I think the pta at dc school is a secret society

[neverforget]

in dc old school we had events organised by pta, parents nights out, kids events, bingo nights and such and it was literally on a weekly basis they sold buns or such. We had letters home saying did you want to help, did you want to join pta etc etc.

New school here we have nothing, I know there is a pta as ofsted report comments on it but I have no idea what they have done or organised. I tried without sucess to find out who was in pta. I thought when it came to summer fair they would send something out but oh nooo just a letter home from school telling us to donate a toy to sell/as a prize.

I am wondering if the chosen ones get letters inviting them and what the initiation test for entering is?

Anyone else got a secret pta?

That does sound odd.

You're a member of the PTA - all parents are. If you want to attend a meeting you're entitled to. Just ask at the school office where/when the next meeting is. When you get there, give 'em hell for being so rubbish (unless you find that the entire thing is being run by one extremely tired woman, in which case you should offer to help ).

Could you ask the school secretary to point you in the right direction? That's assuming you want to be involved!

Could you ask the school secretary to point you in the right direction? That's assuming you want to be involved!

ooops. sorry!

Am I the only one that always wants to graffiti an 'i' on to all the PTA posters? You could spot the Mumsnetters who are giggling at 'PITA Meeting'

Have they had the AGM yet? They will probably tell you about that. This is when they do the initiation test (varies from shcool to school) Unless you attend the PTA AGM, you will remain an ordinary mum for another year. (Unless they get really desperate for help, in which case you will be called apon.)

They may tell you all parents are members of the PTA, but unless you regulary attend commitee meeting, you wont be in the "inner circle" or be allowed to call the head/secretary by his/her first name.

Not all PTAs are like that, Lynette.

I mean the initiation test varies from school to school. At ours, we had to produce our diaries, and those with organised diaries we invited to join the "inner circle" Know words are used in the invitations, ofcours, it's much more subtle than that.

My Organised Mum diary got me straight in. [smug, organised emoticon]

How should one conduct themselves at the AGM Lynette? DD's school's PTA AGM is next week. She's in Y1. We moved to this area recently. Is it too late for me to break in if I didn't attend as a Reception mum?

Oh, it's quite possible to break in at Y1 (lots of first time reception parents are scared off by people like me posting rubish on parenting sites)

Make sure you take a pen and paper to take notes (You won't actually need to take notes, it just makes you look organised)

Agree with everything the head says, unless she/he is talking total tosh, then just don't say anything.

Sorry for hijack but how does the whole committee members thing work? In DD's last school there were only 3 committee members - Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. All other parents were automatically members of the PTA and could join in as and when they could.

At this new school there is a Chair, Treasurer and Secretary plus about a dozen committee members - with no specified job title. What do they do? Where does that leave non-committee members?

Thats how it is HorseStories. You just have to turn up to them meetings regularly, and offer to do stuff to be "on the pta" It's easy to turn up to meetings if you are told when they are, but some schools don't publicise it, so unless you were at the last meeting, or make a special enquiry it'll end up being one of those things that other people do.