FOSPS (Friends Of St Paul’s School) is a Registered Charity (1097467).We are your PTFA (Parent Teacher & Friends Association) and our aim is to raise money to benefit all of the children at our school by providing additional equipment and experiences that would otherwise not be available for them. As well as funding resources for use in school, we fund educational visits and provide fun activities and events in school.
As we are a friends association, anyone with a child or grandchild at the school or with an interest in the welfare of the children is entitled to attend meetings and suggest how to raise money and get involved. As a registered charity we have a core committee made up of a Chair, Treasurer, Secretary and Events Planners. Our Team is made up of parents of children in school and we all volunteer our time. The Headteacher joins us on the committee as a school representative creating the link between FOSPS and school. We rely on support from our wider network of parents, teachers, grandparents and friends to get involved. We are 100% inclusive! We are ALL Friends of St. Paul’s School.
We raise funds, organise events, provide resources and activities in school, share our skills, meet regularly and manage our own administration and accounting. With school budgets becoming more stretched every year, it is vital that we exist to support some of the purchases that school are finding more difficult to make. We arrange end of term discos, movie nights, family events, fun runs and other themed sponsored events. Previously we have hosted Quiz Nights, Easter bingo, used clothing collections, bake sales, raffles and so many more exciting events.
We make decisions in partnership with School on how to spend monies raised and have proudly funded £5000 of Lego coding equipment for every classroom. We made a contribution of £3200 towards the Outdoor Classroom & Trim Trail in the school playground and have funded the Backlit Interactive Boards for several classrooms. In 2018, we donated over £3000 to refurbish the school library. Annually, we also donate £700 each year to subsidise school trips and this helps to offset the transport costs. We also proudly purchase the Y6 leavers gifts every year and arrange for Father Christmas to bring all the children a present at the Christmas disco.
More recently, we have established a link with the School Council and encourage the children to have an involvement in what we spend funds on.
Our committee meet regularly and we welcome new members to join us. More recently we have also been holding evening meetings in the local pub so that we can reach out to people that can’t attend during the day. Dates of meetings are advertised in advance and we communicate with email, Class Dojo, FOSPS Newsletter and the school Newsletter.
We have our own Facebook Group which is secure and closed to members only, monitored by FOSPS admin and strictly for positive enrichment of our fundraising activities and events. By using social media we aim to communicate to a wider audience and engage more people. The group is used to share information about events and fundraising, request the help of our members, encourage parent interaction and to celebrate the efforts and achievements of our fundraising. On request to join, you are asked what your connection is to the school to meet safeguarding regulations.
Here is the link to our FOSPS Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FOSPS/
ANY offer of help is greatly appreciated. There are LOTS of ways we can all support FOSPS and ultimately our children in school. Being involved with the PTA is a fantastic way of getting to know more people at school and it’s really satisfying to share in the successful fundraising efforts of our FOSPS community.
Share your skills, don’t be shy! Let us know what you do, what you are good at.
Can you bake cakes, take good photographs, look after a website, do you enjoy gardening, like dancing, make hot dogs, can you design a poster, wash up, do a cash and carry run, are you artistic, are you our next bingo caller or could you write a fundraising grant application? These are just a few of our tasks. We call on our wider network to try and make our events as successful as possible.
Sponsor the children and ask your family and friends to donate too, every little helps.
Pop along to a meeting and maybe share your ideas for fundraisers or just listen and get a feel for what goes on.
Donate a bit of your time here and there to help us at the events in school or more importantly with the planning and preparation beforehand. There’s always some setting up and tidying away to be done! We are always welcome of volunteers.
Let us know if you have a business that can offer any help, perhaps donate raffle prizes or let us apply to be their local charity of the year.
Support and attend our fundraising events and donate when you can.
Read our newsletters and be informed about the forthcoming events.
Offer to help plan an event - have you been active within another fundraising community at work or church perhaps, have you attended an event that was successful? We want to know about it
Join our Team! Volunteering is a really rewarding experience. We are always reaching out for new members and would love you to get on board.
Follow our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/groups/FOSPS
Request to join our email network group and receive all the Team communications.
Email fosps123@outlook.com and ask to join FOSPS
You don’t need an invitation, you are already a valued member of FOSPS.
Thank you for your continued support.
The School, through its distinctive Christian character, is outstanding at meeting the needs of all learners.
