Minutes of the meeting held
on 6th October 2004
1.
Opening Welcome by Chairman.
Julie Hayes welcomed everyone to the meeting, particularly Janet Brambilla, a new committee member (proposed by Sue Robey, seconded by Jacqui Lythgoe).
Julie Hayes (Chair), Margaret Groom, Samantha Wright, Caroline Young, Jacqui Lythgoe, Suzanne Leeder, Judy Hooker, Karen Lawley, Judith Caroll, Janet Brambilla, Kathryn Nicholson, Anita Bexon, Lisa Ridley, Jayne Stevenson, Sue Whyld, Mary Johnson-Evans, Sue Robey, Joanne Hare.
Paul McCracken, Lisa Stevenson, Simon Brambilla, Karen Nicolson, Helen Barr, Bridget Charlton
The Minutes of the last meeting were accepted as a true record of the proceedings.
Proposed: Karen Lawley
Seconded: Jacqui Lythgoe
Sue Whyld had nothing to report since the last meeting except that there had been a lot of interest in the visit to the Toyota factory and the details had now been sorted out.
5.
Chairman’s report
The Chairman had little to report but informed the meeting that Philippa Duncan had again agreed to put up some boards on the parents’ evenings to encourage parents to volunteer to help with forthcoming events and get involved with the PTA in general.
There have been a few receipts and outgoings since the last meeting and the current assets stand at £15,465.
Four signatories are required for the bank mandate. It was unanimously agreed by the meeting that these should be Caroline Young (treasurer), Sue Whyld (president), Mary Johnson-Evans (vice-chair) and Paul McCracken (secretary)
The sound system for the hall, which was agreed, in principle, at a previous meeting, has not yet been bought. This has now become more urgent as rehearsals for the Christmas concerts are beginning. Sandie Owen’s husband has assessed the requirements and confirmed that the cost would be £1000 - £1500. Members at the meeting voted unanimously that this should go ahead and Julie agreed to canvas members not present for their views.
The accounts for the last year need auditing. It was suggested that Jill Watson and/or Joanne Rogers be approached for assistance with this.
7.
Proposed items of expenditure
ICT
improvement plan
Lisa Ridley outlined a 3-stage plan, put together with the help of the IT consultant
Stage
1
Rearrange the existing IT suite according to the plan provided.
Benching will be rearranged to allow the computers to be sited around the room, not in the middle.
Some computers will be replaced
Monitors will be replaced with flat screens to allow some room for books etc
There should be a digital projector and interactive white board.
Total cost of this is likely to be around £10k. Lisa is getting quotes for the building and rewiring work.
Stage 2 will include a new KS1 computer suite with laptops, to be built on the outside area adjacent to ‘Blue’ class.
Stage 3 will include interactive white boards for each classroom
Security has always been an issue and this has been assessed and taken into consideration.
Sue Whyld wanted to discuss the details with the Finance Committee to assess the available funding and likely timescale.
It was proposed that the PTA should consider funding the flat screens, projector and whiteboard for the ICT suite at a cost of ~£4k. It was agreed that current funds could cover this and the proposal was agreed unanimously.
Janet pointed out that the PTA could earn money for the school by encouraging parents to shop on-line using www.schoolfunds.co.uk. This is a scheme that Paul had been looking into setting up for the school. Julie would try to find out whether this had been done yet.
Garden
Project
It was agreed unanimously to confirm PTA support of £2,750 for the overall outside improvement plan, even though the bid for seed funding had not been successful.
Hockey
kit
A request had been received to use the remaining money (~£150) raised by Shane Watson of the Bridge Inn, specifically for the hockey team, to purchase a replacement set of goalkeepers’ gloves (The school ones have been missing for some time) and to supplement the existing 7 team shirts with an additional 12 (minimum order) to allow us to field 2 teams plus subs. Total cost of these items would be ~£200 which would require a supplement of £50 from the PTA. This was agreed unanimously.
Coloured
bibs for sports day
The Staff had not favoured this idea but it was suggested that it may be possible to improve on the current system in some way.
It was agreed to postpone this item until the next meeting.
None since the last meeting.
Disco
This will now be held on Monday 18th October (before the inset day) using the same DJ but without the bubble machine.
Christmas Fayre
This will take place on Friday 26th November.
Dad’s
Night Out.
This will be on 12th November to avoid clashing with bonfire night.
Social
Committee
Judith Caroll and Suzanne Leeder had put together some ideas on how the PTA could organise events in the future, how to capture best practise and the formation of a Social Committee. See Appendix 1 for details.
It was suggested that ideas for events from the children could be obtained via the School Council.
Judith, Suzanne, Karen, Janet, Kathryn and Sue volunteered to become the Social Committee and work out the detail of how it would operate. They would also look into the possibility of organising another event during the autumn term (possibly a ‘Quiz ‘n Chips’) and maybe producing recipe books for the Christmas Fayre.
Orchard
Toys
Joanne Hare would like to set up a scheme selling games, activities, puzzles, etc from Orchard Toys. These are aimed at children up to age 11 but are probably most suited to Infants. She would like to trial a system in the Reception class that would not involve any of the teacher’s time. Catalogues could be distributed via the ‘red bags’ and orders distributed with the help of Class Reps. Joanne would also like to have a stall at the Christmas Fayre.
The PTA were happy that this should go ahead and would assist where possible.
A meeting of the new, rejuvenated carnival committee is taking place on 7th October at the Lord Scarsdale.
Mary and Margaret intend to be there to pass on our views and suggestions. These include:-
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 10th November at 7.30pm in Y5 classroom.
Appendix
1
Review
of events PTA organise
Fundraising is prime function but events also organised
-social events for the parents
-social events for the children
-social events for parents and children to attend together
Needs different for “new” parents and “established” parents.
Need to provide a variety of events during the year to appeal to a wide cross-section of parents.
Need to develop an information base for organisation of different events. This allows people to organise a repeat event more easily.
Need to share the workload of event organisation as widely as possible.
Proposal
to PTA
Formation
of a social committee
The purpose of this committee is not to organise all the events!
It would have three main functions
1. Develop an annual plan of all fundraising/social events to be organised.
This would then be brought to PTA committee for approval.
It can be modified/changed along the way but allows us to plan ahead.
It allows us to provide a variety of events that would hopefully appeal to as many parents/children as possible.
2. Develop an information base
Collect all relevant information about event organisation e.g. contact numbers of entertainers (DJ’s, quiz masters, etc), catering information (how many sweets do you need to buy?), ticket/poster printing
3. Consider all new ideas for fundraising events/social events.
We would look into the feasibility of a suggestion in more detail and then bring it back to the PTA committee for consideration.
Formation
of event subcommittees
The next major challenge is how to best share out the workload in organising the events!
We propose the formation of subcommittees who are responsible for organising various events. There are various ways we could do this.
E.g. Childrens’ events – discos/magic shows
Fayres - Xmas and Summer
Parent socials
E.g. Catering
Publicity
Contacting entertainers/stall holders
Sponsorship/Donations
E.g. Junior parents
Infant parents
Once these subgroups had been formed we could then give each group a list of all those parents who have previously offered to help in that area.
Ideas
for Autumn Term
Quiz night + fish and chips – aimed particularly at “new parents”
Children’s Recipe book for Xmas
Other
topics discussed
What is the general consensus re discos, particularly infant discos?
? better alternative entertainment e.g. magic show, travelling theatre productions.
Issue re sweets provided. ?better quality/less E’s and ?restriction of spending ?£1/child or voucher system.