Treasure hunt

tried and tested

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pta.co.uk summer 2017 29

by olivia oulton

As the weather turns warmer, spread

your fundraising wings and try

something new. Get inspiration from

these PTAs’ hot summer events

Superb ideas

for summer!

‘Our PTA organised a treasure hunt before the school broke up for half- term. We advertised the event with posters around the school and reminded parents via email.

We prepared a list of 50 items for the pupils to find at home; some were very easy to find and others a little trickier. The treasure hunt required pupils to gather sponsorship before collecting the listed items. On a personal note, when I was doing it with my own daughter we had such fun searching through cupboards and pestering friends for

the items we didn’t have at home (who knew how hard it was to find a red peppercorn!). In fact, I spoke to a few parents who said how much their children loved ransacking their homes!

I sent out the list and a sponsorship form on the Friday before we broke up. The students then had all of half-term to collect the items. In the end, we had about 40 treasure hunts returned, some with sponsorship and some without. All students who took part were rewarded with a certificate and small present. We gave these out at a school assembly, which

created a buzz about the treasure hunt.The amazing thing is the whole event

cost us nothing but our time, yet we raised £550 from just the small number of students who gathered sponsorship.

After the success of the event we will definitely be doing it again this year. The event gained quite a lot of attention and I have been approached by other PTAs about it. We were even featured in our local newspaper!’ Jamie Jardine, PTA Chair, Tilbury Pioneer Academy, Tilbury, Essex (286 pupils)

‘We held a unique event last year, when the opportunity arose to integrate our annual summer barbecue into the official launch of the school’s new floodlit hockey pitch. The first of its kind in Northern Ireland, the pitch’s surface is modelled on that used for the London 2012 Olympics hockey tournament.

This event gave us the chance to raise the profile of the school and its facilities in addition to raising money. A range of activities ran throughout the afternoon, including zorbing, a mini assault course and a Batak wall game!

These activities culminated with a star attraction: a local skydiving team, the Wild Geese, flew in to land on the grounds adjoining the hockey pitch at 6pm. We advertised this attraction widely and it definitely opened the event up to the local community rather than just the school, resulting in a huge turn out.

We scattered a large number of small mats (similar to beer mats) across the field. These numbered mats had been sold on the day and in the weeks leading up to the event. Each skydiver picked up five mats on landing and whoever had purchased that mat won a prize. All prizes were donated.

In addition, the first parachutist carried a hockey ball and, on landing, handed it over to the team captains in preparation for the inaugural match. Once the landing was complete, the official opening of the new pitch took place, led by Dame Mary Peters (DBE), a former British Olympic gold medallist. The first match was then played. Our total profit was £1,889. It was a really amazing event and the support from the community made it all worthwhile!’ Jen Guiney, former Treasurer, The Wallace High School, Co Antrim (1,200 pupils)

A skydiving summer barbecue

30 summer 2017 pta.co.uk

tried and tested

Inflatables day

‘One Sunday in May last year, our PTA ran a much-anticipated “inflatables day”. A local company provided all the equipment, which included bouncy castles, slides, some Gladiators-style games, a climbing wall, swings, trampolines and circus-skills equipment.

It was free to attend, but parents bought their children wristbands for £5.99, and these gave them unlimited access to the rides all day. The money went directly to the external company, and we took a percentage of profits.

We advertised extensively – through school, social media and estate agent advertising boards (we receive a donation for the latter in return for having boards up). The event was open to anybody, not just families at our school; we saw it as a great opportunity to reach out to the community.

Working with an external company was great because it had safety procedures and public liability insurance in place. The company staffed all the rides so there was no training required for our volunteers – leaving us free to run the money-making stalls. We fired up the barbecue and ran a beer and Pimm’s tent and a tuck stall. We applied for a TEN and one of our current parents owns a brewery, which is extremely handy! The whole event needed around 30 volunteers, including some first aiders.

We made £80 from the wristbands, £125 from the estate agent boards and £1,500 from catering and stalls. Match-funding from Barclays meant that, in total, we were able to give almost £3,000 to the school – and the positive community spirit it generated was invaluable.’Gillian Romano-Critchley, PTA Chair, St Peter’s CofE VC Primary School, Essex (320 pupils)

‘The paintballing event was open to all age groups, parents and siblings. The dads who attended welcomed the opportunity to engage with their children in an exciting activity. We charged each player £38 – our costs were £35 per head, though the venue gave us a free space for every 15 players. With a cap of 60 players, the PTA made a total of £320.

Good organisation was key. The date was set into the school calendar a year in advance and was advertised through the usual school notification channels, starting about four months before the event.

The PTA utilised the school’s ParentPay system to take payments. The most time-consuming aspect was processing the applications and communicating information and instructions to parents.

Sabotage in Swanbourne, near Milton Keynes, hosted and ran the event. We had exclusive use of its grounds and facilities, which gave reassurance to parents. The enjoyment of participants was largely due to the team at Sabotage having such good knowledge and care of the pupils’ welfare and safety. The paintballing day was hugely popular and has become an annual event.’David Greig, PTA committee member, Aylesbury Grammar School, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire (1,300 pupils)

Paintballing

Community swimathon‘The Windsor branch of Lions Clubs International is well-known locally for the work it does to support community groups in the area. We heard about the annual swimathon from someone who had previously taken part. This event offers smaller charities the opportunity to fundraise on a larger scale. Our PTA was thrilled to have the opportunity to take part in a fundraising event that we didn’t have to plan and execute ourselves!

