About the PTA

 

About the PTA

St Marys Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is actively involved in the life of the school - our aim is to enrich the learning and play experiences of the children at St Mary’s and have some fun along the way!

We are a very active PTA and the money raised is used to provide resources and equipment to enhance your child’s learning and enjoyment of school life. Fundraising events serve not only, as a means to raise money, but to enable our families and friends to come together, have fun, build new social networks and really feel part of the St. Mary’s community.  We want you to feel part of something special.

Over the last three years we’ve given the school around £60,000. This has been spent on new books for KS1 to support curriculum changes, broadening the KS2 class libraries and supplementing classroom budgets.  We always maintain and insure the school minibus and have helped to pay for our lovely popular lollipop lady Alison. We’ve also refreshed the KS1 playground with new surface and play equipment.  Our latest project is the EYFS playground which is due to receive an exciting upgrade this year – playground resurfacing has already been completed July 2021.  So watch this space! 

 None of this would be possible without the support of parents and the wider school community so we thank you wholeheartedly.

How can you help? – Volunteer, matched funding, sponsorship, donations…..

We’d love you to volunteer, socialise and buy those cakes and raffle tickets!  You can do as little or as much as you want.  Your class reps will usually communicate with you about volunteering opportunities e.g. giving some time to help at a fair stall, helping with the MacMillan coffee morning or perhaps you have useful skills to help us with a project?  By lending a hand even if just for an hour per year at a fair, you are helping us enormously by spreading the workload – thank you!  Children also love to see their parents helping out at their school, there is nothing quite like buying something from a family member running a stall at the Christmas Fair.  If you would like to become more active in shaping the way we fundraise then why not join the PTA?  If interested please email stmarysbeckenhampta@gmail.com.

For those of you who work, will your company sponsor us?  Can they match the money you give us or pay for the hours you volunteer – please do ask if they will ‘match fund’. Quite a few large organisations will support this as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programs, many companies encourage staff to get involved in community projects, including School Fairs, BBQ’s, Quiz nights, cake sales etc., by offering to match any funds they raise. Involvement can often be as little as providing a cake, raffle prizes or as much as helping to run a stall.

This matched funding is a really easy way to increase our fundraising revenue and can easily add as much as £2,000 to the takings of one of our events. We are fortunate to have parents at the school who work for companies that do match funding including Barclays, NatWest, Direct Line, Prudential, Royal Mail, Santander and Sky.

Please can we ask you to spend a few mins speaking to your HR /CSR departments to see how you can get your company to match fund a PTA event.

We are also trying to increase the money we raise through sponsorship.  If you know anyone who would like to advertise in our Summer Fair or Christmas Fair programmes, please email us at stmarysbeckenhampta@gmail.com Also if anyone can sponsor a raffle prize or donate one please let us know. 

Donate as you shop

Everyone loves internet shopping and if you use ‘easyfundraising’ then we receive a small percentage of what you spend.  Those pennies do add up.  Please visit www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/stmaryscatholicprimaryschoolbeckenham

Easyfundraising is also available as an app for iPhone and iPad.

If you are an Amazon shopper (aren’t we all?!), please make sure you have signed up and are supporting us using Amazon Smile app from your mobile or in a web browser.  Please note that It uses exactly the same logon details as for Amazon.  The charity name to choose is “The St Mary'S Parent-Teacher Association”.

On your mobile:

  1. Open the Amazon Shopping app
  2. Navigate to the main menu (=)
  3. Tap on Settings and then select “AmazonSmile”
  4. Select your charity and then follow the on-screen instructions to turn ON AmazonSmile in the mobile app
  5. Once AmazonSmile has been activated in your app, future eligible app purchases will generate a donation for the charity you have selected.

Note: The tablet app is not yet supported. Please visit smile.amazon.com/onthego to learn more.

In a web browser:

  1. Visit smile.amazon.com
  2. Sign in with the same account you use for Amazon.com
  3. Select your charity
  4. Start shopping! Remember to checkout at smile.amazon.com to generate donations for your chosen charity.
    Tip: Add a bookmark to make it easier to shop at smile.amazon.com.

What are we planning for the rest of this academic year?

We will keep on doing what we do best, fundraising.

This academic year the big project Mrs Vassallo has asked for our help with is improving the EYFS play area with new play equipment (due to recent curriculum changes which focus on gross motor skills).  We would also like to brighten up or provide some equipment for the KS2 playground to help aid our children’s physical and mental wellbeing.

You can find the dates of all our events and fundraisers on the school calendar and on the separate tab.  We also keep our Facebook page St Mary's PTA Beckenham updated with all events and news.

 

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