St Joseph’s Primary School, Carnacaville, Parents’ Support Group
Charity number 102170
Trustee’s Report for 1[st] April 2023- 31[st] March 2024
This year, amongst other expenses, the school needed to purchase iPads for every class. A meeting was held between the PSG Committee and the Principal and Vice principal, Mr. Chris McCann and Mr. Jody Mussen. The cost of the new technology was estimated to be in excess of £10,000 so, with this target in mind, we decided to plan a schedule of activities for the school year that would see the PSG running familiar events like the Christmas Raffle, Smarties Challenge, and Pub Quiz but also supplementing these annual occasions with regular recurring fundraising efforts such as Break the Rules and Tuck shop Days, Discos and wellness activities.
Smarties Challenge
The first event of this financial year was our annual Smarties challenge. Each pupil was given a tube of Smarties on Wednesday 5[th] April to enjoy over the Easter holidays and return to school with as many 20p’s inside as they could manage. We are extremely grateful to Eamon Lennon for sponsoring the 200 tubes of Smarties required for all of the children to get involved. His generosity is greatly appreciated.
Sports Day
As always, the end of the school year meant Sports Day and we were able to run a tuck shop at this event with the help of donations of treats and drinks from parents. This is always a great opportunity for parents, children, staff and local community to interact and show solidarity, as well as having lots of fun and raising money.
AGM
After the summer holiday, we came back to school and held our AGM on the 19/10/2023. The first item on the agenda was the resignation of our incumbent Chairperson, Michaela Devlin. We acknowledged and thanked Michaela for her contribution to the Parents’ Support group over her term as Chair. A new Committee needed to be confirmed by the group with the result that existing Treasurer and Secretary Anna Murray and Lynne Small were reelected to their respective roles and Martina Maguire was voted in as Chairperson.
Halloween
Our new Chair hit the ground running with the PSG’s first event after the AGM, a Halloween Disco, taking place on the evening of Wednesday 25[th] October. Thank you very much to the school staff for allowing and facilitating the disco and tuck shop to take place on school premises.
Christmas
The run-up to Christmas is always a very busy time for the PSG and this year was no exception with a Christmas party, Santa visit, Christmas crackers and Raffle to organise.
A huge thank you is owed to Kevin O’Neill who kindly donated crackers to the PSG for everyone at school to enjoy with their Christmas dinner on 7[th] December. We made a purchase of 200 selection boxes and donated these to the school for Santa’s visit on 19[th] December.
The end of term Christmas party took place at Coco’s Adventure Playground on 21[st] December. Thank you to Michael Hasard for allowing us discounted access to this venue, which is so popular with all of the children at school. They were able to have a fantastic time while raising money for their school and supporting a local business at the same time. Supporting local businesses is something that is extremely important to us so, whenever possible, we will use local shops and service providers for all of our purchases and encourage our school community to do the same.
The support and generosity from the parent body, friends and families in the local community for the children, their school and education is exceptional and never more apparent than when we hold our annual Christmas Raffle. The variety and quality of prizes on offer is always outstanding and, to acknowledge this, the group felt that it was justifiable to increase the price of raffle tickets. Previously, tickets had been sold for £1 each or a book of 6 tickets could be purchased for £5. This year tickets were sold for £2 each or a book of 6 for £10. The draw was held in front of all children and staff in the school assembly hall on 20[th] December with all winners announced on the school website.
Pub Quiz
The next event was specifically targeted towards parents, guardians and their friends and families who give so much of their time to running events for the children. We again chose to offer our support to a local venue with a pub Pub Quiz being held on 1[st] March in the Harbour Inn, Newcastle.
Easter
Finishing off this financial period and following on from the success of our previous parties at Halloween and Christmas, there were lots of requests for another disco which we organised on the 26[th] March to coincide with the end of term, just before the Easter holidays. A tuck shop was again in operation on the evening.
Tuck shop , Break the Rules and Wellness Days
Alongside these events we ran several smaller one off or recurring events throughout the year.
When possible, a tuck shop was held on the last Friday of the month as a treat for the kids at school. This was stocked with purchases from local businesses and donations from our
amazingly supportive parent body. During several of these treat days the children were also given the opportunity to pay for the privilege of breaking a (minor!) school rule. A list of approved rules for breaking was agreed with school staff beforehand. These were held on 24[th] November, 26[th] January, 23[rd] February, 5[th] May and 30[th] May.
Lisa Rafferty very kindly gave up her time on 8[th] February to do wellness sessions with all classes. We are very grateful and appreciate her generosity.
Conclusion
In order to equip teachers with the means of delivering many aspects of the curriculum effectively, investment in IT is essential. Our target at the beginning of the year was to raise enough money to be able to purchase iPads for each class.
We started this financial year with £7968.54 in the bank. Due to generous contributions and donations, we were able to keep expenses involved with running events to £1,057 . The total raised throughout this financial period, minus these expenses, was £9355.09 .
On the 5[th] March we were able to present a cheque to the school for £12000 . We are extremely grateful to everyone who helped us to achieve this amazing result.
We begin our next financial year with £5323.63 in the Parents’ Support Group account.
With school budgets continually stretched and education providers under pressure, the role of the Parents’ Support Group remains crucial to providing the children of St Joseph’s Primary School, Carnacaville, with up-to-date resources and tools for learning. We hope to be able to continue to ensure the educational needs of all in attendance are met and all children have the opportunities, facilities and resources required to reach their full potential.