Walter Evans PTFA Meeting Minutes
1st October 2015 - 20:00 Walter Evans School
- Attendance
Hannah Simmons (HS)
Jane Foulkes (JF)
Ruth Harris (RH)
Mike Nelson (MN)
Emma McCrea (EMcC)
PippaWorsey (PW)
Helen Wallace (HW)
Sally Frost (SF)
Louise Attew (LA)
Keith Coull (KC)
Sophie Collar (SC)
Josie - Apologies for Absence
Rachel Bushby
Simon McBeth
Judy and Steve Levitt
- Matters arising from previous minutes
The first newsletter of the school year was sent out last week. It highlighted upcoming events and also advertised and the Recycle with Michael scheme.
- Finance/Accounts
A few cheques still need banking from last year, MN said to pass them onto him so he could put them into the account.
It was agreed that following the retirement of Pippa Scorah, the account would require three approved signatories from now on. It was proposed and agreed that along with Hannah Simmons, the two additional signatories would be Mike Nelson and Emma McCrea. It was then agreed that MN should go ahead and set up internet banking on the account to allow quicker transactions in the future.
- Upcoming events
The Family Disco on Friday 16th October will take place between 6.30-8.30pm Tickets will be £3 each open to all family members. EMcC confirmed that the tickets would be released on Monday. EMcC agreed to organise the volunteers for the event to help (Judy Levitt and Victoria Buckley have offered).
EMcC confirmed that the Cauliflower cards are ready to go and they will be sent home with the children on Friday.
KC confirmed he will organise a license for the Christmas Shopping Evening that will take place on the 27th November. Stall booking forms to be printed next week.
The team organising the Secret Santa sale (Jacqui, Sophie and Ruth) confirmed they will he holding a meeting together next week, to discuss the organisation of the event on the 2nd December. Donation requests will be sent out after half term. EMcC confirmed she would organise the raffle tickets to be printed.
The Children’s Christmas Shopping Film Night on the 10th December is to take place between 6-8pm. EMcC confirmed that 6 members of the teaching staff have volunteered to help
- Requests for funding
JF outlined two funding requests at present as follows:
Acoustic panels in the new school hall, to lower the noise resonance (currently the level is 5.14 and the guidelines state it should be below 1). Following the hall extension the noise in the hall can currently be quite overwhelming for children especially at lunch times. It was agreed in principle that it was a good use of PTFA money, but it would potentially have to wait till early next year to build funds in the account. JF confirmed she had received two quotes from specialist companies at present, one for the installation and supply for around £5,500 and another for just the installation for £2,800. HW suggested JF to visit the school she works at to look at their panelling and get some more information.
Simon McBeth has requested approximately £3,000 to revamp the school library (books/seats etc). He applied for a grant previously but it was rejected. The money would be helpful to restock the non-fiction area of books for the new curriculum. JF and EMcC confirmed that the PTFA last year agreed to match the amount previously raised of £1,000 and this was still due to be given. It was agreed to release the £1,000 immediately out the PTFA account. We then discussed the possibility of a 'Donate a book' fundraiser, it was agreed most parents and children would not hesitate to help in someway with either donating a book or donating money to provide new books for the library. Josie suggested contacting Waterstones to see if there would be anyway of them providing a wedding list type service to enable people to purchase a book from a specific list. She agreed to look into this as an option.
- Any other business
JF and EMcC discussed the idea of purchasing a Defibrillator for the school, it was agreed that this would be a good idea due to the number of children currently within school with health concerns and it would only be useful for the school and local community. It would potentially require the school to fund around £250 and the PTFA to match this amount, as the rest would be donated by charity. It was agreed in principle that this would be a good project for the PTFA to fund, EMcC to speak to a friend who works for Cardiac Risk charity to help organise.
Date for next meeting – Thursday 19th November - 8pm at Haslams Rugby Club.