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2024-08-31-accounts

FRIENDS of ROPLEY SCHOOL

Trustees’ Report and Accounts for the Year ended 31 August 2024

Contents Page Trustees’ report 2-6 Income & Expenditure Account & Statement of Assets & Liabilities 7-8 Notes to the Accounts 9-11

Registered charity number: 270845

FRIENDS OF ROPLEY SCHOOL

Report of the Trustees for the Year ended 31[st] August 2024

Registered name Working name :

Friends of Ropley School FROGS

Management committee and Trustees:

The following committee members and charity trustees were elected at the AGM on 27[th] September 2023 and served during the year:

Catherine D’Alton Co-Chair (Trustee) Abby Bance Treasurer and Co-Chair (Trustee) [vacant] Secretary Amy Nettle General Member Sarah Allen General Member Laura Silk General Member Emily Budd General Member Camilla Howling General Member Charles Chute General Member John Henry Wicks General Member Warrick West General Member Sarah Vittle Head teacher (resigned 28 March 2024)

Swimming Pool sub-committee known as Tadpoles: Laura Silk General Member Sarah Allen General Member (Treasurer) Anna Irwin General Member Registered address: Ropley Church of England Primary School Church Street, Ropley, Hants SO24 0DS Contact details: Email: RopleyFROGS@gmail.com Website: http://www.ropleyprimary.co.uk/ Registered Charity Name: Friends of Ropley School Charity Number: 270845 of UK Charity Commission

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FRIENDS OF ROPLEY SCHOOL

Structure, governance and management

FROGS

The Friends of Ropley School (FROGS) is a member of PTA-UK, and has adopted its model constitution (November 2011 version). It is an unincorporated association, registered as a charity with the Charity Commission (reg. no. 270845) with a membership consisting of parents and carers of children currently attending the school, staff employed by the school and other interested parties. The management committee is the governing body and some members are also trustees of the charity. The PTA and its events are insured on an annual basis by Parentkind which renews each year on 1 January orthe next business day.

Trustees

The trustees are elected by the members who attend the Annual General Meeting (AGM), for a term of one year. The trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no remuneration. The trustees named above have served throughout the year unless otherwise stated.

Tadpoles

FROGS has one permanent subcommittee, the Swimming Pool committee known as Tadpoles. Members of Tadpoles are elected at the FROGS AGM or co-opted onto the committee during the year to serve until the following AGM. Swimming pool funds are restricted to spending on the Ropley School pool and separate bank accounts and accounting records are maintained by the Treasurer of the Swimming Pool committee. The swimming pool bank accounts are a sub-account of the main FROGS PTA bank account held with Barclays Bank and all funds therefore fall under the oversight of the Trustees.

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FRIENDS OF ROPLEY SCHOOL

Objectives and activities

The objects of FROGS are:

Note from the Chair

We are pleased to have raised such an incredible amount for the school year 23/24 through PTA fundraising events arranged by FROGS, Class Reps, volunteers, parents/carers and corporate donations. This year, between us, we raised a recordbreaking £43,331.27 to distribute for the PTA’s charitable aims; £20,335.55 on general funds for School and £22,995.72 for the pool by the end of the 23/24 academic year.

As always, our Class Reps have come up with some fabulous fundraising ideas, by organising; Bumble Bee grotto, Honey Bee tea towels, Carpenter Bee raffle, Nectar sports day refreshments, Honeycomb Car Night, Beekeepers plant and cake sale. Class reps also helped with multiple other events throughout the year including the World Book Day book sale, the Christmas fair which piggy-backed on the Bumble Bee grotto and the open day in October 2023. A huge thank you to all the Class Reps for their creative ideas, time and efforts with organsing these events.

Our incredible “Frog Marchers” team of parent walkers also brought in £5,397 in sponsorship of their 105km walk around the Isle of Wight in May 2024. That immediately funded removal and replacement of the old trim trail with new balance beams and a new outdoor shelter for children on the school field.

