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Friends of Eltham Hill Association

Welcome to Eltham Hill School

This information has been put together by The Friends of Eltham Hill School especially for you, as a new family joining our school community. Starting school is an exciting time for the whole family. Studies show that there’s a direct link between parental involvement and how well children do, so why not get involved from the start! This booklet provides you with information about The Friends of Eltham Hill School and lets you know how you can join in.

Why do we have a PTA?

We are fortunate at our school to have a Friends Association that’s an integral part of the school community. Since January 2019 we have raised over £3,000 for the school which has been spent on equipment and resources to enhance our children’s educational experience and the school’s facilities.

Our association is about much more than simply fundraising. The Friends of Eltham Hill School exists to provide closer links between home and school and it is an excellent way to bring staff, parents and friends together socially in support of the school, working towards a common goal. We are a friendly bunch and try to make it fun too.

All parents and members of the school community are encouraged to get involved, even if they only have a small amount of time available. All families are automatically members of The Friends of Eltham Hill School when their child joins our school.

Role of the Committee

Our 22/23 Committee consists of a Chair, Treasurer, Secretary and Membership and Communications Officer. Our details are at the back of this booklet. We are keen to grow our committee membership and welcome anyone who would be interested in joining the committee. Committee members are elected at our AGM meetings each year.

The Committee meet on a regular basis to organise events with smaller working groups meeting as necessary when we are planning larger events.

The Committee also hold open meetings, any member can come along, find out what the association are planning, share ideas and get involved. Our meetings are currently generally online via Zoom with meetings face to face where we can organise this.

Volunteers

We welcome any help from parents, teachers and friends, and have a growing list of volunteers who commit some of their time to helping the association. Every little helps, so just one hour of assisting at events or wrapping lucky dip prizes or folding raffle tickets (just a few examples) would be invaluable. If you would like to join us please speak to a committee member, come along to our next meeting or email us at friendsofelthamhill@gmail.com

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Our Annual General Meeting is held in the autumn in the evening. This provides an excellent opportunity for all parents to hear in more detail about our work, the events we have run, the funds we have raised and how the money has been spent. It is also when we elect our new committee members.

How we raise money

Like most PTAs, the majority of our funds are raised through the events that we run. Some of our most popular events are:

New and Used Secondhand uniform sales

Pop up cafes at parents’ evenings

Quizzes

Christmas Tree Sales

Donations from parents are extremely important. You can donate time, money, items for sale, raffle prizes and auction lots or offers of services and skills.

This simplest way to support us, at NO cost to you, is by signing up to Easyfundraising and link your profile to us: www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/friendsofelthamhillschool. Anything you buy online could then create a small donation for the school.

Our big ongoing work is our “new and second hand uniform sale”. We resell cleaned uniform items at great rates and also donate uniform to families in need. In order for this to work, when the time comes, we need you to donate any good quality unwanted uniform, we accept items at any time, just leave with either reception. We run periodic in-person sales, but always have items available from our online shop (www.pta-events.co.uk/foeh) with deliveries to the school. Uniform queries can be sent to foehuniform@gmail.com

How we spend the money we raise

The PTA committee are responsible for deciding how our PTA funds are spent. Usually the School Leadership Team provide a ‘wish list’ of items that the school would like us to consider funding. Our current main fundraising goal is to be able to part-fund with the school a Long Jump to be built in the grounds of the school.

We also invite input from parents too, so if you have an idea of something that would benefit all the students in the school, please do share it with the Committee. We can discuss it at a meeting and feedback.

Funds are typically spent on the ‘extras’ that are not provided by the school’s budget, thus making our children’s learning experiences so much more fulfilling and exciting. Funds are not generally spent on improving the fabric of the school building, as this is the responsibility of the school. Our Constitution commits the association to spending money on things that support the school and advance the education of the pupils.

Some of the items we have donated to the school are listed below

Library Books

2 Digital SLR Cameras

How we keep you up to date

We provide a Friends’ update in most school newsletters. This includes information on upcoming events and dates plus as well as details of the help we are looking for at events. Following an event, we always write to let you know how much was raised, and when we reach our target, we tell you what the money will be spent on.

If you have access to Facebook, please join our Friends of Eltham Hill School Facebook page. We also have a twitter account: @hill_eltham

If you would like to join our WhatsApp Group please let the committee know.

Support from Parentkind

The Friends of Eltham Hill School is a member of Parentkind, which is a national charity and membership organisation providing support and guidance to over 13,500 parent associations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Membership includes comprehensive insurance cover by Zurich Insurance plc for all our association run events and gives access to support and advice on running the association plus fundraising ideas and good practice hints and tips

Parentkind also provide resources for Parents, if you would like to sign up to their Parent e-Bulletin please visit https://www.parentkind.org.uk/Signup