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PRESENT: Claire Summers (Chair), Natalie Jolliffe (Vice chair), Shagun Bansal (Treasurer), Niloufer Jamal (Secretary), Lucy Prior (Committee Member), Jenny Brown (CM), Lisa Gammon (CM), Emma Butterworth (Committee Member), Vanessa Sharpe, Gemma Ferguson, Caz Powell, Maria Khan, Bill Mew, Emma Mew, Ami Parker, Mandy Hill
Virtual attendees: Nicki Taylor (CM), Emma Claridge (CM)
1. APOLOGIES: Candi Roberts (Headteacher), Sarah Seddon, Sara O’Malley (CM), Samantha Walker (CM), Ben Dryland (CM)
2. Chair Update- Claire Summers
- CS welcomed everyone and invited introductions from all
- CS said we’d had a busy term and included main highlights:
Discos - Thanks to Nicki & her team for successfully running all discos.
Cinema club - Thanks to Sam and all parent volunteers for the recent cinema club. It’s worth noting we didn’t sell out tickets for the first time ever
Second hand uniform sales have been going smoothly. Thanks to Lydia & team
Playground sales team have been testing which sales work best and planning for future events. Thanks to Jennie & her team for their running.
- Big thank you to the Year 2 group of parents for volunteering to organise the Summer Fete
- Thank you to Emma B and her trusty team for organising the upcoming Clarefest
- Thanks to Lucy for organising the Easter Egg hunt at the end of term too
- Feedback from CS’s recent meeting with Mrs Roberts: there was discussion on potential pledged funding for the school including £15,000 for IT, improving the trim trail (the school are currently involving the children in choosing pieces for the trail) and wet weather canopies for the playgrounds.
- We received 103 replies from the recent feedback survey - thanks to all who participated.
- Financial reports are up to date. We have formally submitted fully audited the 2021-22 and the 2022-23 accounts. Thank you to Andrew Gray our volunteer auditor (and parent!) for his work supporting this.
3. Treasurer Update
- Natalie Jolliffe presented the financial report for the YTD figures. The PTA is now using Xero which is making tracking and reporting much easier.
- The Committee was asked to note the healthy bank balance of £29,943 but forthcoming expected donations to school of a minimum of £16,000 with unknown amounts for trim trail and maslow corner investments. highlights the importance of profit from Clarefest and Summer Fete.
- Some of our events and their corresponding profits are listed before:
Playground sales - £2,698
Discos - £1,507
Cinema Club - £1,397
Xmas Wreath Making - £1,051
Second hand uniform - £1,007
- Worth noting that Bank interest earned us £254 and Committee noted more balance should be put into savings to generate interest while waiting for invoices from the school.
- Donations to school YTD of £12,380 included £8,000 for the new pathway, netball kit, DT expenses, parking signs, theatre trips & classroom expenses.
- Potential future expenditure to school (not yet voted on nor paid) is IT, Y6 Leaver’s Book & BBQ, Trim trail (field/playground equipment) & the wet weather canopies for Maslow’s corner (unknown amounts).
Expense Policy:
- NJ highlighted that one recommendation from the auditor was to update our financial controls and expenses policy. THis policy has been recently introduced but been reviewed. CS & NJ proposed that for small expenses (eg. Christmas lunch hats), there is a threshold under which the whole committee doesn’t have to approve the expense, proposed level £250.
Action:
Niloufer to circulate the final expense policy to the committee.
Natalie to publish all policies to the website
4. Feedback Survey: Claire Summers
- We received 103 responses which were mostly positive with lots of support from the parent body.
Below is some of the feedback received along with our response:
- One clear and helpful piece of feedback was that not all PTA events are SEN friendly.
Thanks to the SEN parents for coming along to the meeting to discuss this further:
- Some of the suggestions brought up at the meeting included a breakout space at Cinema Club, quiet space in the library during the discos, silent discos, special zones at Clarefest for SEN children. Parents noted that the brochure for the Summer Fete previously printed are helpful with preparation for the event.
- An idea was raised to include in the newsletter how we’re making events more SEN friendly which will help raise awareness
Action: PTA to consider SEN needs for each event - starting with Clarefest. Emma B to work with SEN families to incorporate a SEN area at Clarefest.
Action: SEN families to send a representative to each PTA meeting.
Action: PTA to highlight changes being made to help raise awareness of SEN.
