**St Josephs Primary School PTA** Charity number 108594 

## **Trustee’s Annual Report and Financial Statements** 

## **1 July 2022 - 30 June 2023** 


St Joseph’s Primary School PTA is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, CCNI (Charity number 108594 ). The organisation is governed by constitution and produces annual Receipts and Payments accounts. It is now two years since the PTA became a charity registered with the Charity Commission for NI on 17 January 2022. This is our first annual return. 

The school year 2022/2023 was very successful for the PTA, in all aspects of social, educational and financial terms. It was the first year of in-person events after Covid and the school community came together to support all events. There was also a welcome influx of growth into the PTA committee with parents who are new to the school. 

The PTA committee are a group of parents and teachers who volunteer to raise funds that can be used to support and enhance the education and school experiences of the children attending the school. We are committed to raising as much money as possible through a range of events and activities for the school community. The PTA also aims to be a forum to enable the sharing of views on extra curricular matters between parents and teaching staff. 

The continued success of the PTA is due to the dedication and planning of the parents and teachers on the PTA committee, and especially the wider group of parents, teachers, and caretaking staff who assist and volunteer their time throughout the year to ensure the safety and success of all PTA events. The PTA would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved for their efforts. This year two of our long-serving members of the committee are stepping down from office bearing roles. Our chairperson, Gemma, and our Treasurer Martin have remained as committee members and we thank them for all they have done for the school and their many years of service. 

In this school year, the PTA were delighted to be able to hand a cheque for £13,000 to Mr Donaldson, school principal, and full details of funds raised and how the PTA spent its funds are found in the treasurer's report. 

The annual fundraising events are spread out throughout the school year: 

We ran our welcome drinks event to welcome new parents for Primary 1 parents in September. This is a lovely way to introduce the new parents to the school community and also resulted in some signups to the PTA committee. 



October saw our Halloween Disco, this fancy dress disco has a low entrance charge where the kids are supervised by volunteers and teachers and provided with snacks and drinks. It could not take place without the great music skills of our committee member Rich, and the kids danced till they were red in the face! 

Christmas saw several big events in the PTA fundraising calendar. For the first time we ran a Christmas craft fair, it was very well supported, and Santa’s visit was very popular with small kids. The Christmas Raffle is one of the biggest events of the year, and we had many generous donations from both parents and local businesses. The draw was drawn in school. We also branched out into class tea-towels, each with a self portrait of each child and teacher. These were very popular Christmas presents for family and especially grandparents, and involved a huge amount of work from volunteers to coordinate. 

2023 started with the PTA quiz which took place in Shandon Park Golf Club and was a great night for parents to get together and win prizes and buy raffle tickets - raising funds with banter on the night and a draw. 

In May we had lots of focus on the Marathon. The children did a Marathon relay in school and were sponsored by family at home. In addition, the PTA sponsored a team of parents and a team of teachers for the Marathon relay, and money was raised by sponsorship by the school community. 

Also in May, the PTA hosted the Tea for the First Holy Communion children and their families. - The school community donated baked items and volunteers provided a lovely event of tea and buns in the church hall for the First Communicants and their families. This is always very appreciated by all the families. 

The biggest event in our calendar is our Community fun day in June. It involves the whole community with stalls, inflatables, BBQ, live music and outdoor games. Parents and the school community came together to volunteer to run stalls, and to support in their droves, This was the first time we used pre-paid tickets as well as bundles of tickets for sale on the day. Using tickets really helped streamline the entry to the event, and helped raised more money, as the tickets were mostly bought in advance. 

At the end of term we had our Summer disco. The junior school had their disco during the school day and the p3-7pupils had a great time dancing to Rich’s tunes on one of the hottest days of the year. 



An appeal went out to parents before the end of term for Uniform Recycling, the PTA take donations of good used uniforms- and in August PTA had a day where parents can come and make a donation and take away school uniforms for the next year - especially helpful for those fast growing kids and good for the cost of living crisis. 

Chairperson - Claire Kennedy Deputy Chairperson - Michael McMahon