Meeting Minutes 11th February 2026

11/02/2026 – School Hall 7pm

Attendees present: 

Axelle Joos de ter Beerst AJ (Chair, Lisa Gammon LG (Secretary), Shagun Bansal SB (Treasurer), Jenny Brown JB (CM), Marta Zielinska MZ (CM -Teacher), Ami Parker AP2 (CM), Becky O’Brien BO, Lucy Prior LP (CM), Candi Roberts CR (CM- Headteacher), , Rachel Mackenzie, Nikki Webb NW (CM),Julia Beath JB (CM)

Apologies: 

Gemma Ferguson GF (CM), Natalie Jolliffe NJ (CM), Anna Pearson AP1 (CM), Zoe Phillimore ZP (CM), Claire Summers CS (CMP)

1.    Chair’s Update – AJ

Axelle thanked everyone for their efforts towards successful terms 1 & 2.

2.    Financial Summary – SB as at 11.02.26

Overall, we have a healthy bank account, thanks to successful events.

• £55,448 Cash at Bank and in Hand.

• £6,172 Current Profit from events run from September 2025 to current date.

• Top three profitable events: Wreath Making- Parents Festive Party- Second Uniform

• ChipIn Direct Donations £5,453

• Operating Profit £2,578

3.    Debrief on Terms 1& 2 – AJ

Overall, committee members felt this term went as planned.

AP2 highlighted they have a box of Christmas hats collected from the Christmas meals over the years, probably like most families. Rather than buy 400+ hats each year, should we consider asking children to bring their own hats or boppers and have spares for anyone who doesn’t have hats.

Secret Room went very well. Many donations received which meant not as many additional gifts needed to be purchased.

4.    Parent Survey – AJ

Axelle’s noted that the parent survey received 64 responses from a total of 440 families. Axelle felt the response rate was insufficient to provide a representative reflection of parental views. The results will be taken as directional feedback, and shared on our website in due course. The committee read through the Parent survey results PowerPoint. Please see document saved to DropBox for more information. 

5. Annual events for the year and lead person- discuss new updates & outstanding action points:

5.1 Discos NW

o   Years 5&6 - 90 ticket sold disco sold out. Very happy for silent disco to continue for this year group.

o   Years 3&4- Questions raised as to whether silent disco is the best format for these year groups. A poll was sent to each class asking parents to vote for their preference silent discos or DJ Lollipop. Overall silent discos had the majority vote however; there was still a strong vote for DJ Lollipop. General feeling was that a DJ brings the room together and everyone dancing to same song. In contrast, DJ lollipop discos you tend to find children sitting out whilst they wait for a sing they like. Silent discos allow for multiple channels with a mix of music. Nicki will revisit the format for next year’s discos.

o   All other year groups format will stay the same.

o   Feedback- Song request option and child collection information at ticket sale. Silent discos not to occur in the same week as there is a lot of admin and setup to complete.

o   If a mobile phone needs to be checked during event, adults can use the staff room.

5.2 Quiz Night        AP2

Due to work commitments Ami Parker can no longer commit to this event.

Action Point: PTA to advertise vacancy.

5.3 Silent Auction AP1

Silent Auction will form part for Summer Fete.

5.4 Cinema Club   AJ

New Lead Fran Green and Andrew Phillimore-

Date: Monday 27^th April

Film: Zootropolis 2

5.5 Easter Egg Hunt  LP

o   Date confirmed Thursday 2^nd April

o   Easter Bunny and volunteers confirmed

o   Budget approved 700

o   Comms- LP and Steph (from the office) are in discussions as to how they can improve the communications regarding allergies. School will help with directly communicating/reaching out to impacted children.

o   Idea- to email families with allergies directly highlighting the process for chocolate alternatives. Also, teachers can post a message on Teams reiterating the allergy process.

5.6 School Fete     AJ

A group of Year 2 parents have kindly come forward to lead the Fete this year. Previous Fete team have met with the parents and completed a handover. Axelle, Lisa and Natalie are meeting with the new team Friday 13^th February to go over the plan and budget. Committee to expect to receive an email Fete expense vote Friday evening.

