Welcome to the Friends of
The ‘Friends of Ferncumbe’ is the Ferncumbe School PTA. We like to consider that all parents, carers, teachers and staff are members of the Friends – as well as many local ‘friends’ who have been so generous and supportive over the years.
The purpose of the Friends is twofold. Firstly, we raise money for school projects and equipment. We do this by holding raffles at school social events, such as the Christmas Concert, and also by running social events, such as Easter bingo and autumn bbq evenings, other games evenings and also a summer fete.
The Friends, in conjunction with the school, decide how to spend the money we raise, to provide additional facilities that the children would not otherwise have. Our donations have purchased a wide range of provision including electronic microscopes for each class, building bricks for younger children, and also playground equipment. And traditionally, we pay for the transport for the children’s pantomime trip each Christmas. Oh yes we do!
Our second, but also important purpose is to bring together the friends of the school socially – whether this is at our own meetings, or at our family events. It is important to us that as Ferncumbe has grown over the last few years we continue to maintain the friendly family atmosphere.
The Friends is a registered charity, and while we keep our meetings as informal and as much fun as possible we do have a constitution and a governing Committee – comprising Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary. These are elected positions, determined at our Annual General Meeting.
Like all parent teacher associations we rely on parents’ support, and are very grateful to the many people who give up their time to help at events and with projects. Any parent is welcome to join us for any meeting.
Michele Mowl
2009/2010 Newsletter 27
