2023 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 31st March.

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?

Please donate if you can through our localgiving page adding Gift Aid if eligible to make your donation go further. We are suggesting a donation of £5 per child this year if you can.

Alternatively, you can donate by texting the below (although please note the company take 5% of your donation as commission so localgiving with gift aid is much preferred):

CLAREMONT 5 to 70085 to donate £5 (or CLAREMONT 10 for £10, etc, up to £20).

Why are we asking for donations?

The PTA is buying over 4,000 chocolate treats up front!

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 an allergy to any of these please can you donate specific sweets for your child in a bag CLEARLY LABELLED with the child’s full name and class name. Please hand this either to the class teacher or school office by Thursday 31st March. We have included some photos in this blog of what the chocolate basket contents will be if you want to know what to aim for.

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. No child will be excluded regardless of donations received. 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!).

Thank you for your support!

Term 4 Teaser

Term 4 Teaser

No, we can’t believe it’s almost Term 4 either! With your help, we have raised over £7,000 so far this year, so we have lots of fun plans for Term 4 to help build towards our target of £40,000 for the year.

New School Lottery

We will be setting up a Claremont lottery through “your school lottery”. You’ll be able to buy a weekly ticket for just £1 and be in with the chance of winning a £25,000 jackpot each week, as well as a smaller prize (30% of Claremont ticket sales) that is guaranteed to come to a Claremont ticket holder. The PTA will also directly receive 40% of all ticket sales. Our first draw will be on Saturday 11th March - so watch this space how to buy your tickets!

Tea Towels

After half term, the children will be drawing self-portraits in class which the PTA will turn into a bespoke tea towel for every year group. Parents will have the opportunity to buy 1, 3 or more, through our website. The PTA will order the tea towels and they’ll be delivered back to school, probably after Easter. It’s a wonderful memento and the PTA makes a small commission from each sale.

Cinema Club

Cinema club is open for Years 1 -6 and next term will take place after school on Monday 20th March. The film will be DC League of Super-Pets (PG rating). Tickets will be on sale after half term.

After School Discos

We’re working hard to bring the discos back as we know how much the children love them. We are hopeful that Term 4 will see the first disco of the year, for Years 5 and 6, and then further discos will take place later in the year for Years 3 and 4 (April), Years 1 and 2 (May) and Reception children (June).

Easter Egg Hunt

An event held within the school day that is a real Claremont highlight for the children, especially when they spot our special guest, the Easter bunny!

This year, it will be on Friday 31st March. In the week before, the children will make baskets within their class and the PTA purchases thousands upon thousands of eggs which then get carefully sorted into each basket. The baskets are hidden around the school grounds for children to hunt out during their class’ timed slot.

Second Hand Uniform

Our monthly online sales will continue with the next one on 4th - 5th March. We will also have an in-person playground sale before the Easter holidays to help you prepare for the switch to summer uniform on 1st May.

Where will I get more info?

Further information on all of the above will be rolled out after half-term through the weekly bulletin sent by the school office, our website, social media and class reps. To get news directly, make sure you’re signed up as a member on our website and following us on social media.

In the meantime, we wish you a wonderful half term and look forward to seeing you after the break.

Summer Term events - how you can help

With the turn of the year, the PTA Committee is turning it’s attention to the two flagship events of the year that take place in the Summer Term - Clarefest and the Summer Fete. These events do not run themselves and can only be as large as the number of volunteers we have to organise them. We are now looking to the whole PTA community to help us. Remember that all of you as parents are automatically PTA members. The Committee has overall responsibility for the running of the Charity but every parent of the school is a key member of the PTA. Today, we are writing about what you can expect from these events and where we still need help. Whilst with some of our events we are lucky to have the same group of friends running them year after year, this is not the case with the Summer Fete. At the moment, the Summer Fete does not have enough volunteers to make it viable so please read on to help us get it off the ground…

The first major event is Clarefest on Saturday 20th May from 2-8pm.

Clarefest is when Glastonbury comes to Tunbridge Wells! It’s a day of musical festival fun where you can enjoy local music, buy food, drink and partake in lots of fun activities such as crafts and inflatables. It is ticketed (tickets will be on sale after Easter) and only open to Claremont families. As with all our events, Clarefest is run by volunteer parents and we are very lucky to have the wonderful Emma Butterworth and friends running it again this year but there are still some areas where we will need the wider parent body to help out.

How can I help?

We would love someone/a small group of friends to run the ever popular craft stall again this year. Please contact Emma at ecbutterwoth@gmail.com if you can help. We will also need volunteers the day before and on the day to set up and help various stalls running efficiently. For this you can volunteer nearer the time.

Later in the term, we have the Summer Fete.

We hope to run this on Saturday 1st July from 12-3pm. Unlike Clarefest, it is open to the whole community. At the Fete there are all your usual fete fun and games such as hook a duck, lucky dip, sponge a teacher, tombolas as well as entertainment, food and drink offerings.

Why does the PTA Committee have to ask for help?

The nature of the Fete requires even more hands to help out than Clarefest. It’s a big event for the whole community to enjoy and so again, many hands make light work. Last year, it raised £6,000 for the PTA so it’s a vital event as well as heaps of fun for all. The stalls cannot run themselves. Traditionally we allocate each class a stall which they organise and run on the day. There is also a core team of coordinators to oversee all the different parts. These roles have been split into manageable bite-size chunks so no-one has to take on too much. It’s this in particular that we need help with.

What help is needed?

At the moment we have only a handful of volunteers for the core coordinating team. You could do one job with a few friends to make it even easier - and feedback from last year was that it is surprisingly fun! Plus you aren’t expected to make anything up from scratch. There is a formula to follow and the Committee will brief, guide, support and help out as much as needed.

Please, please, please do come forward if you can help with:

• Overall coordination - we need 2/3 more individuals to help ensure there are people doing all the things needed in the run up and on the day (with time out scheduled on the rota so you can enjoy the fete with your family).

• Coordinator/s of the donation stalls (incl. sweets tombola, teddy tombola, bottle tombola, fancy dress and book stall): to organise the donation mornings, liaise with the lead for these stalls, ensure volunteer rotas complete and volunteers briefed as to how to run the stalls.

• Coordinator/s for activity stalls (incl. Hook a duck, sponge a teacher etc): to organise prizes, ensure equipment is working/available, liaise with the lead for these stalls, ensure volunteer rotas completed and volunteers briefed as to how to run the stalls.

• External vendor coordinator - research / book external vendors, be key contact point before and on the day, record insurance/public liability certs, ensure smooth arrival/departure.

• BBQ Coordinator/s - organising food, plan set up, secure volunteers and ensure runs smoothly on the day.

What might happen if we can’t fill these roles?

The Fete can only be as big as the volunteers we have to run it. In the worst case scenario, we will not be able to run the fete this year. If we get some volunteers, we may be able to run it on a smaller scale, outsource some aspects or run it as a children-only fete within school like we did in 2021.

Will it be worth me helping out?

YES! The events can only be successful where many hands make light work. Both events are an amazing day of fun for all the family to enjoy and last year raised an incredible amount - over £10,000 from Clarefest and over £6,000 from the Summer Fete. All this money goes straight back into the school. So any help you can offer, makes a massive difference.

Remember as well that if you are employed by a company who offers corporate matching, they may match the money you raise while volunteering for us. For example, if you spend 30 minutes on the bar and raise £100, your company might double it for nothing!

Thank you for reading and we look forward to hearing from you.