The Silent Auction will take place alongside the Fete. Axelle asked the committee if everyone was happy that the Silent Auction has its own stall and lead by Ash class, instead of that class leading a game stall. Committee were happy with the silent auction prizes being present on the day, it’s good for advertising the prizes and a convenient way to collect on the day. Committee support the way it works and make it easy for the team to achieve the goal.

5.7 Clarefest          AJ

Communicated points noted at Clarefest meeting held on 29^th January with Carmen, Giles, Axelle, Lisa and Shagun. 

Carmen requires a strong second in command to help with running the event especially the days leading up to 16th, on the day and clear up. Second in command shadowing with the intention of taking over lead for 2027. Since the meeting Natasha Collins has agreed to take on the role.

Reflections on last year.

o   The lack of volunteers made it very time consuming and stressful on a limited number of people.  Especially the lead up to the event and over the whole weekend. The heavy lifting from field to tank room and clear up especially.

o   To prevent a repeat of last: Do we scale back and not have as many stalls? This will impact token sales and therefore profit.  Is this something we’re happy to accept.

o   Do we pay for an outsourced clear up team. This particular task was a disaster and very stressful last year due to lack of helpers. Recoup the cost by increasing the ticket price.

o   Volunteers confirmed: Bar, BBQ, Music, Marketing, First Aider, Popcorn and sweet stall

o   To reduce the requests for volunteers on the day, Carmen will consider scaling back the number of entrainment stalls.

o   Ticket price Proposal – Small increase raising an extra £800 potentially.

2025 Ticket Price

·      Adult £14

·      Kids £3.50

·      Under 1s free

2026- Proposal

·      £15 adult 2026 (increase by £1- will raise extra £800 on ticket sales)

·      £4 kids (increase by 50p- many children are also older)

·      Under 1s free

·      Pupil Premium option at ticket purchase

·      £38 for family of four (extra £3 per family)

5.8 WBD Fancy Dress Sale   JB

JB checked the current stock, there’s not enough items to arrange a sale nor the time to collect donations for this WBD.

Action Point:  Send comms out to collect donations for next year.    

6.    Committee Votes

o   New Vice Chair: Rachel Mackenzie has volunteered to take on the Vice Chair role. Rachel has Millie in Saplings and another child who will join Claremont.

• Axelle nominates Rachel and Mrs Roberts’ seconds nomination.

• All committee members present vote in agreement of her position.

Action Point: LG to update the Charity Commission website.

o   Outdoor Storage: The school’s woodland field is in desperate need of a storage container for the children’s belongings during activities held on this field. School would ideally like two a robust shed and with shelves inside. School have proposed a school equipment supplier. Two sheds will cost £863.98 Inc vat and currently on offer. Delivered already built. Three week lead time.

Mrs Robert’s has asked that the event leads to take responsibility for clearing the shed after each event.

All committee members present vote yes to the expenses.

o   Clarefest Budget- Intend to roll over much of the structure as last year.

• Carmen has requested a slight increase in expenses to act as a buffer. At this moment in time, she has not received any quotes. Therefore, doesn’t know how much the costs have increased by this year, if any.

• Uplift the expenses slightly from £12,500k (2025) to £13k with the full intention of working towards £12k (actual expenses from 2025).

All committee members present vote yes to the expenses.

o   Summer Fete budget- Budget and plan will be discussed Friday 13^th February. Email vote for Fete expenses will be sent after this meeting.

7. AOB

First Aid training. JB proposed the need for volunteers to become first aid trained as finding first aiders to commit to events is always a challenge.

• Event Leads becoming first aid trained would be ideal.

• Potential service providers

• St Johns Ambulance. 1 Day course £150pp

• Piggyback school’s inhouse first aider course programme.

Action Point: Miss Zielinski will ask the school

• Make it a parent event. A booked event paid by parents not the PTA.

