Fundraising

The Fundraising Team

(aka Crawley Down Village School Parents' Association)

"Fundraising for smiles"

Who are we?

The Fundraising Team was created in 2008 by a small group of parents who saw a need for raising extra funds to give every child in the school additional experiences and treats that the government grants cannot stretch to.

Since there are no teachers on the team and we are just a team of parents volunteering to raise funds, we are not a Parent/Teacher Association (PTA) but instead call ourselves "The Fundraising Team"!

The Team has gone from strength to strength and in June 2015 became a Registered Charity under registration number 1161820.

(By clicking on each individual photo below, you can expand it for a clearer view).

Funds raised recently :

2016/17

Discos (Oct 2016 & May 2017)  -  £800

Secondhand Uniform Sales (2016/17)  -  £150

Easyfundraising (2016/17)  -  £51

Bag2School (March 2017)  -  £60

Christmas 2016 & Mother's Day 2017 "Secret" Shops   -   £1,381

Cinema Night (January 2017)  -  No charge to children (cost borne by FRT)

Christmas Fair 2016   -   £3,742

Christmas Cards 2016   -   £834

Christmas Calendars 2016   -   £195

2015/16

Happy's Circus (June 2016) (instead of Summer Fair)  -  £2,117

Quiz Night, Cinema Night, Sports Day Refreshments, Bag2School, Secondhand Uniform sales, Discos, "Secret" Shops = £2,635

Christmas Fair (December 2015)   -   £2,924

Summer Fair (May 2015)   -   £4,047

Future Planned Events

Spring Term 2017

Thursday 2nd March  -  Cinema Night

Tuesday 21st March  -  Mother's Day Shop

Summer Term 2017

AGM  -  Monday 24th April 2017 at 6pm in the Staff Room

Fair Planning Meeting  -  Thu 11th May 2017 at 8pm in The Haven Centre Bar

Disco - Thursday 25th May 2017

Fair Planning Meeting  -  Mon 12th June at 8pm in The Haven Centre Bar

Sports Day Refreshments  -  Friday 30th June 2017

Summer Fair - Saturday 8th July 2017

Autumn Term 2017

Disco - TBC

Christmas Fair  -  Saturday 25th November 2017

Christmas "Secret" Shop  -  TBC

Where has the money been spent recently?

All our fundraising ultimately enhances our children's school in so many ways.

In March 2017, The Fundraising Team funded a Cinema Night at school showing "Trolls" to all year groups.  The children were able to bring a pillow into school that evening wearing their onesies/pyjamas and enjoyed drinks & popcorn provided by The Team.

In April 2017, The Fundraising Team were delighted to be able to fully fund the £4,239 new entry sign-in system to improve safeguarding of children and adults within school. This provides the school with an online accurate register of everybody who is on on site in the event of a fire or an emergency.

At the same time, The Fundraising Team agreed with Mr Burcombe to fully fund the purchase of the following:

• £6,435 for three interactive clevertouch touchscreen TVs to the remaining classrooms so that all 12 classes now have this technology
• £4,000 for new reading books to enhance children's reading experience across all year groups both at home and in school
• £795 for phonics resources for KS1

The Fundraising Team shared equally in the cost of the new HD digital projector with electronic screen, Blu-ray player and full sound system in the school hall.  The school could not budget for this equipment alone and it has been used extensively since its installation; it has also enabled The Fundraising Team to hold three “Cinema Nights” for the children to date.

