PTA
#Boddington Church of England Primary School – Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
Who Belongs To Our PTA?
The PTA community is naturally made up of all parents/carers/grandparents of children who attend Boddington school and teachers who work at the school. However, there is a core team of people who voluntarily give up their time to run the PTA which includes a Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and currently five additional team members. This team are commonly known as ‘The PTA’. The PTA is open to anyone interested in joining. We meet once a month at The Plough pub in Upper Boddington on the first Tuesday of every month at 19:30.
What Does The PTA Aim To Do?
We try and make our children have the best Primary School life, full of experiences, resources, and improved facilities! Our children are only at school for a relatively short time and we hope that the experiences will create memories that will last a lifetime.
What Does The PTA Do To Meet Their Aims?
We organise events or participate at Boddington Village events to raise money to spend on various things like buying garden games for the children, paying for a Panto to come to the school, supporting the teachers with the learning material, buying paint to refurbish the school to name a few things in a big long list of funding initiatives.
We organise fun activities with the prime focus being what the school children love like providing weekly Hot Chocolate/Ice Cream Friday, Easter Bonnet competitions, school discos and organising Non-school uniform day (again to name a few!).
We promote and encourage fundraising initiatives.
We organise working parties to spruce up the outdoor areas, paint areas, assist with school improvement saving the school money.
We build relationships with the wider community (something that we are hoping to expand on in the forthcoming years).
Is The PTA a Charity?
The PTA is a charity (Charity Number 1145822).
We raise approx. £2,750 a year of which approx. £1,500 is raised at the Christmas Fayre.
How Do You Fundraise?
Our fundraising activities usually include Friday Hot Chocolates/Ice Creams, Pancake Day Flipping, Easter Activities, School Discos, providing a BBQ at Sports Day, running a stall at the local Fireworks Display, organising/supporting the school at the Boddington Christmas Fayre.
What Sort of Things Have You Paid For in the Past?
We donate a termly amount to each of the classrooms so that the teachers can bolster curriculum-based learning (i.e. Batik kits, subscription to The Week).
We have purchased new tables and chairs in one of the classrooms, paid for a classroom paint refurbishment, outdoor game equipment (i.e. Giant Jenga and adjustable basketball nets etc,) and miscellaneous other requests from the school.
What Are You Currently Fundraising For?
Other than our usual commitments, any additional funds will go towards a music room space. Unfortunately, a new oil tank must be installed next to an outside building which we were planning to use, making this space unconvertable. However, another small room within the main building has been identified and the school are at the beginning stages of establishing how much funds they need to convert this space. We are raising money for this space.
What Are Your Main Challenges?
Small rural schools face limited government funding due to the small number of children who attend the school.
The school only get funds for essential items/equipment/improvements. They rely on the PTA to fund the niceties (of which sometimes the niceties are something we would consider essentials!).
There are approx. 40 sets of parent/carers so raising funds is more challenging compared to bigger schools with more parents/carers even though the effort of holding an event would be same regardless of school size.
The more people on the PTA, the more the workload is shared which means the more events we can organise and more funds can be raised etc but the school is small and we have a small PTA so we are limited.
We make sure that the events and activities we organise are cost-inclusive for parents/carers/grandparents so the profit per event is small for example when we sell items, they usually only have a 50p mark up so to make £20 we would have to sell 40 items.
We were going in the right direction pre-Covid but sadly the last two years have really affected our fundraising opportunities, the team support and wider community events we wanted to organise but hopefully we are going in the right direction from now on!
If You Had More Funds What Would You Do With It?
The amount of money we raise per year vs spending on the needs of the school means that there is little left in the pot. As mentioned before any surplus would go towards this new music room space. If we had more funds, we would love for the railings between the school playground and Church Road to either be sanded down and repainted or replaced. We would love to do this to improve the first impressions of any visitors to the school and to raise the look of the school frontage to make it in keeping with the standards of the rest of the village. The more children who attend the school, the more government funding the school receive. It would also be nice to reconfigure the entrance steps to the school to make it more accessible.
How Can Others in the Village Help?
If you have any skillset that you believe might benefit the school then please send an email to the PTA at the email address below and we will update the school and keep your details on file for a time when we may need your assistance school i.e. anyone with a van who could take items to the tip, any craftsmanship, garden volunteers, any tradesmen who would be able to fix anything, anyone who is happy to go into school once a week to read with children (the school would conduct DBS checks for this) etc.
Sign up to easyFundraising which is an online website that donates to our charity for free if you simply click via their portal when making any online purchases – bonkers we know but it is true! We get anything between 1-3% of the purchase value and most companies (inc. holiday companies) are part of the scheme. It takes 2mins to set up as you just need to create a username and password only, no other personal details are required. Every time you want to make a purchase, access your preferred site via Easy Fundraising and continue shopping as normal! There’s even an EasyFundraising App to simplify this process if you are an App fan Please ignore the text about what we are raising money for as it desperately needs updating!
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/boddingtonpta/?utm_campaign=raise-more
The smallest amount of support you can give is more impactful than you may think to a small school like ours.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the whole community for all the support you give and have given us and the school in the past. The school was truly emotional about all the laptops that were donated during lockdown (via Caroline Sheers) and for the generosity when asking the community to buy Christmas raffle tickets. You are a wonderful community, we are very lucky to have your support and we can’t thank you enough for everything.
BODDINGTON PRIMARY ACADEMY PTA
EMAIL : boddingtonpta@outlook.com
FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/BoddingtonPTA/
THE NOTHING POEM
When children come home, At the end of the day,
There’s a question they’re asked As they scurry to play.
“Tell me, what did you do in school today?” “Nothing. I did nothing today!”
Perhaps nothing means that I played with blocks.
Tied my own shoes or found beautiful rocks.
Maybe the monarchs hatched today.
Or maybe I found a new friend to play.
Maybe today was the very first time
My scissors followed a very straight line.
Perhaps I learned a new song,
And sang all the words,
Or I touched a feather from the strangest of birds.
When you are in school and your heart has wings.
“Nothing” can mean some wonderful things!
Author Unknown
Book Fair
Scholastic Books
Support your school when purchasing books. Try Scholastic - there is a massive selection of children’s books as well as downloadable activities and all competitively priced. We also receive 20p in the pound for every book purchased. You just have to enter Boddington School as your nominated school. Their website is www.scholastic.co.uk
Information About EasyFundraising
If you shop online then you can support Boddington PTA by shopping through EasyFundraising. When you purchase items online, your chosen retailer will donate a percentage to Boddington School without costing you anything. In fact you can even save money by shopping through EasyFundraising as they regularly have special offers and voucher codes. There are over 2000 well known retailers, including Amazon, B&Q, M&S, Laura Ashley, John Lewis and many more.
Please visit http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/boddingtonpta/ to register and start shopping or alternatively please see a member of the PTA for further information.
Thank you for your support.