Minutes of PFA Meeting - 22nd June 2016
St John’s PFA meeting Wednesday 22nd June 2016, 8pm School Library Present: Jane Maxted (Chair), Hilary Taylor (Vice chair), Aurora Allen (Treasurer), Bernie Hodgson (Secretary), Sophie Ingerfield (Staff Rep), Michelle Stanton, Liz Reid, Ioana Platts-Mills, Sam Lewis, Fee Horne, Helen Hadley, Abbi Bradford, Gabrielle Corcoran, Val Ross, Barrie Jones, AJ Woods, Rob Stanton, Debbie Wakely, Maggie Blackwell. Apologies: Dan Turvey, Karen Slade, Julie Dowsett cc: Sally King Welcome: Jane welcomed everyone and thanked them for attending the meeting, all attendees asked to sign in. The minutes from the previous meeting (Thursday 12th May, 2016) were signed off by JM and BH. The agenda for this meeting was distributed via the class reps and were also on the school newsletter. Jane thanked Liz Reid and all the wonderful volunteers who help with a very successful Summer Fair. The weather was brilliant for the whole fair and with a constant flow of people over the two hours. Unfortunately the clearing up operation was hindered by heavy rain. This has meant that some of the crash mats used for the climbing and bouncy castle were damaged due to the rain. Treasurers Report: A full treasurer’s Report was supplied by Aurora, and is available on request. The Bank Balance is now in the black. There is £11,792.41 in the main account and £3473 in the reserve account, which is a total of £15,265.41. After all cheques and allocated payments have been paid the book balance stands at £1,688.33. There have been two ice lolly sales since the last meeting, which have raised £270, and the Summer Fair raised £4,500 (our best ever total). Easy shopping has raised £266.69 from starting in 2009 to present. If parents need to find out more about ‘Easy fund raising’ please contact the PFA by emailing [email protected] Year Group fund needs to be spent by the End of July. Summer Fair: The committee wish to say a big ‘Thank You’ to Liz Reid and her team of wonderful volunteers for an extremely successful Summer Fair, raising £4500, which is our best ever result. Liz reported that the Summer Fair committee this year had made a few changes to previous years which have contributed to the successful result.
A price increase for entry to the fair, and the Raffle ticket price had been increased from 20p to £1 per ticket, the 20p price had been held for a great number of years. This price increase for the raffle tickets had been discussed at the previous meeting (12th May) and had been unanimously voted for. The price increase also reflected the great prizes that had been secured by Gabbi so the association believed this would be in the best interest for fund raising. This has led to the raffle takings up on 2015 by £300. The plant stall raised £147 which is twice as much as 2015, thank you to Faye for the wonderful plants made available to buy. The bouncy castle made a profit this year which normally doesn’t happen due to the high cost of hiring the castle. The soak the staff stall raised £105, a big thank you to the staff willing to put their neck on the stocks! The tombola stall raised £467 which is consistent with previous fairs. Half the picnic boxes were sold, but the individual items sold completely. The feedback was positive regarding these boxes, saying they were a nice idea and good value for money. The quality of the items were also very good. All refreshments sold. Improvements identified for the next school fair: The Andrew’s advertising boards need at least a 3 months lead time. It was noticed by many that the type and font size on these boards was extremely small and difficult to read. Liz had said that the Andrew’s boards had changed from previous years and the space available for advertising was smaller and perhaps other companies need to be looked at. The BBQ was missed by many and the Coconut shy. There had been a problem with getting coconuts for this fair, so hopefully that will be sorted out by next year. Liz felt that the date of the fair was too close to half term, and that more time is needed before the fair to organise collecting items and money for the fair. A suggestion is to have the fair towards the end of June. The diary could be checked in September to make sure that this is taken into consideration for next year. The organising of this event has highlighted that there is no 4F class rep, so we need to ensure that the class rep list is checked and monitored frequently to ensure all classes are covered. Unfortunately, some negative views regarding the price increase of the raffle tickets had been posted on Face Book. The committee feels that Face Book is not the correct forum for discussing issues regarding the PFA run events. PFA events are discussed at length, and voted for democratically, at the PFA meetings so there is ample opportunity for discussion at the correct forum. If association members have issues to discuss, the best policy is to contact the PFA directly at [email protected] or the school office where all comments are passed on to the PFA committee. Unkind, negative comments are a bad reflection on the school community and can be extremely detrimental, causing upset and bad feeling amongst hard working members of the association who are volunteering their spare time to raise money for the whole school community to benefit from.
