AGM Minutes 23rd October 2024

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CLAREMONT PRIMARY SCHOOL PTA

23rd October 2024 – Claremont School Hall 7-9pm

Committee PRESENT: Claire Summers (Chair), , Niloufer Jamal (Secretary), Shagun Bansal (Treasurer), Lucy Prior (Committee Member), Ben Dryland (Committee Member), Sam Walker (Committee Member), Jenny Brown (Committee Member), Nicki Webb (Committee Member), Anna Pearson (Committee Member)

Committee APOLOGIES: Natalie Jolliffe (Vice-Chair), Lisa Gammon, Emma Butterworth, Emma Doward.

Agenda:

1.        Chair’s Welcome

2.        Chair’s Annual Report

3.        AGM Treasurer’s Report

4.        Constitution - Request to Modernise Constitution

5.        PTA Policies

6.        PTA Committee: Resignations and Appointments

7.        Looking Ahead to this Year - Events, Why We Need You and Vacancies

1. Chair’s Welcome:

Claire Summers (Chair) welcomed everyone to the 2024 AGM, noting the attendance of new reception parents. She outlined the PTA’s key goals, including fostering a strong relationship between staff and parents and supporting the school with resources to enhance education.

2. Chair’s Annual Report:

Highlights:

•  Chip-In was launched, now raising £12,000 annually as of October 2024. Claire thanked Ben, John, and Lucy for their contributions to the success of this initiative.

•  Flagship Events: Clarefest and the Summer Fete were highly successful, with increased profits this year. Claire thanked the teams who coordinated these events.

•  Playground Sales new initiative for 23-24 and has become a regular income stream (3rd highest earner for the PTA). Jennie was thanked for her ongoing efforts in managing them.

•  Claire expressed appreciation for the large number of volunteers and committee members who helped with various events over the past year.

•  PTA Feedback Survey: Over 100 responses from parents provided valuable insights into PTA activities and priorities , for consideration and action by the Committee.

Reflections:

•  School Funding: Claire emphasised the increasing challenges of school funding and the need for a long-term fundraising strategy.

•  Volunteers: With key individuals leaving, there is a pressing need for new volunteers to run events. Currently, there is no team in place to run Clarefest 2025.

•  Support from Local Community: There was no sponsor for Clarefest 2023-2024. While positive relationships exist, there is significant potential for growth in this area.

•  New Parent Engagement: It would be useful to have a dedicated volunteer to coordinate new parent events.

3. AGM Treasurer’s Report:

•  Income for the year: £62,000, a £2,000 increase compared to the previous year.

•  Event Performance: Profits were slightly higher this year from the two key events but less as a %. Affected by lack of corporate sponsorship for Clarefest. As the success of these events is weather reliant, initiatives like Chip-In are of great importance in providing steady funds.

•  Expenditure and Donations:

◦   £28k donated to the school, with a further £28k committed for the trim trail, wet weather canopy, and classroom contributions.

◦   £15k allocated for IT support.

◦   £8k to match fund the footpath refurbishment.

◦   Contributions for parking signs, new sports kit, pantomime, and Year 6 activities.

•  Profit from the Year: £11,407.

•  Balance Sheet (as of 31 August 2024): Total cash in bank and hand was £43,247, with £15,204 remaining after commitments (donations agreed to but not yet invoiced).

4. PTA Constitution:

Sara O’Malley presented how the PTA constitution has been unchanged since 1983. A new draft has been developed in line with the latest Parentkind model constitution. The changes proposed are not “regulated alterations” that affect in any material way the PTA works. These would be need to be authorised by the Charity Commission. The new draft instead includes clarifications to bring it inline with the Parentkind model. Members were asked to note the following:

•  Purpose: removed reference to “otherwise funded by the local authority” from original constitution.

•  Membership: clarified Parentkind model to reflect our existing structure of the executive committee and general committee members.

•  Powers of the Committee: clarifies that a member of the committee must be part of the sub committee (e.g., Clarefest, Summer Fete) with explicit responsibility for request and managing funds on behalf of the Committee.

•  Quoracy: PTA model suggested 50% Committee members required to hold valid committee meetings, we recommend keeping to 7 members as per existing constitution.

There were no questions for concerns raised by Members attending the AGM and the new constitution was unanimously approved by all present.

Action: PTA Secretary to prepare a special resolution and submit to Charity Commission with copy of new constitution.