The Team regularly liaise with Mr Burcombe over items that the staff would like to see in school and the following have recently been purchased out of fundraising monies:

• Boxes of Lego® for the new Year 1/2 Lego Club
• £550 worth of new toys for both playgrounds to entertain the children at Break Time
• £600 to replace the damaged/worn ropes on the wooden play equipment
• £1,000 worth of new digital cameras [one for every classroom]
• £2,500 worth of new books for the School Library
• 50 Ukuleles costing £800 to enable all children to learn to read music
• 50 "Learn to Play Ukulele" music books costing £450
• badges & cards presented to each child to commemorate the Queen's 90th Birthday
• new wildlife software and cameras for the bird boxes

In addition, we have recently paid for:

• the very popular Climbing Wall on the bottom playground skirting the wall below the Class 6 classroom

• Fundraising Team Notice Boards by the two bottom gates to the school

• gardening gloves for Year 5/6 to help weed our Conservation Area

• new Sports kits to match the school colours for the school's various sports teams

And every year The Fundraising Team also pay for:

• an Easter Egg every year for each child
• the Annual Year 6 Leavers bowling/pizza outing

Summarily, the wide variety of things funded by The Fundraising Team monies can range from just £20 for a new toy to thousands of pounds for the conservation area, the climbing wall or a play area face-lift!

The Government does not provide the money to cover the cost of any of these additional items including books and cameras.  With the help & support of YOU the parents, it is vital that the Fundraising Team continue to raise funds year-round to enrich the school curriculum and lives of our children.

So, what do we do?

We are a group of parents who volunteer to organise and run the Summer and Christmas Fairs, the Mother's Day Shop and Christmas "Secret Santa" Shop, the Secondhand Uniform Shop, Quiz Nights, School Raffles, Refreshments/Games at Sports Day, Cinema Night and also organise the Circus, Fashion Shows, School Discos and anything else that we can think of to raise funds!

FRT Non-uniform Days : The children have several non-uniform days a year including one or two held specifically by The Fundraising Team in the run up to a large event when we ask the children to pay a "fine" of chocolate, bottles or sweets which are then used as prizes.

The 2016/17 Team comprises :

Support

Despite the number of hours of voluntary time and the hard work put in by the Fundraising Team and many of their spouses/partners, the actual funds raised could not be made without YOUR support for which we are continually grateful whether it be bottles/sweets/chocolates for tombolas, cakes for cake stalls, uniform for the shop, envelopes for the money tree game or just your presence at fairs etc.

How can you get involved?

You can help by:

• becoming part of the Team helping to plan & organise our fundraising events
• joining our list of "helpers" who would rather not be on the Team and attend meetings, but are happy to help out at events
• running a stall at the Summer/Christmas Fairs etc
• donating chocolate, bottles and/or sweets on our non-uniform days
• baking cakes to sell at fundraising events
• offering your time with new initiatives like "Friday ice cream afternoons" in the summer term
• making new fundraising suggestions
• coming along to our events to support them and raise funds for ALL our children's extra curricular experiences

If you are interested or would like further information, PLEASE CONTACT:

Mel Martinez (Chairperson, Sienna (Year 3)) on 07872 962246

or Jane Summers (Secretary, Beth (Year 5)) on 07986 575883.

In addition…

The Secondhand Uniform Shop is a stock of secondhand uniform which has been donated by parents for resale.  All proceeds go to The Fundraising Team. It is run by one of the Team so if you wish to purchase anything, please contact the School Office who will put you in touch with the relevant team member. If you have finished with any school uniform, please donate it in clean, sellable condition for onward sale.

Crawley Down Village C of E School is registered as a cause with www.easyfundraising.org.uk and www.easysearch.org.uk and has so far raised OVER £1,000 just from parents shopping online. This is a FREE service where you can shop with your favourite online stores whilst raising funds for the School. You still shop online directly with each retailer as you would normally but, by using the links through this site first, each purchase you make generates a cash back donation to the School.

www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/crawleydownsch

If you are a Facebook user, why not join the "Forum for Crawley Down Parents" page?  It was set up to share and report information from parents to parents regarding general school matters and it also includes updates from The Fundraising Team.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ParentForumCD/

The Team is an approachable, friendly group and is always open to suggestions.  You are most welcome you to get involved

as much or as little as you wish.

Look out for more information on all

school Fundraising Events

via Parentmail and on Facebook !