Parent Teacher Friend Association
Hill West PTFA – Chair’s Report
I have been part of the PTFA since 2018 with various supporting roles, however this year I have had the pleasure of representing the PTFA as Chair. I have thoroughly enjoyed this role and being part of an amazing team of volunteers supporting school.
For me the PTFA has a number of responsibilities:
- To plan and deliver exciting and enjoyable enrichment activities for our children to enjoy
- To bring our parents and school community closer together, further embedding our partnerships and shared ambitions
- To raise much needed funds for our school, so we can purchase items that would otherwise be impossible to fund.
We are always working hard to recruit new members to our PTFA and over the last 12 months we have welcomed many new faces to the team. This has been a crucial feature of the success of our PTFA. This is already continuing into this new school year with the largest number of parent and friend volunteers we have had since I started – currently the Halloween Disco volunteer list stands at 20 people (not including teachers).
I would like to thank the elected committee sincerely for all their hard work and commitment to our school and our children. As we look forward to a new academic year, I hope that we can elicit the support of even more parents and grow our team exponentially for the benefit of all.
This year we have enjoyed several successful events, many of which have run year on year and as such have become our trademark.
- The year tends to kick off with our Halloween disco. A family event that sees everyone dress up in their favorite costume and come along to school for a dance.
- Christmas Movie night which saw our school packed with hot dog eating children, getting into the Christmas spirit.
- Our adult quiz in February is enjoyed by all who attend, and we were extremely lucky to have My Horne and his Wife as Quiz Hosts. The fish and chip meal is always a treat everyone enjoys, supplied by The Crown Takeaway.
- Spring Disco – a child only event split into KS1 and KS2. This event gives the children a chance to mix with their friends and join in competitions led by the attending teachers. The highlight of this year was Mr Horne dancing on his own to Beyonce – best moves ever!
- The year is usually rounded off with our Summer Fayre, however due to the impact of the build we had to alter our plans to a Summer Party. Concerns were raised as to whether families would enjoy this event as much – we needn’t have worried as the party was a massive success, helped by Cricket being cancelled!
This year we have also tried to introduce some smaller fundraising events from Smarties Challenge and Golden Tickets to Frozen Fridays. We will be continuing to hold more fundraising events next school year to assist school with trying to bridge the deficit being left by the budget cuts.
Unfortunately, this year there was one negative, and this was the ball – the changing landscape of school life and social patterns meant the take up for the ball was not as expected. The downside to this is it ended up costing us some well-earned resource. Lessons were learnt and from the new school year we will no longer have a ball and instead will replace it with an additional adult only event, along the same lines as the quiz night.
None of the above is possible without the dedicated team of individuals who make up our PTFA and the wider team of parent helpers at events. We also need to thank the Teachers who support us whole heartedly with all the events.
Being part of the PTFA brings me lots of joy – I love seeing the children’s faces at all the events. Knowing they are having fun is the reason for all our hard work. Also, as a parent who can’t attend school events etc. during the day I feel like this is my way of giving back and helping George to have the best experience possible, as my Mom did all throughout my school life.
I would like to thank everyone who has worked so hard to make our PTFA a success over the last 12 months and all those thinking of stepping up into roles and positions over the next 12 months.
We are always looking for volunteers and helpers, so if you have any time to spare please email the secretary at Hillwestptfa@hotmail.com
Our annual events last year included:
Meet the Team
- Chair – Louise Eales, Year 5 Parent
- Vice Chair – Dhiran Patel, Year 4 Parent
- Treasurer – Sherrie Fiddy, Year 2 Parent
- Secretary – Melanie Clements, Year 5 and Year 3 Parent
- Member – Mrs Rebecca George, Deputy Head Teacher
As well as, a group of parents with children in all year groups. Some parents help out on a regular basis and attend monthly meetings to help plan and make decisions regarding fundraising. Others help at events or behind the scenes from packing sweets to hiring a DJ. All offers of help are greatly received however small they may seem. Please get in touch with the Secretary if you have any questions or want to volunteer with us.
By supporting our events you have raised
2018 – 2019 – £10,946.00
2019 – 2020 – £4,795.00
2020 – 2021 – £2,539.00
2021-2022 – £9,315.00
2022-2023 – £9,413
2023-2024 – £6,983
With these funds we have been able to support the school by purchasing
- The Reception Pod
- The Outside trim trails
- Smart TV screens for every classroom
- Tents for camping on the school field
- Reading Nooks across school