• AJ noted that any training would need to be covered by the individual.

Christmas Parents Party 2026- Committee agree the 2025 party was a great success and wish for another to be planned for 2026.

Chipin – How can we showcase ChipIn alongside IT provisions.

Need to find another way to inform parents that ChipIn is an important donation towards the school’s educational services. IT contributes towards all IT provisions; IT licensing, IT security, educational programmes, maintaining and replenishing equipment, classroom interactive whiteboards.

PTA’s annual commitment of £15k is half the required funds, school contributes the other half. 

Idea: Afternoon arrangements like the Phonics programme for parents. Showcase IT provisions

Action Point: LG to ask Lucy Prior, if she would be happy to continue conversations with Mrs R.

Phone misuse during school disco. A child witnessed another child taking pictures on her phone when she was near her bag. Mrs Robert will take this back to teachers to discuss how they prevent this from happening again. Initial thought is for those attending the disco, their phones remain in the designated box until the end of the disco.

Signed by Chair

Axelle Joos de ter Beerst

17th March 2026

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 Thursday 2nd April 2026.

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 3,000 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 food dietary requirement?

The chocolate purchased by the PTA contains milk, soya and egg. Whilst not specifically, it may also contain peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, cashews, macadamia nuts, pecan nuts, pistachio nuts, walnuts, nuts, wheat/gluten and barley.

If your child has any dietary requirement 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 Monday 30th March (to the school office only.

2) if your child has dietary requirement 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 2nd April they can collect their Easter basket from the school office after the Easter break.

Thank you for your support

AGM Minutes 13th October 2025

If you'd like any further information or have any questions on any of this please don't hesitate to get in touch.

CLAREMONT PRIMARY SCHOOL PTA

13th October 2025 – Claremont School Hall 7-9pm

Members Present:

Axelle Joos de ter Beerst (Chair) Natalie Jolliffe (Vice Chair) Lisa Gammon (Secretary)

Committee Members: Claire Summers, Zoe Phillimore, Julia Beath, Candie Roberts, Marta Zielinska, Gemma Ferguson, Ami Parker, Becky O’Brien,

Apologies:

Lucy Prior, Anna Pearson, Jenny Brown, Nikki Webb, Shagun Bansal (Treasurer)

Agenda:

1.        Chair’s Welcome

2.        Chair’s Annual Report

3.        PTA Committee: resignations and appointments

4.        AGM Treasurer’s Report

5.        Looking Ahead to this Year - Events, Why We Need You and Vacancies

6.        AOB/ Q&A

1. Chair’s Welcome:

Axelle Joos de ter Beerst (Chair) welcomed everyone to the 2025 AGM, thanking all the committee members, friends of the PTA, Mrs Roberts and the school staff for their time and dedication supporting the PTA. The support contributed towards raising a remarkable £72k during the 24/25 school year and donating a total of £50k to the school.

A reminder for new attendees, why we exist…

• To continue developing more extended relationships between the staff, parents and others associated with the school

• Engage in activities which support and advance the education of the pupils attending it,

• Provide and assist in the provisions of facilities for education at the school.

2. Chair’s Annual Report:

Highlights:

Chip-In was launched two years go now raising £9,800 annually as of 31st August 2025. Axelle thanked Ben, Jon, and Lucy for their contributions to the success of this initiative.

Flagship Events: Clarefest and the Summer Fete continued to be highly successful, with increased profits this year. Axelle thanked the teams who coordinated these events.

Playground Sales Has become a regular income stream (3rd highest earner for the PTA). Jennie was thanked for her superb efforts in managing them.

New Parent Lead Becky O’Brien ran a successful New Parents Drinks event on Friday 11th October. Throughout the night we received lots of interest in parents wanting to help the PTA.

Reflections:

School Funding: Axelle highlighted the regular communications between herself and Mrs Roberts discussing the positive work undertaken by the PTA, as well as the increasing challenges of school funding.  Axelle is very mindful that there’s been a shift in families available time to help at PTA events and that we need to consider adapting events to suit this change.