5. PTA Policies:

•  All four PTA policies (privacy, safeguarding, complaints, financial controls) have been through the Exec Committee’s annual review. No changes other than to:

•  Financial Control Policy: The drafting on the approval process for expenses under £250 was updated to reflect the new process that had been previously approved by the committee. No other changes were made.

6. PTA Committee: Resignations and Appointments:

•   Resignations:

◦  Claire Summers announced her resignation as Chair after four years of dedicated service.

◦  Niloufer Jamal stepped down as Secretary.

•   New Appointments:

◦  Axelle Joos de ter Beerst was nominated by Claire Summers as the new Chair and unanimously elected.

◦   Lisa Gammon was nominated as Secretary and unanimously voted in.

◦   Marta Zielinska was introduced as the new teacher representative and unanimously elected to the committee. CS expressed her thanks to Marta for offering to step into the role which has been empty for several years.

◦   Ami Parker was nominated and voted in as a new committee member.

◦   Claire Summers was nominated to stay on the committee and was unanimously re-elected.

Claire displayed a chart outlining the new committee structure and thanked the many volunteers who support the PTA in various roles, beyond the formal Committee roles.

7. Looking Ahead to this Year – Events, Why We Need You, and Vacancies:

Claire highlighted several key events for the 2024-2025 academic year and stressed the importance of volunteers for their success:

•  Clarefest: Needs a coordinator.

•  Second-hand Uniform Sales: Needs a coordinator.

•  Other Volunteer Roles:

◦  Become a ‘Friend of the PTA’.

◦  Assist with tea/coffee at new parent events.

◦  Help with playground sales.

◦  Source free Christmas trees.

Claire emphasised that the PTA’s ability to run successful events depends on the active participation of parents. She outlined potential future initiatives, including library refreshes, new storage for sports equipment and a wet weather canopy for the second Maslow area.

AOB (Any Other Business):

•  The next committee meeting was scheduled for Monday, 11th November 2024. The time and location are to be confirmed.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES BY CHAIR OF MEETING:

SIGN:    ________________C Summers_____________________       

DATE:  26-11-2024

It's the end of term - find out here all about what the PTA raised and what's next for the PTA...

We can't believe it - another year has flown by! 

This blog is not only the last of this academic year but also my last one as Chair of the PTA - it’s been an absolute privilege to chair the PTA these past 4 years and Natalie and I look forward to handing over to the next generation of Chair and Vice-Chair - we are still looking for 2 volunteers to come forward to ensure the PTA can continue next year so do read below for more info on that.

Thank you!

Firstly though the most important thing to say is a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the PTA this year - without volunteers the PTA wouldn't exist, this includes:

• The small but perfectly formed Committee - Anna, Ben, both Emmas, Jenny, Lisa, Lucy, Nicki, Natalie, Niloufer, Sam, Sara and Shagun,

• the amazing Clarefest team led, for the last time, by Emma Butterworth and friends (so triple thank you for the 3 amazing Clarefests you have run - we’re going to miss you!), 

• the brilliant Year 2 mums who smashed the Fete out of the park, and; 

• the rest of our volunteer army - you've sorted endless piles of second hand uniform, sold hundreds of items at playground sales, ran events, served coffees, audited our accounts, written our newsletter and ran our event stalls to name a few...

Thank you as well to anyone who came to an event, bought a ticket / donut / item of second hand uniform or made a donation another way - every donation whether time or money really does have an impact. Read on to find out how you made a difference this year....

What we’ve raised 

We’re delighted to say this year was a huge success with initial figures (yet to be audited) show the PTA has made over £37,000 profit this year! 

• Our two main events raised over £20,000:

  • Clarefest £11,727 

  • Summer Fete £8,741 

• The children have enjoyed buying gifts at Secret Room, participating in the Easter Egg hunt, watching a film at the 3 cinema clubs and dancing the afternoon away at one of our 4 discos. 

• We made a record profit at yet another successful sell-out wreath making event before Christmas, and:

• We sold over 500 items of 2nd hand uniform which raised nearly £2,000.

We wanted to make donating to the PTA easier by not asking for donations at Christmas or Easter nor having to rely so much on the weather (though we were lucky again this year that it shone for us not once but twice!)

In October we invited parents to set up a regular direct debit through our new CHIP-IN initiative from which every penny would go towards the £15,000 we give the school for I.T. equipment. This year, your direct donations have raised £7,500 to date - so 50% of that target - thank you to those who are contributing in this way. It really supports the long term viability of the PTA.