- Playground sales - some support but quite a lot of consistent comments about their frequency, too much sugar/plastic and are too expensive. New suggestions included selling seeds for a sunflower growing contest, summer activity packs, craft kits, plant sales for Mother’s Day, Glitz & Glam (jewellery, etc).
Action: PTA to consider this feedback in planning future sales.
- Second hand uniform - suggestion to include other items such as coats and wellies in the second hand uniform sales. The logistical issue is storage, volunteers to take individual pictures for the website, etc. There is, however, potential to include them in the in person sale.
Action: PTA to pass on the feedback to second hand uniform leads to consider for future sales.
- Lots of new ideas from the survey - forest school, craft/music clubs, serving mulled wine/ coffee at events, car boot sale, christmas fair. This discussion generated further ideas in the meeting - a sponsored walk to school week, a park run in which schools & charities can do it alongside each other, a cultural event/cultural food night and quiz night.
Action: Holly to include a call to all parents in the newsletter to help implement these lovely ideas.
- When asked do you feel engaged with the PTA, a quarter said no (not got time/not interested) - Suggestion for PTA to come up with different ways in which parents can engage e.g. asking for volunteers to do small, easy jobs, spelling out time commitment etc.
Action: PTA to be as clear as possible about the time commitment for involvement and to streamline comms/asks to help parents engage.
- The main negative feedback points were around inclusivity - to have less focus on fundraising and more about community/building relationship with the school, and to ensure the feedback is acted on.
Action: PTA to consider inclusivity and enhancing community further when taking decisions/designing events - as an example, in this meeting, it was decided to not push donation opportunity around the Easter Egg hunt.
Action: PTA to publish a full summary of the results of the feedback survey and actions as part of these meeting minutes.
Action: PTA to encourage all parents to all meetings to continue a two way diaglogue.
5. Christmas Cards: Emma Claridge
- Last year’s cards raised £380 which is a little lower than usual. This could be due to the artwork return date being earlier.
- Emma has looked into schoolfundraising.co.uk whose artwork deadline is Nov 15. They offer tree ornaments, posters, fridge magnets and cards and work out cheaper than the current company as well.
- Emma B suggested a Christmas craft kit with make your own cards but to also keep the competition for best artwork running.
Action: Emma C to find out if final product delivery can take place earlier with the new company and revert at the next meeting.
6. Planned Events:
Easter Eggs - Lucy Prior
- The egg hunt is set to take place next week with Year 3 doing it a day earlier due to a school trip being scheduled on the same day.
- Clear messaging to be sent out to parents/carers of children with allergies regarding providing basket contents or emailing school if children are allowed to have the contents of the basket provided by the PTA.
Chip-in
- We currently are at 48 direct debits out of 340 families
- Following feedback from the survey, Chip-in’s focus on IT was discussed as some parents felt it didn’t sit well with them. Discussion on whether we should take Chip-in focus from IT and allow it for broader uses - consensus was it is still early days and there’s a opportunity to relaunch in Sept 2024 with the new in-take. Agreed to not push chip-in alongside Easter but look for other opportunities.
Clarefest:
- No current sponsor for Clarefest. We need to find a sponsor for this year or will need to consider putting up ticket prices.
- Recruitment of professional security was discussed and approved. Ticket policy will be updated to clearlyexplain behaviours expected, alcohol consumption and responsibility for children remaining with parents.
Action: Niloufer & Holly to put out a message on comms looking for a sponsor and all to ask any contacts.
Action: Niloufer & Holly to message on comms asking for volunteers to shadow Emma B for next year to take on Clarefest.
Summer Fete:
- Batchellor Monkhouse have confirmed sponsorship of £1500.
- The Summer fete team has put in an expense request for £3,730 (for PA, bins, tuck shop, animal stall, bar, toilets, bouncy castles, tokens). All committee members present voted in favour of the expenditure.
7. AOB:
- New idea raised to set up an Amazon wishlist for any items needed by the PTA and shared with all , and also for school to set up their own.
- New idea raised for any uniform that isn’t suitable for sale could be offered for free on the website.
- New idea raised for families donating holiday change/foreign currency (through children filling boxes of raisins/jam jars, etc)
Action: Vanessa to find out how this money can be deposited
The next meeting will be Monday, April 22nd. 7:30pm
APPROVAL OF MINUTES BY CHAIR OF MEETING:
SIGN: C Summers
DATE: 16th April 2024
APPENDIX 1
CLAREMONT PTA FEEDBACK SURVEY