John Henry Newman Academy is extremely lucky to have a school PTA (Parent & Teacher Association). The aim of the PTA is to promote close co-operation and communication between parents, teachers and the school council. We engage in activities which support and advance the welfare and education of the pupils attending the school.
Throughout the year the PTA committee organises various events. These are fun and entertaining, family friendly, and of course, are all fundraisers! Our events include: Seasonal raffles, Summer fete, Discos, Christmas Fairs, Santa’s Grotto, and cake sales and we’re always open to new ideas too! All the money raised at these events goes back to the school to benefit all of the children. We provide funding for extra equipment and experiences which will help to enrich and extend the children’s learning and give them opportunities they might not otherwise have.
This Year’s Fundraising Efforts
Getting Involved
There are lots of ways you can help and support your child through the PTA. If you feel you can commit to joining the committee then that would be great. However, offering to help before events or at other times during the year is also so valuable – it doesn’t matter if you can’t help on a regular basis, or even if you can’t come into school. There are always little jobs that can be done from home if you have an hour spare (e.g. wrapping gifts, designing posters, contacting businesses to ask for donations, baking cakes, stuffing envelopes). We really couldn’t achieve what we do without the unseen ‘army of help’ that exists in school.
Getting involved with the PTA doesn’t have to involve a lot. You don’t have to attend all of our meetings if you are too busy or working but all we ask is for your ideas and support throughout the year.
There are lots of different ways you can support the PTA:
- Join the committee and come along to our monthly meetings.
- Let us know if you have any contacts or skills that we could use – everything is potentially valuable to us!
- Let us know if you are willing for us to contact you to ask you to help out occasionally.
- Get involved in planning an event.
- Put forward ideas for new events.
- Set up/ help during/ clear away at events.
- Design posters/ leaflets.
- Ideas for what the PTA could fund.
- Even just coming along to enjoy our events!
All parents and members of the school community can get involved if they want to, even if they only have a small amount of time available, and all parents are automatically members of the John Henry Newman Academy PTA when their children join our school.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our events in the past – we know how precious your time is! Thanks also to all the families that have come and supported our fundraising events – without your generous support we wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we have in the past!
Easyfundraising
You can raise money for the school when you go shopping! This is a FREE fundraising service, where we can raise money for the school when shopping online (and instore if you register your card details). It doesn’t cost you anything!
Choose from over 600 of the UK’s best known retailers and when you shop using the links on the Easy Fundraising site up to 15% from every purchase you make is donated to our school!
Thank you parents if you have joined-up! For those that haven’t yet:
- Click here to log onto the Easyfundraising website
- Click on the “Find a Cause” tab along the top of the website
- Type in “John Henry Newman Academy”
- Click on the “Support this cause” button and follow the steps to create and account
- Proceed to shop by clicking onto any of the well-known retailers
- Your purchases will be tracked and a % donated to our cause within a few days.
- The School Fund is credited monthly with the amounts raised.
Once you’ve created an account you can download the donation reminder to make sure you never miss an opportunity to raise money by clicking here.
PTA Committee & Meetings
Our PTA consists of a committee of parents and teachers who meet every month after school to decide and plan what we will do to raise money and what we will spend the money on. We also rely on the help of other parents who may not be able to commit to coming to meetings but are willing to be involved in the lead up to and running of events.
The PTA meetings are open to everyone to come along, so feel free to join us if you can – if you want to be informed of when the next meeting will be happening speak to Mrs Simpson. They normally last no more than 45 minutes and children are welcome to come along with you. We use these meetings to get together and discuss current and upcoming events, monitor how much money has been raised, and decide how that money is to be spent.
Once a year we hold our AGM in the first fortnight of the September term, and we encourage new parents who are interested to come along. At this meeting we elect and nominate new members.
Contact us
We’d love to hear any ideas you have, and if you are interested in getting involved that’d be great! There are several ways you can get in touch with the PTA.
Phone the school office on 01865 772495 and leave a message for the PTA and one of our team will get back to you.
Speak to Mrs Simpson or any of the parent members of the committee that you know.
Keep a look out for posters around the school and text alerts for more information on upcoming PTA events, and check out the PTA notice board next to the Foundation classroom for more information!