Welcome to the PTA section!

Welcome Everyone,

We are Ada and Neil, joint Chairpersons of St Mary's Primary School PTA. we volunteer our time, along with our amazing Committee and Members, to help raise money for the children at the school.

All parents and carers at St Mary's Primary School are automatically supporters of the PTA now that your child has enrolled in the school. It’s your association and we are happy to help anyway we can.

What is the PTA?

The Parent Teacher Association is an open community of parent volunteers working alongside the school/teachers/and other “friends” to benefit the school and ensure the best educational experience for all its pupils.

How does the PTA benefit the school?

Parents and care givers have a big impact on how well their kids do at school. Taking an active role in your PTA is one of the ways you can make a difference and get involved:

• We raise money to fund school initiatives through charity activities and events

• We provide a social support network for parents

Our events:

Our PTA takes pride in ensuring the children have fun raising money for school. We try to make events affordable for parents and enjoyable for everyone.

Some of the recent events we have held are:

Easter Egg Hunt , KS2 Disco, KS1 Party with Calamity Clown, Headteachers Quiz Night, Chocolate Tombola

We also run a BBQ at sports day, pop up ice cream stalls on hot days and second hand uniform sales to name just a few.

On top of this we also hold regular social events for parents to get together which are a great way for new parents to meet each other.

What we spend the money on:

The School asks us for things that they would like to have – this is often the “nice” things that their education budget just can’t stretch to. In recent years we have paid for the outside classroom, gardening club items, playground equipment and picnic tables. Every year we also pay for some of the smaller things – book bags for Reception pupils, the year 6 leavers gift, ice poles at sports day, the Christmas tree and crackers at the Christmas meal. Teachers, parents and pupils (via the school council) can all suggest things that they would like and we try and find a way to finance it.

How can I help?

Although a warm welcome is great, there’s more to PTA activities than home baking and serving tea: Any parent can be a member, and every parent has skills to bring.

• Do you do Graphic Design, Events Management, Photography, Face Painting, Crafts or anything we might find helpful?

• Could you help setting up and promoting an event, wash any nearly new uniform, donate a raffle prize or run a stall?

Please don't think working or having smaller children at home means you can't help. You really can. Nearly all of our active members work full time, or have other commitments. If your child has younger siblings, helping out at PTA events is a great way to familiarise them with their future School

We all have lives away from school and it’s ok to help at some events and not at others. It is important to strike a happy balance and with more volunteers the PTA will be all the better as we can share the load.

If you’d like more information on becoming an active member of the PTA please do get in touch anytime. You can either leave a message at the school office or email me on pta@st-maryscofe.essex.sch.uk

Best Wishes

Ada and Neil

Chairs of St Mary's Primary School PTA

World Book Day Sponsored Run or Read – March 8

To raise money for much-needed IT equipment and playground renovations, we’re organizing a sponsored run/read, in connection with World Book Day. Children will come to school dressed as their favourite literary character and choose between a run or a read-a-thon that will be held in school. This responds to parent/carer feedback that sponsored events should not always be physical in nature. Giving the children a choice between running or reading will mean they can pick the activity they prefer to do. Children will bring home sponsor forms and are encouraged to gather as much support as they can from friends and family. As the school’s main sponsored event this school year, our target is £3000. The event itself is not a contest, however, the school will encourage light competition between year groups to see which class can raise the most money for the PTA fund. We will hand over the school fundraising trophy to the winning class during a collective worship. Please note that sponsorship forms are coming home with every child in their book bags after half term, with spare copies available from the school office and there a form attached below - if you wish to download and print off a copy yourself at home! Good luck!