Appleton C of E Primary School

Committee Meeting 8th March 2011

Attendees: Jo Gregory-Newman, Carl McKno, Chris Cairns, Claire Barratt, Robin Croft

Apologies:  Jess Adams, Felicity Peachell, Niki Wardell-Yerburgh, Maria Cruttenden, Kristy Bailey, Annabel Brown, Julia Boyce.

Minutes from last meeting:

Expenditure:  We are still waiting for a decision over £10K kept by Friends for laptops already purchased. This will most likely have to wait until Mary Watts returns. However, RM have confirmed that the offer on Netbooks will still be applicable after Easter.

New Astroturf area

Someone from the diocese is coming into school in the next couple of weeks to discuss the area with Annabel. The school would prefer fake grass to astroturf due to the ongoing expenses with astroturf.

Niki has spoken to Ian Stagg re DHL fundraising match scheme and he can only do this once per year, and this year it has already been done for a different group.

CB discussed contribution from concert with Felicity Dick and they are happy to give £500 donation to the Friends, specifically for this.

Gift Aid – Carl has looked into this and advised that we can not claim gift aid for anything where people have paid for tickets. This can only be claimed on specific donations (e.g. the above donation from the concert).

Carl to download and complete forms and to advise at next meeting what you can and can’t claim on.

Events for this year:

Jo gave an update on money raised (profit) from activities so far this year :

Burns night - £345
Children’s disco - £93
Christmas craft fayre - £232

Making a total of £670 which is down compared to money raised by this time last year which was £1130. However, we attributed most of this shortfall to the shopping evening which we did not do this time.

Adults Disco – 70’s theme

This has been postponed from 18th March to Sat 26th March as it was felt there were too many people who could not make it on 18th. The disco man has confirmed he can do Sat 26th Cost £150. Chip man booked @ £30. Tickets and posters already prepared. £7.50 ticket price. Niki has bought 70’s theme raffle prizes. At least 24 people needed to cover costs.

Proposed Appleton Grand Prix – Saturday 14th May – joint event with Playground committee. This is not going to happen.

However, we are still considering whether to have a different event some time during May as we would still like to do a joint event with Playground. To be discussed more at next meeting.

Chris advised that the Playground committee will be holding another Appleton Olympics event in the summer of 2012 but not this year as the Playground will actually be opening in June/July.

Camping Festival – Saturday 11th June 2011

Jess Adams organising. This is to be a family social event.

Summer Fete – Sunday 26th June

Elaine McKno coordinating. All in hand.

Future Events:

There was much discussion on the fact that there seem to be very few people who take responsibility for organizing Friends events which is a contributing factor as to why some of the events originally suggested at the start of the year have not taken place.

The committee would like to suggest that from September, parents from each of the classes could take it in turn to organize one event each ½ term. For example parents from Class F and Class 1 could organize an event one ½ term, then parents from class 2 and class 3 could organize the next event.

The committee would still take responsibility for the regular annual events such as the Summer fete and Christmas Craft Fayre etc.

To be discussed / implemented at AGM
 
AOB:

Uniform:  We are switching suppliers to a company called Simply Schoolwear who have a shop in Faringdon but from whom you can also order on-line. They will deliver free of charge and can also supply name tags if required. We still have some stock so the next school uniform shop will be on 25th March but this may be the last one.

Easter Egg Hunt.  The Friends agreed to donate £25 to this, as we have done in the past. CB will get this from Kristy or Felicity.

Sports Night.  We think this will be on 1st July. CB to check with Annabel and get date on school and friends calendar.

Halloween event.  David Gow has asked about the Friends doing a joint event with him but we are not sure of the details. Carl to speak to David about this.

Fireworks event.  Robin asked whether we could consider this for next year as he has a friend who does this professionally but at very good rates. We have already been advised that we could not hold this at the Sportsfield due to the Cattle Farm next door. Carl to ask David Gow, whether we could do this on his land. Robin to get an idea of costs from his contact.

Editor for village website.  Graham Rose asked CB whether we would like to reinstate our own editor for the village website so that we can add Friends events and information ourselves. Carl to speak to Graham about this.

Date of the next Friends meeting

Tuesday 5th April – The Plough 8.15pm

For a printable copy of these minutes please click here