Forthcoming Events: End of Term Discos: The KS2 discos are Friday 15th July, 5pm to 6pm for years 3 and 4 and 6.30pm to 7.30pm for years 5 and 6. A risk assessment has been downloaded and Fee and Jane will look at this. A first aider will also need to be at both discos, Fee has sent out an email to all class reps requesting this. Bridgette Holland is available for the first disco, the second first aider will still need to be found. There are sweets left in the PFA cupboard which can be sold at the disco. Fee will buy the sweets and claim the money back from the PFA, a cheque for £90 will be needed w/c 11th July for John Waterman. Bernie to request a copy of the DJ’s insurance for the event risk assessment. Dragon Boat Race: This event is on September 10th at Bewl Water. Barrie Jones is organising this event. This event now needs to be publicised to ensure that the whole school is aware of it including the new reception parents. Information for it can be made available at the new parent evening on the 6th July. A suggestion was proposed that Barrie might be able to be a guest speaker at the first Friday assembly in the new term. The 24hr Rowing machine challenge held at the Summer fair was very successful, with the entire time filled. More money raising events are now proposed for the end of this term or the first week of September. Suggestions of a bottle tombola, raffles and make a mascot – possibly a dragon and then have a ’name the dragon’ competition. These need to be approved by Dan Turvey before they can go ahead. Vote proposed to stock money raising stalls and run a raffle with the maximum amount of £200: Unanimous. Sponsored Bounce and Sponsored Run: As the Sponsored run is a large event to organise it was felt that holding this in the Autumn term would cause too much disruption to the whole school, therefore this event will now be held in the Spring/Summer term of 2017. The Sponsored bounce could be held in the Autumn term September/October. Welcome Evening for new parents: This will be a good event to encourage new parents to come to our PFA meetings and give them a sense of belonging. The PFA will have stand at the meeting advertising the PFA events with pictures of the events and flyers. Refreshments will also be served. Playground Committee update: The next volunteer work day needs to be arranged with Parent volunteers needed to finish the path. The committee are now looking at whether there is potential to making this area ‘wheelchair friendly’, but funding would be needed as the work would involve taking out steps and landscaping the area. There has been a good response from the parents regarding this area. There now needs to be continued support for maintaining the area, it is proposed that once a month work parties will be organised, and the maintenance of this area over the summer holiday needs to be looked at. Dan Turvey will need to be consulted over this. A notice will be put in the newsletter to request for volunteers.
Storage of items used for this project will have to be addressed. Although there is some room in the PFA cupboard this is not the most convenient place to store these items, therefore we may need to consider outside storage areas e.g. a shed. Requests for Funding: There are no requests for funding this month from Dan. A request for funding came from the playground committee for two wall panels costing £1500. Ioana Platts-Mills said that Dan Turvey had approved this request. Members at the meeting felt that the cost was high for the size of the panels, and that this was not the best possible choice of playground equipment. Sophie Ingerfield runs the pupil playground committee meetings was not aware of these items. She has taken the information back to the pupils to discuss as to whether they would want these items. A suggestion of painting games such as hopscotch, snakes and ladders or mazes onto the playground may be a better way to spend our funds. As Jane Maxted had no record of this being approved and as the cost of these would wipe out the total amount of funds left in the account Jane proposed that this funding request be voted for in September once discussed with Dan Turvey. Vote proposed to put on hold this request for funding:
For, 18
Committee Vacancy: The position of Committee Secretary will need to be filled for the next school year. A job role description is to be drawn up by JM and will be available soon. The person taking up the role will need to be nominated and seconded, and this will need to be documented. Future events: Fireworks: Saturday November 5th The committee for this is to be formed, however Liz, Sam, Jane and Fee volunteered to form a committee. Rob Stanton will look creating an on-line ticket system for this event. Voluntary donations from parents to be requested in September:
Vote, Unanimous.