Full fundraising activities, event profits and donations to the school are detailed within the Treasurer’s report below.

We say it each year - a huge thank you to everyone for their time, support, ideas, generousity and commitment to fundraising for the school. Without you, none of this would be possible.

A special thanks to all the FROGS team for all their ideas and enthusiasm this year. Laura Silk is stepping down from FROGS this year, now a member of staff at the school and will remain on the Tadpoles subcommittee. Charles Chute is also stepping down from the committee however his support continues via the generous sponsorship from each house sale by a Ropley parent through house. Partnership.

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FRIENDS OF ROPLEY SCHOOL

Achievements and Performance

Class reps contributions were outstanding with some fantatsic events. All classes across the school held a class led fundraising event/activity with net profit after expenses:

Bumble Bee grotto (in conjunction with Christmas fair) - £2,317.05 Honeybee tea towels - £842.15 Carpenter bee raffle - £1,154.36 Nectar sports day refreshments - £100.17 Honeycomb Car Night – £969.50 Beekeepers plant and cake sale (in conjunction with open day/BBQ) - £803.47

Class reps also helped with multiple other events throughout the year including the World Book Day book sale, the Christmas fair which piggy-backed on the Bumble bees grotto and the open day in October 2023.

We continued to support the local community, and in December 2023, FROGS ran a stall selling handmade decorations and treats at the Ropley Victorian Christmas Market. Special thanks must go to to Hampshire Hounds and Paws Meadow for running the dog show at the Ropley Pram Race at very short notice, with all entry fee proceeds to FROGS. We hope this will now become an annual event. It’s very important for us as a school to support the village and local community which we know is always very much appreciated.

The festive season saw the return of the Christmas wreaths and candle centrepiece workshop which was a huge success with many people attending from the school and village community. Thank you to Laura Silk for running this. We are looking for a volunteer to take over this event this year which if not found, will hopefully return in 2025/2026.

At the start of 2024 FROGS hosted our sell-out Back to School quiz at St Peter’s Church with delicious food kindly provided by Joel and Susie at the Tichborne Arms. Matt Armstrong (father of Polly and Daisy, ex-students) took on the role of quizmaster and with the cake auction, bar takings and ticket sales, we raised a massive £1543.70. Big thanks to our wonderful local pub, the Tichborne Arms for support in the kitchen too.

Tadpoles formed a fundraising group which was led by Felicity Landrock-Mettam who set up a GoFundMe page which raised a gobsmacking £9,106 from parent and community donations. That together with unbelievably generous private donations and corporate sponsorship from Hendys, Silk Services, house. Partnership, Complete Weed Control and Golden Acre Foods in the sum of £6931, brought the total pool fundraising to £16,037. A detailed summary of the pool accounts and activity is provided separately.

A big thank you to Sarah Hilder for organising & managing the second-hand uniform sale during the course of the school year which brought in £183.50. Her efforts are very much appreciated by all. Sarah Hilder also lovingly tends to the school garden with Rose Godfrey who have together overseen the development of Norma’s Garden with the help of Dilys Warwick from Ropley Horticultural Society. Big thanks to Dilys!

Thank you to Tamsin Armstrong for organising the fantastic annual Christmas Card project in 2023 which will be taken over by Natasha Hillary for Christmas 2024 now that Tamsin’s children have left the

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school. Christmas Cards brought in £364.38 for the school and are always well loved by family and friends.

Thank you to Jo Poupart at CookStars who arranged a Gingerbread Christmas workshop with a kind donation of £80 to FROGS.

In addition to the wonderful events above, FROGS arranged various raffles, the pumpkin sale, hot chocolate and popcorn sales and various cake sales throughout the year.

Finally, we are always so overwhelmed by parent donations we receive thorughout the year, either direct to the FROGS or swimming pool bank account or through their workplace. This year we received an incredible amount in donations, thank you so much.

We are very proud to know that all our events, however big or small help to foster a sense of shared achievement within the school and local community and are both encouraged and supported by children and parents.

