Meeting Minutes 29th April 2025

29/04/2025 – The Claremont Pub - 8pm

Attendees present:

Axelle Joos de ter Beerst AJ (Chair), Natalie Jolliffe NJ (Vice chair), Shagun Bansal SB (Treasurer), Lisa Gammon LG (Secretary), Claire Summers CS (CM), Jenny Brown JB (CM), Gemma Ferguson GF (CM), Marta Zielinska MZ (CM -Teacher), Jennie Maslin Fong JMF, Carmen Di Cara CD, Julia Beath JB,

Apologies: 

Candi Roberts CR (CM- Headteacher), Ami Parker AP2 (CM) Sarah Seddon SS (Duty Headteacher), Becky O’Brien BO, Emma Doward ED (CM), Samantha Walker SW (CM), Nicki Webb NW (CM), Emma Butterworth EB (CM), Anna Pearson AP1 (CM), Ben Dryland BD (CM), Lucy Prior LP (CM),

  1. Chair’s Update (AJ):

• Axelle opened the meeting thanking everyone’s efforts towards successful terms 3 & 4.

• Welcome Julia Beath for attending the meeting. Julia runs the uniform shop.  

• Claire Summers nominates Zoe Phillimore to the committee. No objections

• Natalie Jolliffe nominates Julia Beath to the committee. No objections.

• Ben Dryland and Emma Doward resign from the committee. A big thank you to both for all their time and hard work over the years, contributing towards the successful running of today’s PTA.

Action Point: AJ to liaise with LP to see if she would like to take over the running of ChipIn. Also, what extra help does LP require.

Action Point: AP1/ZP to advertise a new opening for a parent to take over Xmas cards.

Action Point: AJ to lead grants available to the PTA.

2.    Financial Summary (SB/NJ):

Figures as @ 29.04.25 (Financial Year starts 01.09.24)

• £38k Cash in bank

• £15k liabilities expenditure agreed but not yet paid. (not including the £15k assumed for IT)

• £22k income from events

• £33k total income including direct donations.

• £15,900 Profit

• Successful tea towel sale profit £1,219.32

• Playground Sales profit to date £2,151

• Easter Egg Hunt came in under budget. Agreed expenses of £700. Actual £632

• Direct donations received £9,837

o   £6,750 Local Giving/Chipin

o   £2,635 other donations

o   £451.68 donations for Library Project)

• Clarefest almost sold out.

3. Debrief on Terms 3 & 4 (AJ): 3.      

Thanked everyone for their ongoing contributions and dedication to the successful running of the PTA.

4.  Summary from the meeting with Mrs Roberts (AJ/NJ)

• Axelle and Natalie had a positive meeting with Mrs Roberts, who praised the PTA for their professionalism, enthusiasm and profitablilty. 

• Mrs Roberts loves the more in-depth risk assessments. A big thank you to Sam and Nikki for their help developing these using Parent Kind’s guidance and templates.

• Key points taken away from the meeting for the PTA to be mindful of.

• Teachers and resources are forever stretched, please bear this in mind when asking for help. At times, availability will be limited.

• Senor Lalo and Ian Cotterill are caretakers, therefore cannot volunteer like teachers and would need to be paid for help beyond their contract.  Please be mindful, any help asked of the caretakers takes them away from school duties which are ever increasing. 

• Please inform school before arranging any pay or benefit in kind to members of staff. The school is obliged to inform internal payroll.

• Safeguarding. The PTA’s safeguarding must be in line with the school’s policy. For example, high fiving the Easter Bunny is ok, no hugging though.

• Sponsorship. Overriding point, sponsorship is a form of endorsement. The local educational authority sets the guidelines. Within the guidelines, schools are not allowed to endorse any educational tutoring and/or 11+.

• Mrs Roberts and Mrs Seddon both volunteering their time at Clarefest and Summer Fete.

Action Point: NJ to review PTA’s Safeguarding and Sponsorship policy.

Action Point: LG to send Clarefest and Summer Fete rota to CR to ask the wider teacher community if they would like to volunteer.

4a. Martyn’s Law (LG)

Key points:

Martyn’s Law—also known as the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill

Purpose: To enhance the security of public venues and protect the public from terrorist attacks by ensuring venues are prepared.

Applies To: Public venues, events, and premises with a capacity of 100 or more people.

Two Tiers:

Standard Tier (100–799 capacity): Must undertake low-cost preparedness like training and evacuation plans.

Enhanced Tier (800+ capacity): Must conduct thorough risk assessments and put in place detailed security plans.

