Friends of School (Registered Charity No. 1144959)
Autumn 2012 Dear Parents, A new school year and a new Friends of School face, so let me start by introducing myself. My name is Trevor Keep and I have recently been voted in as the new Chair Person of the Blandford St. Mary Primary School, Friends of School Committee. My first duty in this role is to say a massive thank you and well done to Mandy Wood, who has been leading the Friends of School team these past few years, which has done a great job in raising several thousand pounds to further the education experience for the children at Blandford St.Mary School. For those of you that don’t know, Friends of School is a charitable organisation set up with two key objectives: 1. To engage in activities or provide facilities or equipment which support the school and advance the education of the pupils. 2. To develop effective relationships between staff, parents and others associated with the school. We meet at least 3 times a year – 7pm on the first Monday (excluding inset days at the start of term) of every school term – and can arrange other ad-hoc meetings as required.......... and we are always on the lookout for additional helpers – either for a specific event or on an on-going basis. Over the past year Friends of School has organised a number of successful fund raising activities that have included (amongst other things) a sponsored run; a Christmas Tree Festival; a photo shoot; and some clothes recycling. With the funds raised from these and other events we have agreed to support the Head Teacher’s vision for the school and are making a significant financial contribution to the following: • To buy an annual licence for the children’s learning websites: IXL.com (on-line maths learning); and Readingeggs.com (on-line reading), plus a two yearly license for some additional language learning on-line tools (Spanish and German) within the existing Education City digital learning resource that the children already have access to both at school and at home. If you do not know your child’s home access code for Education City, please do ask your child’s teacher or see the school office. • To have the school playground cleaned of its current worn art work/games, so that we can look to have some new art work/games painted. • To continue with the annual class room gifts for Christmas. Our fund raising aims for 2012/2103 will include the purchasing of some new playground activity equipment and to repaint the school playground. The above is a balance of indoor and outdoor activities for the children, but this need not be all, so if you have any suggestions for the school on what to spend the monies on then please do respond back using the slip below. To achieve all this we do of course need to arrange some fund raising events. Our plans will centre on one key fund raising activity per term plus some smaller events that are for the benefit
of the parents as well as the children (e.g. professional Photography service, teas/coffees at school events etc.). More detail will follow in due course, but for your diaries, the key events this term being supported or led by the Friends of School are the following: •
Saturday 17th November – 9am – 1pm – Portrait Photographers – Please sign up at the school office (available from half term onwards) for a time slot to have your informal family portraits by Ashley Wood Studios – a variety of photos will be taken and it is all free, with no obligation to buy afterwards.
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Wednesday 5th December – Christmas Festival – after school - more details to follow.
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Provision of tea/coffee at the following events: o School Production – Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd November o School Talent Show – Thursday 6th December o School Nativity – Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th December
We do of course need help with these activities, so could I please request that anyone willing and able to offer their help at a Friends of School supported event please fill in the attached slip and return to the school office. All help is much appreciated, even if you can only spare an hour or two. Our next Friends of School meeting will be at 7pm on Monday 5th November in the school staff room. Please do attend or send your apologies so that we can still send you the minutes and keep you informed of the plans for the remainder of term. I appreciate this is quite a lot to read, but hopefully not too much, so please put the above dates in your calendars and return the attached slip below to the school office. Thanks very much everyone – I look forward to getting to meet you – feel free to introduce yourself if you see me dropping my kids off in the morning - and I will be in contact again soon (via a newsletter and/or the school website) with more details on the above.
Trevor - Friends of School.
P.S. I am not fully up to speed yet on the School website, but please do keep a look out for the Friends of School on the website, as this is another form of communication for sharing any news etc. as the year unfolds.
Friends of School Autumn 2012 Dear Friends of School, I am interested in helping out with the Blandford St, Mary Primary School, Friends of School supported events as follows (Please tick as appropriate): Organising team for the Christmas Festival Run a stall at the Christmas Festival Serve tea and coffee at one of the school events during term time For the Autumn term I could assist with serving teas/coffees at: •
Thursday 22nd November - School production from 1.30pm
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Friday 23rd November - School production from 7pm
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Monday 17th December - Nativity - time tbc (during school day)
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Tuesday 18th December - Nativity - time tbc (during school day)
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Thursday 6th December - Talent show - time tbc (during the evening)
I plan to attend the next Friends of School meeting on Monday 5th November I am unable to attend the next Friends of School meeting, but am interested in helping so please send me a copy of the minutes. I am a busy person, but may be able to help in some other way....... such as...? …………………………………………………………………………………………………… As a suggestion, how about investing some of the Friends of School funds in: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………
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Contact email address.................................................................................................................... Please return this slip to the School Office – Many thanks, Trevor.