FROGS donate all of funds raised to the School for resources and activities that the Head Teacher has requested via the wishlist submitted at the beginning of each academic year and throughout the terms, depending on the needs of the school, and subject to holding funds for items in the next academic year. We have supported a number of large initiatives and improvements during the year 2023/2024. All these requests were discussed and agreed by the FROGS committee with school, including:

A total of £19,405.20 disbursed to school (not including the pool). We pride ourselves on the great relationship between the FROGS committee, parents and the School. We are always seeking support, so if any parent can give a little time to support the FROGS endeavours or you have some brilliant ideas, please get in touch. You will be made very welcome and have fun along the way.

Financial review

FROGS and Tadpoles raised a record breaking total net income of £43,331.27 to distribute for its charitable aims; £20,335.55 on general funds and £22,995.72 restricted to Ropley Primary swimming pool. Fundraising requirements for the year for general school funds was originally budgeted at £8,998 and it is due to the generosity of our community and the hard work and commitment of our committee members, that we have managed to exceed that target significantly, meaning that we were able to increase the disbursements to school throughout the year, through discussions and agreements of additional needs.

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FRIENDS OF ROPLEY SCHOOL

FROGS held a Christmas Fair for the first time since before Covid, which took an enormous amount of effort but was well received by the children. Huge thanks to the combined efforts of the FROGS committee, teaching staff and class reps for making that happen. In addition, the Christmas Cards, Grotto, Christmas Wreath Making (£1,485.30) and Ropley Village Christmas Fair resulted in additional net income of £4,166.73 over the festive period.

In addition to this the FROGS committee managed to raise a further £1,743.31 through various events held throughout the year including Harvest Festival Hamper Raffle, various cake sales, pumpkin sale and funds raised via the Ropley Pram Race.

We raised £87.29 from EasyFundraising, down 50% from last year, showing that we do need to advertise it more within the school community, as it is a very low effort way of raising money. Unfortunatley Amazon Smile has stopped operating, so we were unable to reveive any donations through that medium.

Parent company donations came in at £1,200, all of which was donated by Charlie Chute from House Partnership from donations made after the sale of a property in the local area involving a Ropley Primary parent. As always, huge thanks goes to Charlie for such a signifiant support to the FROGS.

This was another fantastic year for individual class fundraising activities. We saw parents, School and FROGS join together to create wonderful and unique ways to fundraise including a fantastic Car Night, Mega Raffle, Sports Day refershments, Tea Towels and Bake Sales and also the Hampshire famous Grotto, which was mentioned in the Christmas roundup. A BIG Thank You to the class reps for their efforts in coordinating class cohorts, organising and promoting their class fundraisers. Every year you come up with creative ideas to help bolster the bank balance.

And a special thanks goes to our FROG Marchers, who together raised a phenomenal £5,397.67, and that’s not to mention the considerable personal costs (and blisters) that they individiually contributed to the cause.

Our non-event related activity overheads were £253.15, due to a new way of capturing costs for stock in the Frogs Shed. This includes vital products like paint and gas for the BBQ, all of which can be used across various school events over the year. Included in this figure is the cost of our FROGS Zoom license, at £155, which we are going to discuss continuation of this account due to other communication options. Other overhead incurred included insurance and the annual lottery license.

Donations to School

This year FROGS donated an inspiring £19,405.20 to the School during the year (including £5,105.97 for Norma’s Garden which had been carried forward from 2023) for a wide range of items and activities.

FROGS continued many of their regular commitments to the school for laptop rentals, pantomime trip, book replacements , sports equipment, year 6 leavers budget and class initiatives. The Committee agreed to remove spend on coaches and distribute this budget to additional wishlist items including staff uniforms, sketchbooks, torches and an additional spend of £3,072.92 on iPads for school. After the success of the FROG Marchers fundraising, school staff put forward a list of ideas that they would like the money to be spend on. The school and committee reviewed the list and agreed to spend £4,500 on a day visit from Science Boffins (£615) and contribution to a new Play lodge and beams on the field (£3,885). Total wishlist spend for the year came to £19,405.20 (not including pool).

