Friends of St Dallan’s Annual report for period 1st July 2022 – 30th June 2023
Background
Friends of St Dallan’s is the voluntary parent-run fundraising association for St Dallan’s Primary School in Warrenpoint. All parents / guardians of St Dallan’s school children are automatically members of Friends of St Dallan’s. The aims of Friends of St Dallan’s are:
• To support St Dallan’s Primary School through fundraising to provide extra resources and facilities for the benefit of pupils at the school, as agreed with the school principal.
• To foster positive relationships between staff, parents / guardians of St Dallan’s pupils and others associated with the school through organising and running fundraising social events.
Although independent and voluntary, Friends of St Dallan’s works in close conjunction with the school to agree fundraising initiatives and expenditure on projects. School pupils are consulted on project ideas through the School Council. Parents are regularly asked for their ideas and contribution via Facebook and email, with all suggestions greatly welcome.
Chairperson’s Report
• Well done to all the committee on another year of hard work and good results! Friends of St Dallan’s are back working hard after a couple of quiet years with our fundraising activities limited due to the Covid Pandemic. Despite the difficulties our total fundraising efforts this year brought in £6,244 for the benefit of our children at St Dallan’s Primary School.
• New volunteers came on board our committee, bringing with them many new ideas, skills and energy.
• This year we were successful in obtaining funding of £500.00 from the Warrenpoint Port Community Fund. The funding received was used to purchase various pieces of PE equipment for the school and was put straight to use in PE lessons by the pupils.
• Alongside Warrenpoint GAA, committee members from both groups were able to provide a Uniform Exchange for preloved Uniforms to gift them a new home. This initiate was received well with many uniforms finding new homes. It helped greatly in the cost-of-living crisis to help families with the increasing cost of uniforms along with saving the environment. Any items left over were donated to Home Start a local charity based in Warrenpoint who help families in need.
• A supermarket had been booked with the local Tesco store in Newry, however this had to be cancelled due to the Covid Pandemic. We hope to secure another date with Tesco in the near future.
• The Community Centre for Warrenpoint invited the school and ourselves in the St Patricks Day parade which again showed that FOSD is part of the local community.
• During the year we developed our Facebook page further and raised our profile significantly. Throughout the year we worked closely with key school staff on developing relationships and new projects, and we continue to do so.
Fundraising initiatives during the year:
Street Collection
In recent years Warrenpoint has hosted the ‘Wake the Giant’ Festival which has provided Friends of St Dallan’s with the perfect opportunity to hold a street collection during the festival on Sunday 21[st] August 2022. The town was packed with people eager to see the Giant and the sun was shining down on us. We successfully collected £1,086 on the day. Many thanks to all our volunteers on the day who helped with the collection.
Quiz Night
The Quiz Night was held in the Lough & Quay on 8[th] November 2022 and was a very sociable night out for all the adults. There was a great atmosphere, a fantastic array of quality prizes and a buffet kindly supplied by the Lough & Quay. We raised £2,155 at this quiz. The Quiz winners were ‘Lunches and Dinners’ and they kindly donated their prize money back to FOSD – a lovely gesture! Many thanks to all our quiz round sponsors along with raffled sponsors.
Jumble sale
Along with Warrenpoint GAA a Jumble sale was held in the GAA hall on 22[nd] October 2022 where people paid to hire tables and sell their pre loved items. This is the first time we had organised this event with £140 being raised. Despite the small sum raised, people were keen to donate items to the sale with great feedback on the day.
Easter Raffle
We decided this year we would host an Easter Raffle with two beautiful hampers to be won. We sold tickets at the school easter bake sale and online which generated £320 in ticket sales. This was a great fundraising activity that required little organising. The online ticket sales ensured all who wanted could purchase a ticket. The delighted winners of the hampers were Lizzie Day P5 and Sophie Oliver a Seaview pupil.
Sports Day 2023
On 26[th] May was the school sports day held up at Milltown. Once again, Friends of St Dallan’s held a tea/coffee/water cake stall along with holding a raffle with hampers and gift vouchers to be won. Our lucky winners were Rita Griffin, Matilda Hannigan P3, Harry Martin SCC and James Quinn SCC. Thank you to the many parents who volunteered to help out on the day! We sold all our stock and raised £1,009.50 on the day. Many thanks to our food sponsor ABP Newry and our Coffee provider Barry, your support is greatly appreciated.
P7 Leaver Hoodies
During the final term of the school year Friends of St Dallan’s organised for all the leaving P7s to be provided with a leaver’s hoodie displaying their school year and every child’s name. The orders were flying in and provided with P7s with a lovely memento. The hoodies were worn with pride at the P7’s final day in St Dallan’s on 23[rd] June.
FOSD contribution to St Dallan’s during the year:
Sports Equipment
The school had identified the need for some further sports equipment for the use by the school at PE times as well as play times, the sunflower club, afterschool’s clubs and events in conjunction with the GAA club . Friends of St. Dallan’s were able to purchase a large amount of new equipment, some of which was covered by a grant from Warrenpoint Port, the remaining was funded directly by FOSD.
School Playgrounds – All school playgrounds were retarmacked during the school year with FOSD providing funds to redecorate the new playgrounds with creative and colourful playground markings. We can all agree the playgrounds look fantastic!
P1 welcome pack – Prepared a small welcome pack for all our P1 parents to enjoy on their child’s first day of school. We love this way of welcoming the new P1’s to our school community and is a great way to introduce ourselves to new families to the school.
Thank you:
Thank you to all the hard working, dedicated committee volunteers who are the driving force behind FOSD. Thank you to our sponsors who have supported our events or donated prizes during the year. We couldn’t do our fundraising without their continuous support.
Thank you to Alice and Niamh in the office and Mrs Farrell for your ready assistance with all the FOSD projects. Thank you to the parents, family and friends of St Dallan’s school children who have supported our efforts through the year, it is greatly appreciated. A special thanks to all the volunteers who helped us during the year – photographers, quiz masters, sports day volunteers, translators, and many more. Remember, our children, our school, their future!