FRGS AGM
24.1.24
Report by the Chair
Building upon the success of the previous year, 2023 has proved to be another busy and highly successful year for FRGS.
The marketing and communication of FRGS work has been further embedded through the use of Bromcom, the school’s newsletter and website, in addition to social media through Facebook. While many parents subscribe to school FB, we need to build our numbers specifically for FRGS on Facebook to engage as many as possible in following our updates.
We have continued to support school-based events ranging from new intake and open evenings, celebration evenings, musical concerts and drama productions. In addition to this we held our first ever Quiz Night in April with outside catering from Domino’s pizzas which was an excellent social evening for all, and in the July we supported Sports Day again with selling refreshments to both parents and students, as this was the first time parents had been invited in for this event in recent years.
We held our first Family Bingo Night in October and raised £905 and feedback received from this was excellent. This was the first time we have catered for an event ourselves and this was a great success. Special thanks to Helen for overseeing and leading the catering side of this event. We will likely repeat this event again at the same time next year, marketed as a social event for families new to the school.
The renamed 1555 Ball in November took on a new fund-raising project, under the guidance of the Head, with the focus of raising funds to support the development of IT for Academia. Although numbers were slightly down from the previous year, 203 attendees were a mixture from those that attended the previous year and new parents. With sponsorship and support from Reef Hound, a parent band, and pre-dinner drinks sponsorship from NGC Networks of £1,1250, the school’s telecommunications company, helped keep overheads to a minimum. We were supported once again by local businesses and this facilitated the gift tree and auction prizes. Through ticket sales; heads & tails £1090 net profit minus £200 prize money; auction of £1455.00; gift tree net profit of £602.01 and raffle net profit of £3,080.34 coupled with an additional £2000 from the 200 Club, FRGS donated £13,000 towards IT improvements in school, specifically contributing to the new interactive screens in the Science block and in the meeting room. Sincere thanks to Helen Tabor for sponsoring photography on the evening and funds raised from this will be added to the overall figure raised.
With the added incentive of the winning form and tutor selling the most raffle tickets being treated to Domino’s pizzas one lunchtime, this generated an increase in raffle ticket sales this year. This was warmly received by students especially in KS3, with year 7 (1D) winning the prize and this is worthwhile repeating next year as an incentive for ticket sales, noting that the raffle saw an increase in profits compared to last year.
From funds previously raised, £8,400 that was ring fenced for geography classroom refurbishment this has now been transferred to school for this project. £5,030.00 has also been spent on weights so far with £9,000 left to complete the Health & Fitness Suite that will start to take shape later this year when the area earmarked for this can start being converted.
FRGS have received 2 bids this year from school one from DT for an extra-curricular jewellery workshop for £320.38 and 3 plastic all weather outdoor benches of £1797, the latter of which the Old Riponians funded.
The financial priority for electronic payment from the previous year has recently been established with an operational, fully functioning and most importantly reliable Sum Up machine alongside QR scanning, which has revolutionised supporting events with now a range of payment options. Our intention is to now extend this provision to have two electronic payment devices available at events to avoid people queuing. As a school we still need to actively encourage parents to sign up to easyfundraising and further increase our 200 club numbers.
We are indebted to our group of bakers, who are incredibly generous with their time and demonstrate such creativity in what they bake for events. Our cohort of bakers has steadily grown this year, so we are now in a position of not having to buy additional baked goods taking away from our profit margins. Their support is not to be underestimated in helping raise funds for school.
We have developed on-line booking forms for FRGS events, for ease of collating information for catering purposes and using school kitchens for preparing food has maximised profits.
To manage stock levels, ensure best value and be able to accurately calculate profits for refreshments sales at events we now have a new system in place whereby one person, Ele Hartas, oversees all the purchasing of drinks and alcohol and invoices school based on stock that has been used at each event. Ele now oversees the purchase of all drinks for the bar for licenced events. We also have a residual stock of water, juice, tea and coffee, deemed best practice so that we always have some stock readily available. We have purchased 2 urns for ease of use and these will provide longevity for event usage.
The FRGS storage area was in desperate need of updating and moving to a better area. We have now secured an area for all of our equipment etc and awaiting the key code lock to be fitted to the door. This has made a huge impact on the ease of supporting school-based events.
The development of a FRGS guidance document written by the Chair with input from Trustees has been circulated to committee members for consultation and provides guidance outlining our operational roles and responsibilities as a committee. This will hopefully prove a helpful resource for everyone, especially anyone new joining FRGS or the committee. This document will be reviewed annually or otherwise when required as the committee evolves or officers change.
In terms of officers, we have seen the resignation of Catherine O’Hare as Treasurer and from the committee and the election of Malcolm Gardiner as Treasurer from October 2023.
