasm and for all the inward screaming I love it. I love kids and I love school and I want them to have a great time.
Our whole school is made up of 15 families currently although that will grow.

I’ve been a PTA bod, dcs have finished primary and I’m a primary school teacher.

IME it’s very difficult in a small school to raise money. Eg at a fete everyone will have a set amount of money that will spend (£10 or whatever) so you won’t make much more than this however amazing the fete is. Same for cake sales, if most people donate you will have a lot of leftovers! I would focus your first year on building connections and helping the school establish. We found the most successful thing was inviting parents to stay for a cuppa and piece of cake after Friday parents assembly. We didn’t charge but there was a discrete donations pot. At approxiate school events we sold wine/beer/soft drinks -again donations rather than a set price. This was a very easy and profitable way of doing things, as long as you don’t open wine bottles until the previous one is finished and you stick to a small range of drinks.

What you have to manage is the Triangle of Irritation.

PTA chair - getting annoyed by other parents not helping or moaning about frequent events. Teachers may react negatively if asked to help too often or if your ideas impact on learning time or they don’t think your idea is inclusive/ contradicts school ethos in some way. Other PTA members spending too much money, not realising they are spending profits (I found this the most irritating - eg ‘oh, we’d better get some decorations, organic sausages, bigger range of drinks) or just having impractical ideas. I was constantly having to point out the drawbacks (normally ‘but how will that work?’).and be a ‘spoil-sport’. I left the PTA after group decision to hire a bouncy castle and refusal to discuss checking liability, supervision etc. Way too risky, I didn’t want anything to do with that!!

Teachers - Irritated by demands on their time and help, PTA getting in the way of learning time or wanting the hall when you need it for your class. PTA not consulting with teachers as to what they actually need and spending money on things that aren’t actually useful. PTA members being somewhat high handed and thinking staff should be terribly grateful, not realising that the PTA doesn’t really make much difference (especially if they are fundraising for things we don’t want) and is more of a social thing for the mums.

Parents - constantly being asked to help or for donations. PTA being a bit of a cliquey group who act as though they are more important than the other parents. PTA arranging inappropriate or not inclusive events.

I think you have to be clear in your own mind about what the purpose of the PTA is, in your particular school and what the target of the fundraising is.. both the monetary target and the subject of the fundraising.

Asking the same 15 families for money, over and over again could be difficult. However, you do have a small audience, so you could do polls about what people would like to have / do / help with.

I have always been drawn to events that build community and events that give people something that they would otherwise buy themselves but at a good price.

Eg, community picnic / bedtime stories for primary / disco

I am not a fan of constantly tempting kids with sugar but popcorn and tutti fruitti days are alternatives.

Negotiate a discount with local events (possibly tricky with 15 families..) but group tickets to the Christmas Panto, including a donation to the school.. eg if tickets are usually £20 per head but the group ticket is £15, parents donate £3 to the school.. you would probably have to agree this with the venue in advance. Negotiate a discount with the local butcher for Christmas Turkey, parents give a donation to receive the discount voucher.

What does the school need... new library books... invite parents / grandparents to come in and read stories to the students and donate cash to the library fund. You could draw a bookshelf or create a virtual one and add books as they are funded. Musical instruments... have a concert and pass around a hat. Host a Karaoke evening and charge people to sing. Parents evening out for all partners.. not just mothers.. quiz, local beer tasting, curry night.

When beeswax food wraps were a novel idea, I made these with a group of parents and made quite a bit of profit but that was a one off..

Look for outside sources of money / sponsorship (quite tricky but solicitors, estate agents, dentists etc might be willing to make a donation in return for having their logo on PTA communications. Matched funding emoloyers.

We no longer live in the UK and where we live, it is very common for local events to invite local organisations to run food stalls... I suspect the food hygiene rules are different.. so at music events, craft fairs, community fairs, the food stalls are run by the local sports organisations, schools etc.

And most of all... I would avoid the mindset of you funding things, you being responsible for everything and the screaming into the pillow mindset... find people who care and want to do these things with you.. if no one does.. find another outlet for your energies, there are plenty of people / organisations who would welcome your volunteering efforts. If you are happy to do it.. great... but don't allow the particilation of others to be a condition of your participation and don't allow the apathy of others to drain your energy. Think about what you need in terms of physical and emotional effort to run an event and if you don't get that commitment from others, then don't do it.

I am on committee for a secondary school. The trick is you tell people what to do. Have your key volunteers and manage

In a small school, we run 2 sorts of events. One is events for the kids benefit - for example, supporting with in school Christmas party, Christmas baking in school, seasonal card making, the school disco. The other type are the fund raising ones. There are always lots of volunteers for the first type, even during the school day - people are keen to go in and support things their DC immediately benefit from. I suspect this is where being a small school helps us, most of the parents will know many of the kids. The other, we find it's much harder to get volunteers for.

What have you tried of the first type, they are very good at building a sense of parent volunteer community?

@CrabbyCat the head teacher seems very keen to build community and be part of the local community. So we've all just been in for a last day of term singing thing.

As we are so small we won't be having a Xmas fair but will do the breakfast with Santa thing as parents can attend that too so I think you are right. It's the way forward for us.

@ChateauMargaux Temne title is tongue in cheek really. I love schools and children and I love the PTA. I have committed to this year as I'm off work. But when I return next year I'll have to hand over the reigns anyway.

@Sandysoles I've made a note of what you've said about spending. I don't want anyone (me included) spending without prior agreement on the whole.

@Sandysoles yes you are right I'm so conscious of asking for money from the same people already. I'm hoping we don't get or even seem cliquey. The whole school is in a whatsap group as it's so small. We don't have a separate pta chat for that exact reason although one or two of us will chat separately for arranging the finer details of things.