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Unrestricted funds

There are no uncleared or unpresented payments which leaves the account at the end of the year holding £6,084.57 in funds. Funds are held for any payments required in the beginning of term before fundraising has commenced (e.g. Pantomime and coaches) which will be re-assessed in the following year.

Swimming Pool

Pool Fundraising & Finances

During pool over-wintering it was identified by the pool team and Total Pool Services Limited that the boiler was no longer fit for purpose having been an old donated domestic boiler. The cost of gas had increased and the pool was becoming very difficult to heat. It was agreed that an air source heat pump should be fundraised for in a short space of time to ensure the pool could open in time for the 2024 swim season. It is a special asset to the school, shown via the fundraising support we received from parents, local businesses and villagers.

Amongst others, our grateful thanks goes to Felicity Landrock-Mettam who headed up a fundraising campaign on behalf of FROGS/Tadpoles. This was to enable the financing of further necessary plant room upgrades. A replacement boiler was affordable but switching to an environmentally friendly air source heat pump, which would see lower long term running costs and environmental benefits was the preferred option.

Felicity called on her extensive PR experience and contacts to engage five Corporate Sponsors which brought in £6,931. A Go Fund me page raised an amazing £9,106. Not only did this incredible effort transform the future outlook of Ropley Primary’s outdoor swimming pool but it showed how much love and support there is for the pool. The total amount raised by Tadpoles via these channels was £16,037.

We are so thankful to now be in a comfortable position financially but are mindful of the need to remain conservative with outgoings and continue to find ways to keep our bank account topped up for maintenance and emergency repairs. The air source heat pump was fitted just before 2024 swim season at total cost of £9,959. There were also significant expenses incurred in preparing the ground for the heat pump, testing the electrical supply with EDHC approved electrical surveys, fitting a meter, repairing other pool equipment, repairing the doser, paying Total Pool Care Limited for ongoing safety maintenance, paying lifeguards and swimming teachers as well as chemicals and other sundry expenses totalling £17,959.56.

Family Swimming Club

2024 saw another increase in membership for the Family Swimming Club with previous Ropley pupils keen to return to use the pool which was lovely to see. A total of 121 children signed up with approximately 124 swimming sessions held between 3rd June and 2nd August.

The total income was £2,886 – income was slightly down on the previous year despite the increase in membership. One of the reasons for this is because free Family Swimming Club membership was included in the Corporate Sponsorship offer - so not a drop in income, just into a different pot. Another reason is because siblings of Ropley School children who sign up to FSC pay a small amount rather than full membership. While this is a lovely gesture and reflects the fact that these children will not use the pool as frequently, we aim to look at the pricing structure for membership next year so that this

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increase in demand from preschool siblings or alumni students doesn’t negatively impact the FSC income.

Pool Hire

The hire of the pool to Judy Sporle School of Swimming for three days in the June half term and for a fortnight at the start of the summer holidays has been another valuable source of income in 2023 and 2024. This year it brought in £910. We are currently in discussions with Grace Terry regarding the dates they would like in 2025.

With other small fundraisers such as activity packs, tuck shop and cake sales, total fundraising and income for the pool via Tadpoles for the year 23/24 was £22,995.72.

2025 Planning

Discussions are underway regarding the next necessary upgrades for the pool. A replacement pool cover is needed, as is improved access to the pool. This would enable wheelchair and stroller users to access the poolside plus a second gateway would improve emergency evacuation procedures. We would like to explore renting out the pool and sharing the assets further with the local community and other schools. The overall aim is for the pool to earn enough to cover its outgoings, leaving funds in the bank account to cover any large repairs and maintenance as and when required.

A swimming gala at the start of the summer next year is being discussed to boost funds and would be a lovely community event.