We came to the event quite late, but all we had to do was get a team together and turn up. There was no charge to take part; we simply needed to encourage people to sponsor or get sponsored. We advertised the event through ParentMail and placed flyers in the children’s book bags, asking for volunteers to come forward to form a team. We ended up raising £650 – a phenomenal result given that we only arranged to take part two weeks beforehand.

The swimathon was definitely the easiest fundraising experience our PTA has had. Children of all abilities were able to swim in the same teams so the atmosphere was fun and relaxed. The children loved being involved in an event of this scale, without any pressure to perform. We will definitely take part again this year. We’ve already started to plan in advance and we’ll be entering more teams, with more sponsors, and we’re hoping to raise even more money!’Mark Fraser, Vice Chair, St Mary’s School, Winkfield, Berkshire (210 Pupils)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream ball

‘Our annual summer ball is one of the biggest fundraisers of the year! We try to encourage parents to put a team together who will run the whole event from start to finish, as we feel it gives those not on the PTA an insight into what we’re about. These parents often then end up being more involved in the PTA moving forwards, and it keeps the theme for the event fresh each year!

Last year, the theme was A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was magical, with lush foliage decorating the tables, and fairies and butterflies climbing out of the candelabras!

Organisation started well in advance to ensure we could book a good venue and quality entertainment. We charged £40 per head, and guests were encouraged to dress in black tie and evening gowns. Before long, we had 100 guests! The evening began with welcome drinks, and people could also purchase one of our “lucky envelopes”, priced at £5, £10 or £20. The envelopes contained a prize worth more than the value paid – for example, a £20 envelope could have included a voucher for dinner and a bottle of wine at the local pub. All prizes were donated, and the envelopes were popular as everyone was a winner! These raised £535.

We served a three-course dinner, and ran games and an auction throughout the evening. There was a lot to fit into the event, so running these games whilst guests were eating worked well. Our ”heads or tails” game raised £455! For the auction, we placed pamphlets on tables, listing the ten items that people could bid on. This raised an amazing £3,230!

The teachers also performed a humorous song and dance for our guests, and people were encouraged to throw money into a tin before this began. Our live band then hit the stage, and everyone danced until midnight! We raised a total of £5,450 and everyone had such a brilliant time.’Neula Niland and Sophie Milton, PTA Co-Chairs, St Thomas of Canterbury Primary School, Guildford, Surrey (420 pupils)

‘Our PTA quiz night is always a huge success and has been held for many years, with more than 130 people attending each event. Our PTA decorates the school hall to welcome parents and staff.

Each round is based on different subjects, but some, such as the drawing round, are topical. We prepare ten rounds, each with five questions worth 50 points, plus a quiz pack worth another 50 points. We also offer jokers to be used for one round only, doubling the points for that set of questions. When I compose the quiz, I try to create questions that I think at least a handful of guests will be able to answer. That way, everyone has contributed to the team’s score!

We have a head marker, and she also has an army of helpers! After a few rounds, the papers are swapped per table, given to the markers for confirmation before being displayed on the leaderboard.

We charge £15 per ticket, which includes a curry dinner catered for by a local curry house. To boost profits, we also run a “heads and tails” game, a snack rack and an honesty bar. The honesty bar has no barman or barmaid – people simply take the drinks they’d like, but are then encouraged to put money into the bucket provided! A TEN was also necessary for this.

It’s always a wonderful evening with plenty of head-scratching and laughter. It’s sometimes hard to believe how popular our quiz night has become. In 2016, we raised over £2,180, and we hope that the success and fun this event brings will continue.’ Mark Phillips, Event Organiser, Montpelier Primary School, Ealing, London (800 pupils)

Quiz night

Colour run

‘In September 2016, our PTA ran a colour run, and we thought it would be a good event for our new families to get involved with. We have a few runners in the PTA, but the school also has a parents running club (the Stanbridge Fliers) who were more than happy to help organise the race.

We advertised the event via our Facebook page and through letters home to parents. The letter included a full health and safety statement as well as other terms and conditions that runners had to sign up to.

Entry cost £2.50 per person, which included one pouch of powder to use ahead of the race, paint to use while going around the course and the medals and certificates that the children earned upon completion. We limited the number of spaces for children to 100 so we could order the right number of medals, but places were sold-out almost straight away! We asked people to get sponsorship, but made it clear this was not compulsory as our focus was the fun of the event. And a local business sponsored the event in return for advertising.

We bought the powdered paint in bulk, then made up the individual bags for the runners. It was a messy job but was much cheaper than buying the individual bags. The medals we gave out at the end of the race were colourful, in keeping with the event!

On the day, the Fliers set out the course. It was approximately one kilometre and consisted of four laps of the school field. We had a registration table where people signed in and received their bag of paint and then they threw this over each other before the race started! Younger participants were given a head start, with Reception and their families commencing the race. We had two “colour stations” manned by volunteers, where runners would have powdered paint thrown at them each time they went through, so eight times in total. We also had refreshment stalls and a barbecue.

We raised £850 and have decided to make this an annual event – it was so much fun!’ Sarah Byefield, PTA Chair, Stanbridge Primary School, Bristol (420 pupils)

Lions Clubs International

celebrates its centenary this year. There are 900 clubs

in the British Isles and Ireland – contact your local club to see how they can support your school. Go

to lionsclubs.co for details.

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Done credits for Thinkstock imagesAsked Olivia for photo credits for schools pics 15th Feb 2017Carol