Current Status (as of 2025): The bill has been through consultation stages and continues through the legislative process. There will be a period of time prior to the implementation of the legislation, i.e. when it will come into force. We expect this period to be at least 24 months.

5.  Clarefest (CD)

• Line up confirmed

• Risk assessment and site map in draft stages. Liaise with NJ and AJ to go over this before being finalised.

• Number of gazebos still to be finalised. The majority will be borrowed. May need PTA to buy some more.

• Volunteer rota sheet is live- many slots available.

• £450 on floats divided by 3 pots

• £60 bouncy castle x3 payments to people

• Ask Ben to have access to his safe for cash.

• Plan/ strategy for collecting money on the day. When cash is taken from stalls. Tokens, bar and merchandise. Shagun will be present all day.

• Security – procedure for event to be confirmed.

• Tickets almost sold out.

• Expenses to date: Paid £1800. Agreed £12,500

• Succession planning: CD drafting a Clarefest handover document. If helpers reduce next year, consider a reduced Clarefest (activities, profit). Giles- looking for another parent to shadow the music side of Clarefest- succession planning.

Action Point: AP1/ZP- Week after Clarefest comms team to advertise opening for a new Clarefest lead and to shadow CD 2026.

Action Point: AP1/ZP Dedicated Clarefest Newsletter to include don’t forgets, what to bring, volunteer sheet.

Action Point: Picture from the day to go alongside newsletter. Include a link for people to register interest in how to help Clarefest 2026.

6. Summer Fete (AP1/ZP)

   
   

Action Point: LG to contact Fete team for an update

Action Point: LG - Kings Estate agent boards 18 confirmed addresses. Request for helpers in newsletter next week. Contact PTA Friends List for helpers.

Action Point: AP1/ZP Can fruit be offered alongside cakes or sweet stalls.

Action Point: AP1/ZP Contact ‘Princess and the P’ events for free 20 min show in the arena.

7. Comms Team (AP1/ZP)

Action Point: LG to contact comms team for an update

8. School Uniform (JB)

• Overall, the uniform shop is running well.

• In person sales need to get up and running along with understanding how to take payment

• Volunteers slowing, had a few people leave.

  
  

Action Point: LG Provide Julia with the Sum-up payment document policy.

Action point: LG contact Friends of the PTA to ask for helpers.

Action Point: LG to add Julia to committee WhatsApp group and committee Gmail contact list.

9. Pupil Premium & Photo/Video Image Policy (CS)

Admin

The current policy around how the PTA can help pupil premium families in a discrete manor is a little vague.  

A suggestion on how we can improve the process to give pupil premium families greater comfort in their identities being limited to only a few PTA committee members is to introduce a discount code.

Discount code – 100% discount code given to families to use online when paying for cinema club for example. Via the payment process a child will be added to the attendee list with little exposure to wider committee. The attendee list is downloaded from WIX, very few PTA members have access to this task and are also DBS checked.

Action Point: CS draft email to school asking for their thoughts and suggestions on whether they think a discount code is a good idea. Not many families use the benefit, why? How can the PTA improve in this area?

Images

New Parent packs can no longer include a PTA form asking new parents for authority to take pictures of their child/ren. Going forward PTA must ask for authority from each parent for each event.

Action Point: NJ to check WIX – is there an image approval tick box?

Action Point: AP1/ZP Chip in video update. Will it be ready to show at New Parents’ events.

10.    SEN- GF

Suggestions:

Fruit sale alternative alongside cake/sweet stalls at Clarefest and Summer Fete.

Have a safe space to retreat to during Clarefest. Outdoor garden area suggested.

Ear defenders will be available to hire for free at Clarefest. They will be located at the token booth to be signed in and out.

Action Point: LG ask Carmen to add this to the site map and ask comms team to communicate the SEN safe space directly with the SEN families.

11. AOB

• Expenses: Please can all expenses be sent to the PTA Treasurer asap so committee can monitor financials. Email: cptatreasurer25@gmail.com

•  Sum-up Policy: CD is updating policy.

  Action Point: Please include reference to an Apple phone being a usable form of payment.

• New Parents (BO)

  Action Points:

  -       Please circulate the new parent leaflet to committee

  -       PTA has a discount code for 'My Nametags". At the New Parents' meeting, a suggestion is to have the discount code on display, perhaps as a QR code direct link to the webpage.  The PTA uniform page has the link and code details. https://www.claremontprimarypta.com/uniform

  -       Drum up new volunteers on the day, highlighting very little commitment. Suggestions to gather details; a clipboard to gather names and email addresses and/or QR code direct to a live google spreadsheet. 