FROGS - Future plans

The fundraising calendar is already being filled with some exciting events in store. The ‘Back to School Family BBQ’ will take place on the School Open Day this Friday 27 September from 1:30pm. A hamper raffle is planned for the Harvest Festival service and Class Reps are busy planning their class events for the year ahead which will include an intercative quiz, summer rounders, Spring clothes sale and school calendar.

FROGS will meet with Mr Mills to agree the 2024/2025 ‘Wish List’ and proposed fundraising target for the year ahead. Mr Mills has exciting plans for radically improved Early Years areas and English curriculum. We look forward to sharing more information shortly.

General reserves

At the end of the year, we had £6,084.57 in unrestricted funds to cover any costs inccurred during the autumn term relating to Regular Commitments. The new FROGS Committee will align with the new Head Teacher, Mr Mills, on what other items/projects/areas the school needs and are unable to fund. Discussions have been had with Teachers for them to consider resources they would like incorporated into the school. The aim is to spend what is raised in the same year, except where funds are being set aside for a specific purpose or bigger project with around £1,500 unrestricted funds carried forward at the end of the year to ensure that FROGS can meet regular commitments in the autumn term.

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FRIENDS OF ROPLEY SCHOOL

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report on 29 June 2025.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees by: ___ _____ Catherine D’Alton, Co-Chair 23/24 Abby Bance, Treasurer 23/24

Abby Bance, Treasurer 23/24

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The accounts for 2023/2024 have also been independatly examined and verified, a copy of the form is enclosed. The Excel accounts were approved by the trustees on 29 June 2025 and signed on their behalf by:

Catherine D’Alton, Chair

________ Abby Bance, Treasurer

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Bank Reconciliation: Current Account Current Account Deposit Deposit Float Float
Brought forward at 1 Sept 2024:
Receipts
Payments
Carried forward		 £9,060.97
-
£
-
£
£9,060.97		 £0.00
-
£
-
£
£0.00		 £152.47
-
£
-
£
£152.47
Bank statement (enter): £9,060.97 £0.00 £152.47
Uncleared receipts:
Unpresented cheques:
Check total		 -
£
-
£
£9,060.97
£0.00
£0.00		 -
£
-
£
£0.00
£0.00		 -
£
-
£
£152.47
£0.00

Total receipts (add up from stmt) Total payments (add up from stmt)

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of On accounts for the year ended Charlty no (if any) Gè 70 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on nry examlnation of the accounts of the ebove charity (the Trust") for the year ended 51 o t Re8ponslbllltl8s and As the charity trustees, you are responslble for the preparatlon of the basis of roport accounts in accordance with Ihe Charities Act 2011 ("the Acv). I report in resped of my examinatw of the Trust's accounts carried out und8r s8ction 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examination, I have followed all the applicablè Direth'ons given ty the Charity Commission und8r $8dion 145(5Xb) of the Ac*. Ind•p•ndont examlnerfs statement I have comF4eted my examination. I confim that no material matters have come to my attention (other than Ihat disdosed below ') in connection with the examination which gives m8 cause to b81iove that in. any material respect.: the accounting records were not kept in accordanc8 with s8ction 130 of the Aci: or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requlrements Con￿rning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charitles (Accounts and Re[￿s) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a Irue and fairf vlew whlch Is not a matter consKlered as part of an independent examination. I have no conoms and have come across no other matters In connectton with the examination to %thich attention should be drawn in this report in ord8r to enable a proper understandlng of the accounts to be reached. ' Please delete the wonls in the brackets rfthey do not apply. Slgned: Date: 21 2￿. Name: E)A%Ji) Relevant professlonal qualification(s) or body {If any): (CIMA S&￿4

Address: Sai c)Fy5. Section 8 Disclosure Only ￿Mp￿te rf the examiner needs to highlight matters of conc8m (seè CC32, Independent examlnatlon of charity accounts: directsons and guidance for examiners). Glv8 here d6talls of any Itoms thal the examlner w13hes to dlsGIo¥o. N14.