To hold a Gala evening/dinner with auction of big prizes:
Vote, Unanimous.
A.O.B: Ice lolly Shop: The next pop up shop will be Friday 24th June. Cheese and Wine event: A cheese and wine evening has been won by Aurora on behalf of the PFA, but needs to be held by the 29th July. Aurora will contact the organisers to see whether we can hold this at a later date. The proposal is that the event could be held on School premises with food and tickets be sold at £10/12 per person. Vote for Cheese and Wine event:
Unanimous
Next meeting: Thursday 22nd September 2016, 8pm School library.
A price increase for entry to the fair, and the Raffle ticket price had been increased from 20p to £1 per ticket, the 20p price had been held for a great number of years. This price increase for the raffle tickets had been discussed at the previous meeting (12th May) and had been unanimously voted for. The price increase also reflected the great prizes that had been secured by Gabbi so the association believed this would be in the best interest for fund raising. This has led to the raffle takings up on 2015 by £300. The plant stall raised £147 which is twice as much as 2015, thank you to Faye for the wonderful plants made available to buy. The bouncy castle made a profit this year which normally doesn’t happen due to the high cost of hiring the castle. The soak the staff stall raised £105, a big thank you to the staff willing to put their neck on the stocks! The tombola stall raised £467 which is consistent with previous fairs. Half the picnic boxes were sold, but the individual items sold completely. The feedback was positive regarding these boxes, saying they were a nice idea and good value for money. The quality of the items were also very good. All refreshments sold. Improvements identified for the next school fair: The Andrew’s advertising boards need at least a 3 months lead time. It was noticed by many that the type and font size on these boards was extremely small and difficult to read. Liz had said that the Andrew’s boards had changed from previous years and the space available for advertising was smaller and perhaps other companies need to be looked at. The BBQ was missed by many and the Coconut shy. There had been a problem with getting coconuts for this fair, so hopefully that will be sorted out by next year. Liz felt that the date of the fair was too close to half term, and that more time is needed before the fair to organise collecting items and money for the fair. A suggestion is to have the fair towards the end of June. The diary could be checked in September to make sure that this is taken into consideration for next year. The organising of this event has highlighted that there is no 4F class rep, so we need to ensure that the class rep list is checked and monitored frequently to ensure all classes are covered. Unfortunately, some negative views regarding the price increase of the raffle tickets had been posted on Face Book. The committee feels that Face Book is not the correct forum for discussing issues regarding the PFA run events. PFA events are discussed at length, and voted for democratically, at the PFA meetings so there is ample opportunity for discussion at the correct forum. If association members have issues to discuss, the best policy is to contact the PFA directly at [email protected] or the school office where all comments are passed on to the PFA committee. Unkind, negative comments are a bad reflection on the school community and can be extremely detrimental, causing upset and bad feeling amongst hard working members of the association who are volunteering their spare time to raise money for the whole school community to benefit from.