• Premises License (LG)

  There have been recent changes to our Premises License. The licensing department has removed the temporary easement introduced during Covid, which allowed premises to sell or offer sealed alcohol for off-site consumption.

  The PTA has relied on this allowance for events such as bottle tombolas and raffles. To continue including sealed alcohol in our fundraising activities, we need to apply for a major variation to reinstate this permission. The cost for this variation is £315.

  An alternative would be to apply for a Temporary Event Notice (TEN) for each event, at a cost of £21 per event.

  
  

  Action Point: LG to ask Mark Lester:

  1.  To confirm if the major variation application costs include any additional changes than just permission to use sealed alcohol in our fundraising activities. 

  2.  Is the £315 a one-off cost and/or will it increase our annual Premises License fee.

  Answers to these questions will determine whether we choose to process a major variation or TENs.

  
  

• Lottery License

  Action Point: LG to check the sale of lottery license locations. Where is it applicable? For example, can we hold a raffle for New Parents’ event outside of school premises.

Next PTA meeting: Tuesday 9th September

Location: The Claremont Pub at 8pm

APPROVAL OF MINUTES BY CHAIR OF MEETING:

SIGN:  Axelle Joos de ter Beerst

DATE: 31st May 2025

Easter Egg Hunt - all you need to know

What and when is it?

The Claremont Easter Egg hunt is a much loved and fun activity for all of the children at Claremont School. It happens at school, within the school day and this year will be taking place on Friday 4th April 2025.

How does it work?

In the days running up to the hunt, the children will make their own Easter Egg basket (at school) which they personalise, decorate and most importantly, put their name on!

On the morning of the hunt, the baskets will be collected from each class and given to a team of PTA volunteers who fill the baskets with chocolate goodies.

In the afternoon, the PTA volunteers will hide the baskets, two classes at a time, in one of the two school fields. The classes will be bought out to the school fields where the children are then able to hunt for their own basket! Classes will be paired (e.g. Yr 6 with Yr R) so that the older children can help the younger ones.

Lastly, to make the event even more special, the Easter Bunny will be visiting to say hello and spread Easter joy to all!

How can I help?

The event is run and funded by the PTA. It is for all children to enjoy.

If you would like to support the PTA, you can do so by joining CHIP-IN; directly supporting the provision of I.T. facilities for your child in school. If you wish to, you can:

1. Donate monthly here , or;

2. Make a one-off donation here.

Why is the PTA buying all the chocolate?

The PTA is buying over 4,000 chocolate treats up front! We used to ask parents to donate them but this enables the PTA to monitor food allergens more easily within the chocolate and to ensure all children have the same content in their baskets. The exception to this is children with allergies (please see below).

What if my child has a food allergy?

The chocolate purchased contains milk, soya and egg. Whilst the chocolate purchased won’t specifically contain nuts, the items may also contain traces of peanuts, nuts and wheat.

If your child has any allergy the PTA are not allowed to provide chocolate/treats for your child. Please therefore either:

1) provide your own appropriate treats (see photos below for a guide) in a CLEARLY LABELLED bag with the child's full name and class name by Wednesday 2nd April (to the school office or class teacher)

2) if your child has allergies but is ok with the PTA provided treats, please email the school office (admin@claremont.kent.sch.uk) to advise that your child can have the PTA provided treats.

As an additional precaution, all children will be instructed not to eat the chocolate treats until after school, and only once they have parental permission.

Will all children be able to participate?

Yes, if your child is in school on the day, they can participate. It is an inclusive and seasonal fun event for ALL Claremont School children and all donations are optional (but much appreciated if you’re able to!) If your child is not in school on 4th April they can collect their Easter basket from the school office after the Easter break.

Thank you for your support

Meeting Minutes 13th January 2025

13/01/2025 – The Claremont Pub - 8pm

Attendees present:

Axelle Joos de ter Beerst AJ (Chair), Natalie Jolliffe NJ (Vice chair), Shagun Bansal SB (Treasurer), Lisa Gammon LG (Secretary), Lucy Prior LP (CM), Jenny Brown JB (CM), Ben Dryland BD (CM), Anna Pearson AP1 (CM), Emma Butterworth EB (CM), Gemma Ferguson GF (CM), Marta Zielinska MZ (CM -Teacher), Nicki Webb NW (CM), Jennie Maslin Fong JMF, Carmen Di Cara CD, Giles Lamb GL

Apologies: 

Claire Summers CS (CM), Candi Roberts CR (CM- Headteacher), Ami Parker AP2 (CM)

Sarah Seddon SS (Duty Headteacher), Becky O’Brien BO, Emma Doward ED (CM), Samantha Walker SW(CM)

  1. Chair’s Update (AJ):

  Axelle opened the meeting thanking everyone’s efforts towards successful terms 1 & 2.

