St Joseph and St James PS – Friends of Committee
Chairperson Report 2022/2023
AGM Tuesday 24[th] October 2023
Your all very welcome to our AGM this evening.
I would also like to particularly welcome new members who have joined us.
Friends of St Joseph and St James Primary School is run by a group of volunteer parents to organise social events that develop and strengthen home school relationships as well as raising funds to purchase educational resources for the children at the school . Friends of also supports the school by providing hospitality at school events and volunteering for other roles within the school such as gardening and small maintenance tasks. We continue to be a member of the Charity Commission N.I.
Our last AGM was held on the 19[th] October 2022 and from it we have been very busy . Hard to believe its been a year but our Halloween disco was a success raising £ 407.00
In December we took on the task of naming our Christmas Elf which proved very popular and delighted to say – Cupcake found his forever home and raised £115.00 in the process .
Our Christmas raffle was the encore to the wonderful ‘Whoops a daisy angel’ and Tinsel and Tea Towels’ and helped up raise a fantastic £978.40 .We also, with the help of Nicola had a very special visitor to school with Santa arriving to school on a fire engine . A few of the Friends Of members who shall remain nameless really enjoyed a spin around Poyntzpass themselves !!! so I heard …..
The Quiz night in Rice’s on the 27[th] January raised £700 Thanks to Dervla for coordinating
We also were the beneficiaries of the Tesco community grants scheme with sincere thanks to Mary for looking after this, £1000 is on route to us from this –
Given our success at rehoming an elf we decided to try out hand at animals and our name the bunny ( whose name escapes me now ) and Easter raffle raised a fantastic £2126.12
The friends of committee had an afternoon tea following the celebration of First Communion on 21[st] May which was received very well by the community.
On June 23[rd] we presented ‘The Leavers’ with personalised water bottles as a little token from us and we are looking forward to planning something for this years leavers as some
young people are still talking about the sleep over and BBQ .. They certainly know what they want and how to celebrate and we will endeavour to follow up on any of their ideas !!
Two of our members completed the HQ to home last leg from the Carrickdale to the Pass along with staff from school . Sincere thanks to Redmond O Hanlon GFC for all their support this year.
We continue to be cognisant of the continuing cost of living issues and disposable income families may have , our Halloween swap shop and uniform shop reflected this need and also supported schools ECO policy to reduce waste reuse and recycle as much as we can , that not only benefits school but the wider community . We home to continue this this school year and welcome any ideas you may have .
Mrs Wadsworth and Mrs Mc Cooey will no doubt agree with me with regards to the impact near weekly it would seem, cut backs to education budgets have had on the school and the resources that our available for our children in the absence of a functioning Assembly . Whilst Friends Of cannot get Stormont up and running again (can anyone !!) we can through our fund raising efforts try and support the school in any way we can in providing some funding . Friends of will remain committed to supporting school to support children and their families in any way we can to ensure that their time at St Josephs & St James is enriching to their lives and education.
This will be my final report as Chairperson of Friends of as we will be welcoming a new executive committee by our next AGM. I want to thank all the members and their children who have given their time and effort so freely despite having a million other things to be doing. To Sharon and Dervla … truly my wing women when it comes to executive matters. Thank you for all your help. I have really enjoyed being part of Friends Of – (I know sometimes it was hard to see the enjoyment on my face)… as have my two children who it’s hard to believe have moved and will be moving on to their next chapters in education. I think they will miss having the inside scoop on what our next fundraising venture was or helping decorate the hall or fill treat bags or whatever the job entailed!!! believe me this can be anything –ask that bunny that was at the Easter disco !!! I know these tasks will be in good hands, with the up and coming junior members that I have already seen in action . Thank you also to Mrs Wadsworth and our teacher’s rep on the committee Mrs Mc Cooey and all the teaching staff who always support the Friends Of activities we really do appreciate it ,
Best wishes to the new team , and assuring you of my continued support –till June !!!
Fiona Maguire Chairperson Friends Of St Joseph & St James