Forthcoming Events: End of Term Discos: The KS2 discos are Friday 15th July, 5pm to 6pm for years 3 and 4 and 6.30pm to 7.30pm for years 5 and 6. A risk assessment has been downloaded and Fee and Jane will look at this. A first aider will also need to be at both discos, Fee has sent out an email to all class reps requesting this. Bridgette Holland is available for the first disco, the second first aider will still need to be found. There are sweets left in the PFA cupboard which can be sold at the disco. Fee will buy the sweets and claim the money back from the PFA, a cheque for £90 will be needed w/c 11th July for John Waterman. Bernie to request a copy of the DJ’s insurance for the event risk assessment. Dragon Boat Race: This event is on September 10th at Bewl Water. Barrie Jones is organising this event. This event now needs to be publicised to ensure that the whole school is aware of it including the new reception parents. Information for it can be made available at the new parent evening on the 6th July. A suggestion was proposed that Barrie might be able to be a guest speaker at the first Friday assembly in the new term. The 24hr Rowing machine challenge held at the Summer fair was very successful, with the entire time filled. More money raising events are now proposed for the end of this term or the first week of September. Suggestions of a bottle tombola, raffles and make a mascot – possibly a dragon and then have a ’name the dragon’ competition. These need to be approved by Dan Turvey before they can go ahead. Vote proposed to stock money raising stalls and run a raffle with the maximum amount of £200: Unanimous. Sponsored Bounce and Sponsored Run: As the Sponsored run is a large event to organise it was felt that holding this in the Autumn term would cause too much disruption to the whole school, therefore this event will now be held in the Spring/Summer term of 2017. The Sponsored bounce could be held in the Autumn term September/October. Welcome Evening for new parents: This will be a good event to encourage new parents to come to our PFA meetings and give them a sense of belonging. The PFA will have stand at the meeting advertising the PFA events with pictures of the events and flyers. Refreshments will also be served. Playground Committee update: The next volunteer work day needs to be arranged with Parent volunteers needed to finish the path. The committee are now looking at whether there is potential to making this area ‘wheelchair friendly’, but funding would be needed as the work would involve taking out steps and landscaping the area. There has been a good response from the parents regarding this area. There now needs to be continued support for maintaining the area, it is proposed that once a month work parties will be organised, and the maintenance of this area over the summer holiday needs to be looked at. Dan Turvey will need to be consulted over this. A notice will be put in the newsletter to request for volunteers.
Storage of items used for this project will have to be addressed. Although there is some room in the PFA cupboard this is not the most convenient place to store these items, therefore we may need to consider outside storage areas e.g. a shed. Requests for Funding: There are no requests for funding this month from Dan. A request for funding came from the playground committee for two wall panels costing £1500. Ioana Platts-Mills said that Dan Turvey had approved this request. Members at the meeting felt that the cost was high for the size of the panels, and that this was not the best possible choice of playground equipment. Sophie Ingerfield runs the pupil playground committee meetings was not aware of these items. She has taken the information back to the pupils to discuss as to whether they would want these items. A suggestion of painting games such as hopscotch, snakes and ladders or mazes onto the playground may be a better way to spend our funds. As Jane Maxted had no record of this being approved and as the cost of these would wipe out the total amount of funds left in the account Jane proposed that this funding request be voted for in September once discussed with Dan Turvey. Vote proposed to put on hold this request for funding:
For, 18
Committee Vacancy: The position of Committee Secretary will need to be filled for the next school year. A job role description is to be drawn up by JM and will be available soon. The person taking up the role will need to be nominated and seconded, and this will need to be documented. Future events: Fireworks: Saturday November 5th The committee for this is to be formed, however Liz, Sam, Jane and Fee volunteered to form a committee. Rob Stanton will look creating an on-line ticket system for this event. Voluntary donations from parents to be requested in September:
Vote, Unanimous.
To hold a Gala evening/dinner with auction of big prizes:
Vote, Unanimous.
A.O.B: Ice lolly Shop: The next pop up shop will be Friday 24th June. Cheese and Wine event: A cheese and wine evening has been won by Aurora on behalf of the PFA, but needs to be held by the 29th July. Aurora will contact the organisers to see whether we can hold this at a later date. The proposal is that the event could be held on School premises with food and tickets be sold at £10/12 per person. Vote for Cheese and Wine event:
Unanimous
Next meeting: Thursday 22nd September 2016, 8pm School library.