Trustees have been updated on the Charity Commission and from December state the Chair, Vice and Treasurer. All trustees have access now electronically to the bank account, and work as a team in authorising payments. With the implementation of a new Excel spreadsheet implemented by the Treasurer for recording our accounts, trustees meet/communicate regularly to work with the Treasurer to assist in keeping this data updated.
Our Secretary, Thomo Quinn has been key in providing the committee with detailed factual minutes of meetings and we must thank her for all hard work with these. Sadly because of other commitments Thomo is standing down from her role as Secretary from the AGM but will still be an active and highly valued member of the committee, with a wealth of experience to draw upon from her previously held roles. This creates an opening on the committee to be filled at some point in the future.
I would also like to place on record my sincere thanks to Susy for her continued support and commitment as Vice Chair to FRGS. She works tirelessly to drive forward making FRGS a thriving committee and her particular work on overseeing the FRGS email account and liaising with parents with booking tickets for the 1555 ball was a mammoth task and must be thanked.
Reinforcing my comments from last year FRGS is extremely lucky to have the commitment of its core committee, Helen, James, Sylvia and Ele and with the assistance at events of Lindsey, Kelly and Emily when available and not forgetting our devoted bakers, Agni, Ele, Renu, Di and Victoria.
The year ahead requires our numbers to grow to provide essential support to the effective working of the committee, as we are currently a team of 8 with 3 elected officers. We aspire to see these numbers grow and also for more volunteers to help with serving refreshments when time allows at organised school events. Attracting more helpers is a working progress, but the invaluable help offered by those who already give of their time is not to be under-estimated and the contribution they make in supporting the school in raising much needed financial support.
As Chair, I would personally like to sincerely thank all the officers, committee members and helpers for their time, enthusiasm, passion, commitment, energy and hard work this past year.
We must also thank Ele for her fabulous work with the 200 Club, Jonathan as Head and Derek within the Old Riponians network for all their continued support. The site team, Ruth Savage and Claire in reception but also not be forgotten as their help in supporting our efforts allow us to function with success.
Exciting events for the year ahead include on Saturday 24[th] February our first Family Social Night with Music quiz, disco and karaoke. A proportion of the funds raised will go towards Alan Kowicka’s in year 11 neurorehabilitation fund raising campaign.
We are looking at a potential date of Sat 11[th] May for a repeat Quiz Night at school but with our own catering of pizzas, to maximise profits.
The 1555 Ball for November 2024, will focus on fund raising for IT again to extend the fund-raising project into phase 2 of replacing interactive screens in Maths classrooms. We have a minimum contract of 150 instead of 200 for 2024 which will alleviate pressure on ticket sales.
We also have a Burns Night booked for January 25[th] 2025 on the night of Burns itself, as a new initiative for the current committee.
These provide a flavour of initiatives that the committee are driving forward and we welcome interest from anyone interested in getting involved in whatever capacity they are able to.
Ruth Curtis
Chair of FRGS
FRIENDS OF RIPON GRAMMAR SCHOOL RECEIPTS & PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023 Balances brought forward at 1 September 2022
| £ £ Current Account 6,387 200 Club Account 6,800 Deposit Account 4,201 17,388 Receipts Ball Ticket Sales - 2022 11,246 Other Ball Income -2022 10,777 Ball Ticket Sales -2023 1,540 Parentpay 753 Easy Fundraising 422 Interest Received 28 Prizegiving 131 Drama Night 941 Cathedral Service 211 Sports Day 245 Quiz 681 Upper 6 Leavers 346 Year 7 Starters 51 Christmas Concert 220 Easter Concert 207 Junior Recital 48 Info. Night 17 Primary Open Night 94 Sale of Hoodies 185 200 Club Receipts 3,070 31,213 48,601 Payments Ball Expenses - 2022 10,391 Ball Expenses - 2023 520 Parentkind Subscription 140 Bids for Equipment - RGS 6,848 FRGS Equipment 250 200 Club Prizes 1,555 200 Club Expenses 89 19,793 Balances carried forward at 31 August 2023 Current Account 2,900 200 Club Account 3,962 Deposit Account 21,946 28,808 |
£ £ 6,387 6,800 4,201 17,388 11,246 10,777 1,540 753 422 28 131 941 211 245 681 346 51 220 207 48 17 94 185 3,070 31,213 |
£ 6,387 6,800 4,201 |
|---|---|---|
| 48,601 10,391 520 140 6,848 250 1,555 89 19,793 |
||
Current Account 200 Club Account Deposit Account |
||
| 28,808 |
TO THE TRUSTEES OF FRIENDS OF RIPON GRAMMAR SCHOOL CHARITY NUMBER 1109915
I confirm that I, working in a totally independent capacity, have carried out an examination of the accounts for the year ended 31 August 2023 and that I am satisfied they represent a true and fair record of the transactions for the year.
Signed -------------------------------------------
Jane Brine Bursar of Ripon Grammar School
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