2.    Financial Summary (SB/NJ):

Figures as @ 11.01.25 (Financial Year starts 01.09.25)

• £24,051 Cash in bank

• £32,565 Grand Total Expenditure

  o   £30,347 donations to the school. The difference relates to PTA expenses.

• Wreath Making: Another successful year. £1,670 profit (up on last).

• Playground Sales: Strong earner.

• Cinema Club: expenses paid are 100% accurate

• Bank Interest £232. Healthy income for very little work.

• Craft Club: £156 profit. A trial pop up club which received great feedback. Would be great to do more.

• Direct donations £4,695. Mainly from Chip In. Projections: with another two terms of circa £5k, PTA will hopefully meet the £15k committed I.T. donation to the school.

• PTA plan to have £20k in the bank as a comfort blanket. Idea being no commitments to school until cash in bank or guarantee future income increases cash in bank above £20k.

• 2024-2025 school initiative: Axelle to meet with Mrs Roberts to understand school requirements and any monetary values including update on libaray request made in last meeting. PTA currently has £9k available cash. The PTA would like to support this initiative but cannot commit to any new school provisions until terms 3&4 events have taken place.

3. Debrief on Terms 1 & 2 (AJ):

Wreath Making was a big success, lots of positive feedback. Axelle led the raffle on the night which made a healthy amount of money for the PTA, using free gifts and putting hampers together from left over alcohol from the Summer Fete.

Wonderful to have SEN as a visible part of the PTA. Ben Dryland has put together a SEN box which will be a continuous and evolving provision. 

Secret Room, as always, was a highlight from many children at Christmas, even those who were unwell and not in school on the day received gifts chosen by staff.

4. Chip In (BD)

• 72 direct debits, down from 74.

• People will drop off naturally over time, and this is expected.

• Income landing in the PTA bank account is a shade under £1k a month.

• No message went out at Xmas linking Xmas events to a chip-in sign-up prompt (this generated 10 new sign-ups in 2023 across a number of comms messages), so we have no new joiners to report.

• Going forwards there'll be placeholder dates with the comms team for chip-in content to go out within the newsletter slot, and therefore a strategy all PTA volunteers are unified on. Generally, that content will be a monthly one- or two-liner with a hyperlink and graphic, with something more wordy around annual relaunch, Xmas and Easter.

  Action Point: BD to liaise with AP1 to get the dates in place

• A promo video was suggested by AP1 - could include pupils in situ seen using IT equipment/ championing chip-in in their own words and Mrs Roberts’ endorsement

  Action Point: AP1 will explore ideas with school office and feed back to the exec & chip-in team

• New parent pack.

  Action Point: BD to review insert with chip-in team and BO

• BD advised to expect 10-15 drop offs between now and Sept due to year 6 leavers.

• CD asked whether we can get better stats on members and the year of youngest child, etc. BD explained the sign-up process is with a 3rd party, Localgiving, so we collect very little data when people sign up and both privacy and data protection are paramount. We're some way from having our own webform to handle sign-ups and therefore customising the data we collect, and it's not a pressing ambition to do so. But it was suggested that should the PTA decide to issue a parent questionnaire it could include a section of carefully crafted chip-in questions. 

• NJ closed with a thank you to the chip-in team and the wider committee efforts, that the PTA now has in place a dependable income stream.

  
  

5. Comms Team (AP1)

• Reminder to fill in the comms spreadsheet with future announcements for newsletter and WhatsApp.

• Future events to be communicated in a calendar format, similar to Claire Summers' events calendar published last year.

Action point: AP1 to put together a FAQ’s sheet on who/what/why the PTA operate.

6. Clarefest – (CD & GL)

Thank you Carmen Di Cara and Giles Lamb for collaborating and allowing Clarefest to take place for another year.

Carmen has a strong background in events and is committed to Clarefest going ahead this year. Giles has been involved in the music at Clarefest since 2019.