Volunteers: With key individuals leaving, there is a pressing need for new volunteers to run events. Currently, there is no team in place to run the Summer Fete 2026 and Playground Sales.

Community: The sense of community spirit among Claremont families is precious and has a positive impact on the children. Protecting this spirit is fundamental to the PTA’s mission.

3. PTA Committee: resignations and appointments

Resignations:

• The following committee members or friends of the PTA resigned: Ben Dryland (ChipIn), Emma Doward (Xmas Cards), Emma Butterworth (Clarefest), Sam Walker (Cinema Club) and Jennie Maslin Fong (Playground Sales). On behalf of the PTA committee and friends, Axelle thanked them for their time and dedication to supporting the PTA over the years, their contributions to the success of the PTA have been invaluable.

• Natalie Jolliffe – Vice Chair- has resigned as a trustee and become a committee member, to continue to support and guide the PTA as and when it’s required. Natalie has served as a trustee for seven fabulous years and contributed hugely to the PTA’s core as it stands today. Her unwavering commitment to the PTA’s success over the years has been outstanding. On behalf of the PTA committee and friends, Axelle thanked Natalie.

• On behalf of the school, Mrs Roberts also thanked those members stepping down for all their hard work and time given to supporting the children and the school. Natalie has been a super trustee and a truly valuable person to have on the team.  The collaboration between the PTA and the school is very much cherished.

Appointments:

Reappointments- The following trustees and committee members were all unanimously reelected.

Trustees: Axelle Joos de ter Beerst (Chair) Lisa Gammon (Secretary) Shagun Bansal (Treasurer). Committee Members: Claire Summers, Zoe Phillimore, Julia Beath, Candie Roberts, Marta Zielinska, Gemma Ferguson, Ami Parker, Becky O’Brien, Lucy Prior, Anna Pearson, Jenny Brown, Nikki Webb. Appointments- Natalie Jolliffe was nominated to stay on the committee and was unanimously re-elected.

Axelle displayed a chart outlining the new committee structure and thanked the many volunteers who support the PTA in various roles, beyond the formal Committee roles. It was highlighted that if the current vacancies are not filled, we are at risk of losing £27k profit this school year.

4. AGM Treasurer’s Report:

Income for the year: £72,000, a £10,000 increase compared to the previous year. This is a huge sum of income, the largest income since Natalie’s 7 years on the PTA. The extra profit came from the Summer Fete £2k, Clarefest £1k, Playground Sales and increase in donations from Gift Aid.

Event Performance: Hugely successful events all year round. Clarefest and Summer Fete accounting for 65% of the profit.

Direct donations/Chip-In accounted for £14k + Gift Aid claimed we reached our £15k target.

Expenditure and Donations:

◦  Total Expenditure: £23,987

◦  £50k donated to the school

◦  £15k allocated for IT support

◦  £23,042 allocated to Maslow’s Corner Wet Weather Outdoor Canopy

◦  £3,603 allocated to trim trail playground equipment

◦   £2,601 allocated to library refurbishment

◦   Annual contributions for classroom expenses, pantomime, and Year 6 activities.

 Balance Sheet (as of 31 August 2025): Total cash in bank and hand was £34,024

5. Looking Ahead to this Year – Events, Why We Need You, and Vacancies:

Axelle highlighted several key events for the 2025-2026 academic year and stressed the importance of volunteers for their success. Overall, the PTA plans to continue with the same events subject to volunteers.

Events and Vacancies:

•  Vice-Chair: new person needed to ideally follow into chairs role in future years although this is not expected nor required to take on the role

•  Clarefest: Carmen will lead for another year but needs to recruit a team of at least ten people to sub lead specific areas

•  Summer Fete: Needs a team to lead the event

•  Playground Sales: Needs a lead

•  Other Open Volunteer Roles:

◦ Become a ‘Friend of the PTA’

◦ Christmas tree coordinator. Lisa Gammon has agreement from Mr Hume to have help from four year 6 pupils to help decorate the trees alongside the lead.