We can't please everyone though so I'm sure they'll be people with criticism.

Hello! I have been a PTA treasurer, chair and am currently the Secretary.

Communicate really well with the school. Every year we get asked (by a parent) to do a Christmas fair but our school gets too busy in the weeks before Christmas to make this happen.

Be prepared for people to suggest fun ideas but then look surprised when you ask what they need to make them happen.

Money - bring in a rule that any expenses need to be agreed beforehand by the Chair or Treasurer and that receipts must be handed over within a month (say).

Someone will moan. Often someone who appears to be unaware that you are just another parent and running the PTA is not your profession.

Re community stuff. Does your local refuge need anything? Things like children’s books, coats, clothes. A morning collecting outgrown (clean) children’s coats can be rather jolly - and people love to declutter.

With donations of uniform, be prepared to be given some crappy, stained stuff. People hate chucking stuff that they paid for.

I loved it!
I was involved in starting the PTA and was Chair twice.
Yes some people were a pain in the bum but the committee, Head and Teachers were wonderful and we kept eachother going.
DD never got to be Mary though.

Hahahah Mary!!! Is there a link then? I'll let you know as I have two girls. 😉

I love it too because I have time. I wonder how people do it and work at the same time.

@CruCru definitely going to do that with expensive but I suppose I'll have to adhere to the rules myself and get someone to agree to any of my spending too as I don't one rule for me and one for everyone else.

Also I'm dreading the moaning as we are such a small group.

My DD never got to be Mary either - but tbh she doesn't really having a speaking part, so DD didn't want it anyway! DS has been a shepherd & last year it was Pirates vs Mermaids - so he was a pirate!

We're in the process of getting a Debit card for our account - I can't wait! Obviously I'm not going on a spending spree, but just not having to use my own money & get reimbursed will be soooo much better!!

Not sure about the logistics of this (teacher, not PTA) but a school local to us held a Christmas wreath workshop with a local florist - florist charged for tickets, open to school families + friends (so more than your 15 sets of parents), and then just gave the school a percentage of ticket sales for use of the hall for an evening. It was in theory hosted by the PTA, but beyond selling mulled wine and mince pies (and putting tables up/taking down) I don’t believe it would have been too onerous. Florist organised ticket sales so marketing/promotion etc all went through them, and PTA I think just turned up on the day to facilitate?

I do actually really enjoy doing PTA stuff (I know it doesn’t look that way from my post).

It is all right to only do what you can cope with.

@APurpleSquirrel wow this debit card sounds life changing! I have some how accidentally ordered a card for SumUp. I was going to cut it up but maybe I'll look into it first and see what's what.

@NorthantsNewbie that wreath making sounds fab. I'd love that and I know a florist.

We had one person who didn't want to do much, but made reusable stall signs for summer and Christmas fairs. We were still using them 6 years later after her DC had left the school.

T towels with hand drawn self portraits of the children would be really good for a small school. Make great Christmas presents. We did them about every 3 years.

We’re doing this! Apparently it was very successful last year. I’m a bit gutted I can’t participate due to mulled wine duties but it still gives me the exact Christmas of my childhood feeling that I want from PTA events 🍷

Am a bit worried now as a new Chair, nativity parts were allocated on the last day of half term and my DD is Mary…will my name be mud when they go back to school?

15 families will be a tough gig re fundraising. I think you have to be realistic about whether the pta is there to build a bit of community spirt (ie put on a few fun events, cake sales etc for the kids) or fundraising. The former feels more realistic. For the latter, you’ve really got your work cut out- even to get to £1500 which won’t go that far you’re looking at £100 profit per family. You also might struggle with economies of scale for the usual money makers of kids art Christmas cards/t towels etc. You genuinely might be better just asking for a one-off donation and save yourself a lot of work!

With a school that size are parents also required to help at the school itself? I’ve got a friend who was at a very small forest school for infants and they had a parental rota for jobs. I suspect the boundaries between pta and school operations will become a bit blurry if you’re not careful.

I did my time through CoViD and I can sympathise. My best advice would be that building the team/community is as important as raising funds or more! Keep engaging new patents and start thinking about your hand over as soon as you can! Recruiting the next committee was my most proud achievement as it can be difficult to find enough people that can be bothered as realistically nobody has the time, everyone has little kids etc. Keep telling parents about all the things you are funding/hoping to fund with the money and how much the children appreciate it. Do an assembly for the kids so they can go home and encourage their parents to get involved. Our current PTA is focusing a lot on applying for grants so that eases the pressure on families being the ones who fund it all. Then they can afford to put on fun events that don't raise that much but get people together. Good luck and remember there is life beyond the school!

A pta cannot expect £100 per parent! That’s way too high. A small cohort of parents won’t pay this plus all the other expenses associated with school. It’s far better to build a school community and look at money as a second goal. Obviously getting some money is great but over burdening parents to help, put in lots of money and expect them to turn up to everything is too much.

Lots of parents work and are active on PTAs. How is the school going to grow OP? A class a year?

i would echo this
I was involved in starting my DC's primary school PTA and despite the fact that all but 1 of the OG Parents are no longer involved as their kids have left it still goes from strength to strength. We knew that the year my DS left so would over half of the committee's kids so succession planning was really really important

@TizerorFizz yes year on year more pupils will join and it will grow with the pupils.

We aren't doing a Xmas fair based on our size. But we are doing breakfast with Santa and a Xmas activities morning in a local hall. That will be £7 donation a child for breakfast, meeting Santa, present, Xmas tuff trays, printed photo to take home and crafts.