Welcome back + Autumn update
A very warm welcome - or welcome back - to everyone from the Friends of Harris Primary ED. We hope you had a wonderful, sunshine-filled summer.
For those new to the school, we’d like to introduce ourselves and tell you a bit about what our PTA does. We have two aims: to nurture a supportive, sociable and inclusive community around the school - connecting children, parents, staff and the wider community - and to raise funds for things which will enrich and enhance school life for our children - whether it be on-site facilities, equipment, excursions, or experiences.
Fundraising - how have we done so far?
We’ve been in existence for only 4 school terms, but we are thrilled to say that in this short time, we’ve raised just over £5,000 thanks to the participation and involvement of our parent community and local businesses. If you think about how tiny the school was when we started (only 48 families in the beginning), and that the £5k is actually an enormous pile of 20p pieces (or at least that’s how it felt when we were painstakingly raising it and banking it!), it’s quite an achievement!
Jo came to us at the end of last term and asked that we spend these funds on enhancing the playground at our permanent site. The committee agreed that this was an excellent first project for our hard-won funds, and we are proud to say that the gorgeous planter benches and colourful acrylic cut-outs brightening up the tarmac and boundaries are the PTA’s first funded contribution.
Fundraising - what next?
Our sights are now set on contributing a “Tangle Trail”: playground equipment designed for balancing, climbing, traversing and sport activities. The school has in fact managed to negotiate a great price, and to secure that, has put in the order on our behalf, so we’re extra motivated to get to the £1500 mark this term to pay for this, and install raised beds for veg planting in the playground!
Get involved!
Our next meeting is happening on 29th September at 8pm at our new local, The Lordship (if any attendees would prefer a non-licenced venue, we will find an alternative - just email us). They are informal, inclusive and sociable affairs - everyone is welcome, whether you would like to contribute time, skills, ideas or just find out a bit more about what goes on.
Stay in touch - with us and with each other
In order for parents to better communicate within year groups about non-official school stuff - both fun (social meet-ups, birthday parties, play dates, teacher xmas prezzies) and practical (home learning due dates, the inevitable lost property etc), we have set up year group email lists: If you’re not on yours, and you’d like to be, just email us and we’ll organise an invite.
Want to raise money for the school without even leaving the sofa??
If you can’t wait to start moving us towards our Tangle Trail goal, but want to raise money almost without lifting a finger (or only lifting a finger), then have we got the fundraising scheme for you! Join our easyfundraising scheme (the clue’s in the title) and install the reminder widget and you will be raising money every time you shop online - and it won’t cost you a bean!
We look forward to meeting as many of you as possible over the coming weeks!
The Friends of Harris Primary ED committee x
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