◦Volunteers’ Open Morning: Help serving tea and coffee

•   New events:

◦ Quiz night will be lead by Ami Parker and Natalie Jolliffe. Mrs Roberts has signed off for it to take place in the school hall. This is due to happen springtime when PTA events are typically quieter.

◦ Silent Auction is going to occur as a solo event and not during the Summer Fete. Mainly due to Anna Pearson (who leads this) stepping away from the Fete but happy to lead this separately.

◦ We are open to new ideas for events if parents would like to put their thoughts forward to us.

Why We Need You

Axelle emphasised that the PTA’s ability to run successful events depends on the active participation of parents.  Axelle outlined potential future initiatives for the PTA to fund, including curtains for the school hall, outdoor storage huts in the woods field, redevelop the early years outdoor play equipment. 

We received a marvellous £5k from the Tesco grant initiative lead by Emma Doward which will go towards the outdoor play equipment initiative- a huge thank you to Emma for leading this!

Mrs Roberts explained the reasons behind the need for new curtains. The school hall has recently been refurbished and when the curtains were taken down in preparation for decorating, they fell apart. Due to the size of them and the mechanical fixtures and fittings, the school can only fund the replacement for two windows. The school would be grateful for contributions to finish the room, they are key to blocking out the sun, as well as keeping it warm during the winter. The school hall is the hub of the school with multiply uses, including a place where the school regularly comes together, as well as the school and the community to share precious memories. The hall is also used for PTA events including cinema club which requires curtain closure to operate successfully.

AOB:

•   Claire Summers asked Mrs Roberts; What’s the latest with funding?

Grants from Government are static – no increase in funding. The school doesn’t receive grants from the Government because there are limited numbers of disadvantaged pupils on roll.

o   Pay rises are not fully funded, it must come from the school’s main budget. 

o   The local funding has reduced significantly compared to 15/20years ago, there’s just not enough money to rejuvenate the school or replenishment. This comes from the school’s limited capital budget

o   The reality is we need funding in areas that make the school visually fun.

o   School does try to match fund the PTA’s donations, for example the library refurbishment and school path.

Summer Fete: The core purpose of this event is the community spirit that it brings rather than it being a money-making event. Feedback received from this year’s summertime events, was that families are exhausted, then there’s with the added help required for the Fete off the back of Clarefest. For the PTA, it’s hard to juggle the timings of these successful events because both require to be outside, so we need the summertime weather. To reduce the pressure on parent volunteers, we are considering getting all children more involved to help at stalls, come up with new ideas, pricing and marketing- treat it like a business project!

New Parents: Ask parents for their event ideas, we might receive more engagement this way. Set up a virtual brainstorming Q&A to make it easy and convenient for as many parents to join the discussion.

Parent Survey: Revisit sending out a new parent survey, which is also an opportunity for parents to inform us what skills they have to offer to the PTA.

Socials: Plan to post more news and updates through Instagram this year to capture those who follow us, especially in the early years or those new to the school.

Children Engagement- Another idea to improve engagement with all families, is for the PTA to provide survey questions for the children to canvas at drop off and pick up. Also, get children to interview committee members about the summer fete for example, to build awareness and hopefully get parents more engaged.

Collaboration: To help build on the collaboration between school and the PTA, the school website now includes a PTA tab on the home page, as well as our events forming part of the school calendar. 

Vice Chair succession planning: Claire Summers wanted to say thank you to Natalie for everything she has done for the PTA over the past 7 years. It shouldn’t go unnoticed that she has been a significant cog in the wheel in making the PTA successful. The PTA has arranged an open morning for volunteers to hear about the how they can help, alongside sharing information about the openings within the PTA.

The next committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, 14th January 2026 8pm at The Claremont Pub.

Signed by Chair

————————-Axelle Joos de ter Beerst ————————

Dated: 11/11/25