Parents Teachers Association
Our Parent Teacher Association (PTA) formed soon after the school was founded and has become an integral part of our school community, raising over £150K since its inception.
All parents automatically join the PTA when their children join the school.
Every year, the parents then elect a PTA Committee, a group of parents who act as Trustees for the PTA and run the PTA’s fundraising activities throughout the year.
The Committee welcomes all parents’ support, ideas and time - however much or little you can give. The PTA has many long-serving members, but also many parents who have less time to give and micro-volunteer at individual events. For example, you might become a class rep, bake a cake, or just offer an hour of your time painting playground furniture or tending to the school garden. All help is invaluable, hugely appreciated and makes such a difference to our children.
Our focus is to support and help the school with additional funding. This allows the school to spend money on equipment, resources and experiences to enhance the children’s educational journey.
We also focus on building a strong relationship with our local community and between the teachers and parents.
We hold many events throughout the year including bake sales, fairs, sponsored walk, kids’ silent discos, as well as the fun social events like the summer ball, quiz night, and the football and netball tournaments.
All these events (and many more) are an excellent way to bring staff, parents and friends together for fun events, whilst working towards a common goal.
If you would like to volunteer, become a committee member, or just help with a single event, please do contact us at deerparkschoolpta@gmail.com or on Classlist.
Parents Teachers Association Handbook.
Role of the Committee
The PTA Committee has three core roles (chair, treasurer, secretary) as well as a number of ordinary members who take on roles such as events, sports, grants and bursaries and fairs. As the school keeps developing, we will increase the number of roles as required; there will be opportunities for new members to put themselves forward for any positions at the AGM, and we are always keen to add members who have particular skills to offer.
The Committee meet on a regular basis, usually once every half term.
Community Links
Along with other initiatives, the PTA takes part annually in the Richmond May Fair and the St Margaret’s Fair. We are always looking for new opportunities to build more links with the local community, including with other primary schools.
We also regularly approach local businesses for sponsorship opportunities and raffle donations, so are very keen to hear about relevant opportunities.
Fundraising
In the 2023/2024 academic year, our PTA raised nearly £40,000. Each year contains a strong calendar of events and fundraising initiatives.
Some of our other big fundraisers are our Winter Fair, regular bake sales, movie nights, quiz nights, Bags2Shool, 200 Club, Christmas Card Project, sports events such as the Great River Race, the Sponsored Walk, EasyFundraising and many others.
With this we have funded playground renovations, built a library, purchased IT learning equipment, installed air conditioning in the main school hall, enabled our children to take their PE lessons in the park, funded educational learning trips, and much, much more!
Organising
After a busy year, one major change for 2019/20 was to ask individual classes to take on responsibility for some of the smaller regular events, to allow to committee to concentrate of bigger events and coming up with new ideas and initiatives to continue to grow the PTA fundraising capabilities. These included bake sales as well as Movie NightsCrib notes are provided and the committee will of course be on hand to offer help and guidance when needed.
Donating to the PTA
If you can, please consider making a one-off, or even regular donations, to the PTA. You can do this via our PayPal account @deerparkschoolpta or by using Easyfunding online. Please also ask your employer about Matched Funding!
The PTA app Classlist also contains information on different ways you can support the school through the year; keep an eye on the news section for updates!