## Chair Person’s Report 17th November 9am We started off our year on the 7th October with a coffee drop-in for Action Mental Health delivering £180.60 to that charity and an opportunity for parents and carers to mingle while supporting this worthwhile cause. On the 28th of October we followed this with a return to our infamous Autumn Fair. Good weather allowed us to use the hall and the grounds for a manic one hour fair full of stalls, games and treats. The fair was well received despite the challenge of the ‘work to rule’ union action, forcing us to hold it inside school hours. This meant some working parents were unable to attend. It should be noted that the school staff helped on stalls and also chaperoned children without parents so that the fair could still be enjoyed by all the children. Profits for this event came in at £1080, this included a ‘guess the number of conkers’ jar and a hugely impressive pumpkin competition. On the 9th November we held a seasonal Cash for Clobber collection, ably assisted by the P6 boys and a fleet of beach trolleys. Another successful low maintenance fundraiser delivering £288 to our charity. In response to the cost of living crisis, in December the PTA facilitated a Storehouse food collection for families struggling to afford the luxuries of Christmas. The response was overwhelming with Storehouse expressing their thanks and delight to Colleen O’Kane who coordinated this collection. On the 7th December we got in the mood for the season with a festive Mingle & Jingle Christmas disco. As usual this was well attended, although it should be noted that our rising tuckshop costs have impacted profits somewhat. Nonetheless a reliable £878 was delivered, with lots of fun had by all. Again we were well supported by parent volunteers. We hijacked the crowds at the Big Little Nativity Christmas shows and over two performances raffled hampers and some other items delivering profits of £720.30 - thanks to PTA members for donating items for both hampers and Karen Black for her time in making them look beautiful! Lisa Condon coordinated this year's Christmas fundraiser and despite some challenges with Class Fundraising transferring to a new system we had good uptake and fantastic profits of £977.05 for the school. Our first event of the new year was a Valentine’s cake sale, parents were invited to call in for a cuppa and bun before the children finished up, and one very busy hour later we declared profits of £696.20. Thanks to the parents who took the time to bake/buy and donate items for us to sell. Profits also included a ‘guess the number of Love Hearts’ competition - thanks to our House Captains for running this for us once again. The hampers were dusted off again in March for both performances of ‘Ali Baba and the Bongo Bandits’, thanks to our raffle sellers we netted £540 of profit for our school. Contents of the hampers were donated once again by PTA committee members and with extra thanks on this occasion to Ruth Jenkinson, who donated many items on behalf of her retail clients. A non-PTA event, Culture Day, wrapped up Integration month. This free event added £41 to the coffers from the honesty box donation buckets at the refreshments hatch. This was a wonderful event for our school community, celebrating our diverse backgrounds and integration - a feast for all the senses with costumes, decorated tables, global food offerings, music and dancing. After Easter, we held a May summer disco - again well-attended and supported by staff and parents raising £850. On the 10th May we held another Cash for Clobber event with a reliable and easy profit of £352. Our last event in May was our annual parents quiz and raffle. As usual it was a sell-out event with outgoing P7 parents ‘6 weeks and we are done’ taking the trophy! Thanks to Tracey Fraser for the quiz, DJ Michael Murphy and the Helen’s Bay Golf Club team for keeping the drinks flowing. It was a great evening, generating £1481 for our school. Our final event of the year took the form of a Colour Run - our first since 2019. Thank you to Rockport for once again lending us their school grounds and making us feel so welcome. Our main cost was the paint at £855, but with nearly 260 runners it was a very well supported event. With the sun shining, sprinklers running, ice cream van, music and plenty of paint it was a great end to our year with families picnicking until sunset. A wonderful event making £1432 in profits. Thank you to our teams of throwers, bolstered by great staff support and to PTA members for setting up and making the event run so smoothly. Non-events based fundraising included £232 from Easyfundraising, the blue Clobber bin netted £144, Benevity donations contributed £897 and Amazon Smile £38. It should be noted Signature Works and Over The Hedge now deliver commission and rent directly to the school shaving over £3000 off our overall figures. We also missed funds this year from non-uniform days - which were either FOC or hosted by the school and this year's sport day refreshments were handed by staff for Macmillan. ## **Despite these changes from previous years accounts as a committee we raised a fantastic £10,719 for our school charity making this our biggest event-based total in recent years.** The PTA would like to thank all of the parents, teachers and staff for their continued support of our fundraising efforts. We really do appreciate their help behind the scenes and their attendance and contributions to our events. We couldn’t deliver without this valuable support. Lastly, at the end of a 4 year Chairperson’s term, I would like to thank the school and the committee for the support that I have received over the last number of years and I look forward to continuing to help on the committee.