Introducing Western Family & Friends Group

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1 Introducing Western Family & Friends Group The Western Family & Friends group is a key part of the Western community. We aim to enhance the school experience for our children and support the school; it s also a great way to get to know other parents and carers. We would like to thank everyone for all their help and support last year, and to welcome all new parents to the school. We hope to build on our successes from last year, and make as fun packed as possible for all. This document aims to provide an overview of our plans this year, and we will provide an update on our progress at the beginning of each new term. In addition, please see our section in the weekly school newsletter for any breaking news. Organisation We are an informal, open, eclectic group of parents with an appetite to get involved and make a difference to the school community. Please join in, all offers of help, however big or small are very welcome! Each class has a Class Representative, and a collection of parents who form the Year Group team. These parents work directly with the teachers to support and enhance school life where possible, and arrange a few nights out along the way too! In addition to the year teams, the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) team coordinates activities across the school, and liaises with parents, the Headteacher and Governors to reflect parent views, and to drive fundraising activities. For the list of our new team members, please see the appendix to this letter. How can I help? We hope to encourage all parents to get involved, both mums and dads, maybe helping children in the classroom to read, playing beat the goalie at the fair, letting your hair down at the summer ball, or providing professional support to the school if appropriate getting involved and spending time at Western really does make a huge difference and helps to build the school community for the benefit of all. There is no limit to the type of help we could use from cake baking to funding applications, bar tending to social media skills if you would like to get involved then we would be very grateful. There s no requirement to join a year group team or the PTA, if you have an idea or would be happy to organise an event, we would be keen to support you.

2 Playground Update We are excited to confirm we are close to reaching our playground refurbishment target of 40,000 with 30,000 in the bank. The master plan has been signed off by the School and School Governors and we are busy applying for grants from both the public and private sector to make up the shortfall in our fundraising. The whole scheme will cost in the region of 120,000 split out into 5 phases which allows us to schedule the works appropriately and also to apply for a number of smaller grants to cover the whole cost. Phase 1 will be the multi-use sports pitch which will cost in the region of 40,000 Currently we have an opportunity to apply for the Aviva Community grant, so if anyone is an Aviva customer, could you contact Julie_howard@btconnect.com. There s an online submission which takes a couple of minutes to complete, and could award us 200 per customer. Hopefully our submission will be successful, and we will then ask parents to vote once nominated. Fundraising We are still basking in our success from last year we exceeded our target and raised 18,210. As promised, 2400 has been provided to the Key Stage Leaders to be spent on their children ( 600 per key stage), 1250 to the school technology fund, and 14,560 to the playground. This year, we will continue to with our efforts, with the aim to raise 20,000. We plan to continue to our playground activities, and in parallel we will support the technology fund. We will work with Mrs Smith to understand the needs of the school in the coming weeks and then communicate our goals accordingly.

3 Event Planning Our fundraising activities last year were many and varied. We would be keen to repeat the success again this year, and would welcome all ideas and offers of help wherever possible. We already have a number of events planned, and would like to offer more we just can t do it on our own. If you could offer to support the organisers below, or would be happy to arrange an event please contact us. You can contact the organiser directly via Classlist, or us at westernprimarypta@gmail.com and we ll be happy to help.

4 Employer Match Funding To encourage employees to volunteer in the community, many employers run Corporate Social Responsibility schemes. Many offer match funding to their employees, which results in the money raised from an activity being matched (i.e. doubled) by the employer. We have been fortunate enough to benefit from such arrangements in the past, and would like to encourage anyone to spend an hour or two to flip burgers or sell Christmas trees, or whatever takes your fancy, as this is a really great fundraising option for us.

5 Online shopping Thank you to all the parents who have signed up to our Easyfundraising site. We now have 106 people registered and our fundraising total grows gradually each week. Our total currently stands at 825. It s such a simple way to raise money one small primary school has raised 11,000 so there s huge potential for Western. We are hoping to encourage more parents, friends, grandparents etc. to register this term, as it would be great to benefit from the online Christmas shopping frenzy! Please go to and search for Western Family and Friends. You can download a donation reminder so each time you shop at an affiliated site such as Asda, Amazon, Boden, John Lewis, Travelodge etc. a donation will be made to the school. Gift Aid To take advantage of the gift aid tax advantage, we have two Justgiving sites available online. If you would like to make a donation, or would like to use this site for a fundraising event, please see the links below: Pre-loved donations One of the age-old challenges facing parents today.our children just grow up so quickly! So, please consider Western as a grateful recipient of the following: Toys, books, fancy dress classes throughout the school, from our toddler group through to Year 6, or to the Christmas fair School uniform donate to our second hand uniform sale each term Clothing bags2school will pay us for our old clothes and recycle Smartphones old handsets, even broken ones can be used by school for some incredible Google technology headsets

6 Classlist We all live busy lives, and in an effort to build relationships and develop the school community, we have worked with school to introduce Classlist. We have a press release planned and are pleased to announce we have raised 540 to date. In addition to assisting the school communications, the platform is designed to help parents communicate, both with school and with other parents. So, if you would like to contact other parents, perhaps to organise a play date or a lift share for football, you can simply use the app on your phone, or on a PC, and use the parent directory feature to find their address or phone number and contact them directly. School Trips As we all know, schools across the country are facing more challenging times financially, and Western is no exception. The Family and Friends Team are committed to supporting our teachers, and will continue work closely with the school to raise funds and build the school community. One element which has been a challenge for both parents and teachers in recent times has been the funding of extra-curricular activities and school trips. The Government has very clear guidelines with regard to communication, and as such every school must ask for voluntary contributions to fund extra-curricular activities such as swimming, or day trips. This terminology suggests our donations are an added bonus, but in reality there is no extra-curricular budget available, and in the past the school has had to take the decision to cancel trips. The other option would be to spend the money allocated for new books or equipment which we are all keen to protect. Keeping in touch We aim to circulate this newsletter once a term, and will continue to provide weekly updates in the school newsletter and Classlist when applicable. In addition, our webpage features more information at: We also have a Facebook group Western Family & Friends (PTA) we would encourage you to join and each year group has a page too. We hope you and your family have a wonderful time at Western Primary this year, and we look forward to fun times ahead. Western Family & Friends team

7 Announcing the new teams for this year.

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