Key points:

o   Making Clarefest accessible for SEN families. Possibly open earlier with no music or have a dedicated SEN tent. Direct questions and ideas through Mrs Smith first.

o   Last year’s team helpers have said they’ll help again.

o   Plan to use existing advertising material and design, update these with current information.

o   Ideally, the first comms to go out next week with the date: Saturday 17th May -TBC.

o   Require a robust support network. Ask year groups to help, to steer away from just the committee being responsible.

o   Carmen to direct questions through Emma Butterworth.

o   Looking into merchandise ideas. Firstly, Carmen plans to understand what has and hasn’t worked well in previous years.

o   Team would like to get more families involved musically. It was suggested to explore former pupils and Irock being involved

o   Security: Must have a clear policy on how security plan to handle an intoxicated person.

o   Increase ticket price (TBA) and lower free entry age to under 1’s.

o   Plan for tickets to go on sale end of March. Carmen to advise Natalie to these can be added to the website

Action Point: NW to communicate with Year 2 parent to gather some volunteers.

Action Point: NJ to update website with ‘Save the Date’ as soon as date is agreed with school. Carmen to confirm

Action Point: EB to show Carmen and Giles the documentation and process to get school access approved.

Action Point: Carmen to ensure all SEN suggestions are approved by Mrs Smith.

Action Point: GL approach Candi Roberts to ask the children if they would like to perform at Clarefest. Perhaps the school’s iRock bands can perform; this would need an iRock representative there to support children.

Action Point: CD Clarefest team to catch up with exec committee in two weeks.

7.  School Uniform Handover Update (NW)

• Julia Beath fully taken over. All in hand.

• Moving under wet canopy for collection soon.

• Once Julie has got to grips with stock, process and admin then she’ll be pulling on volunteers list.

8. Annual events for the year. Lead persons discuss new updates & outstanding action points

8.1 Playground Sales                      JF /AP2

o   Team of additional volunteers required. It was a struggle last term to successfully put on the playground sales.

o   It’s the second highest profit maker, we need to support the team to keep it going. Target year 6 children to help. The playground sales plans are in place, team just require volunteers to execute. Low effort and time required. 

Action Point: AP1 Comms to put a volunteers call for 10 new volunteers.

8.2.  Discos                                       NW

o   Dates confirmed and DJ Lollypop booked.

o   6th February YR 1&2

o   13th February YR 3&4

o   13th March YR 5&6

o   17th March Reception

  o   Proposed ticket cost increase in line with cinema club. New ticket price £6.5. Meeting attendees in favor of the increase.

o   Expenditure £700 for all four discos. Breakdown:

o   £140 DJ cost for each disco. Grand total £560

o   £140 for snacks & drinks

Committee members voted on expenditure: Approved (12/17)

Jenny Brown, Shagun Bansal, Lucy Prior, Natalie Jolliffe, Axelle Joos De Ter Beerst, Lisa Gammon, Ben Dryland, Marta Zielinska, Gemma Ferguson, Emma Butterworth, Anna Pearson

  Action Point: NW- What are the extra costs to have a silent disco for YR’s 5&6

8.3.  Easter Egg Hunt          LP

o   Date confirmed with school: Friday 4th April

o   Easter bunny coming back and booked

o   Expenditure £700. To Purchase eggs to fill each child’s Easter basket.

Committee members voted on expenditure: Approved (12/17)

Jenny Brown, Shagun Bansal, Nicki Webb, Natalie Jolliffe, Axelle Joos De Ter Beerst, Lisa Gammon, Ben Dryland, Marta Zielinska, Gemma Ferguson, Emma Butterworth, Anna Pearson

        8.4.  School Fete                  AP1/ZP

o   Proposed Date: 5th July TBC

o   1ST team meeting in two weeks

o   Team to update PTA committee via email before Easter break

o   Fete will have a ‘Project Library’ focus this year. All Fete related comms will promote proceeds from the Fete to support school’s library renovation and provisions.

9. SEN (GF)

Can playground sales consider a SEN queuing system for those who require an alternative.  

  Action Point: GF/AJ to speak to Claire Smith to discuss suitable ideas and solutions for playground sales team.  

Action Point: GF & AP1 to create a SEN box wish list for comms team.

Action Point: NJ add a SEN tick box to ticket sales webpage to allow a family member to support their child at an event.

10.    AOB

JB: Secret Room was a success just under 1000 gifts donated. No shopping required. 100 gifts left over. The nonperishables have been stored away for next year.

Action Point: NJ- Question to be added to PTA website for next year’s secret room. What if my child is sick on the day?

Action Point: PTA -gazebos, look to invest in new ones.

Action Point: AP1- Comms to advertise for a Quiz Night lead person. Ideally quiz night to happen before Easter Break.         

Next PTA meeting: Tuesday 29th April at 8pm

Location: The Claremont Pub

APPROVAL OF MINUTES BY CHAIR OF MEETING:

SIGN:  Axelle Joos de ter Beerst

DATE: 16th January 2025