What we’ve spent

The PTA’s main job is to enhance the education of the pupil’s and provide funding where the school/council otherwise can’t. The challenges facing school budgets are only increasing. Government grants do not cover all school expenses and Local Authority are facing increased costs pressures along with the rest of the country. This has meant the PTA has been asked to contribute more this year than in other years - we’ve already donated £28,000 and have committed to another £27,262 - a total of over £55,000.

The biggest donations have been for I.T. (£15,000) and the pathway repairs (£8,000) with contributions also to the Panto trip, Year 6 yearbooks and BBQ, sports kits and D.T. expenses.

We’ve also committed to improve the outdoor play opportunities for the children with:

• £4,321 for new play equipment for the front field which will be installed over the summer, and;

• £23,042 for a new all weather canopy over the Maslow area at the front of the school that will be installed in the Autumn.

This is all making a material difference to your child/ren’s experiences and opportunities whilst they’re at Claremont primary school.

What about next year?

The school have lots of ideas for areas the PTA could support it next year which will be discussed and shared in the new academic year. 

But the PTA won’t be able to help without a new Chair and Vice-Chair to steer the charity through the next year.

The Chair and Vice-Chair make up 2 of the 4 trustees for the charity. Trustees are ultimately responsible for the charity doing its legal duty. Without anyone in these roles, the PTA will cease to exist from 1st September 2024.

What does being Chair and Vice-Chair mean in practice?

As Chair, I chair approx 4 Committee meetings per year (mostly in the pub), attend approx 3 meetings with the school senior leadership team and ensure there are people to do all the jobs (key point - I do not DO the jobs!). The Vice-Chair supports the Chair, chairing meetings where they can’t and helping with the oversight of the PTA’s activities (steered by what you’re interested in doing). The Vice-Chair can progress to Chair if they want to after a year, though Natalie and I have run it more like a co-chairing partnership for the past few years (so it’s great for 2 friends to do). You need no prior knowledge to do these roles as a full handover will be provided as well as support from the experienced Committee (on which we will continue to sit should you wish us to). The minimum ask is you hold the role for 1 year - you don’t have to sign up for more if you don’t want to.

Why do it?

I joined as Chair when my eldest started at the school (proof that you don’t need to know anything to start!), and have found it a great way to make friends from all over the school as well as it being a great sense of achievement when you see how much joy and value the PTA brings to not only your own children, but their friends and the school as a whole. It has also been great for my CV as last year I got a job that I don’t think I’d have got if I hadn’t been chairing the PTA.

I’m keen - what do I need to do?

Please get in touch for a non-committal chat by emailing us at claremonttwpta@gmail.com.

We look forward to hearing from you and wish everyone a wonderful restful summer - here’s hoping for some sunshine!

Claire, Natalie and the rest of the Claremont PTA Committee

Meeting Minutes 10th June 2024

10/06/2024 – Claire Summers’ residence - 8pm

PRESENT: Claire Summers (Chair), Natalie Jolliffe (Vice chair), Shagun Bansal (Treasurer), Lucy Prior (Committee Member), Jenny Brown (CM), Lisa Gammon (CM), Ben Dryland (CM) and reps from Summer Fete team (Zoe Phillimore, Anna Pearson, Helen Sanderson, Marishka Dunlop and Sarah Lester)

Virtual attendees: Candi Roberts (Headteacher), Niloufer Jamal (secretary), Nicki Taylor (CM), Emma Doward (CM), Samantha Walker (CM)

1.     APOLOGIES: Sara O’Malley (CM), Emma Butterworth

2.     Chair Update- Claire Summers

Term 5 Review:

• Clarefest: CS acknowledged this year’s event as the best yet with excellent security. Special thanks to Emma B and her team.

• Second-hand Uniform Team: CS gave thanks to the team who consistently do a great job.

• Easter Egg Hunt: Huge thanks to Lucy for a great event as always

• Cinema Club: Thanks to Sam for organising. 120 out of 150 tickets have been sold this term, with a final push needed.

• Playground Sales: Have been held less frequently based on feedback but have been highly profitable. Thanks to Jenny and her team.

• Sports Day Ice Lollies: Thanks to Sara for organising this. The school have said it’s a real highlight for the children.

• Ice Lolly sales: These are upcoming for the rest of the Fridays in the term. Thank you to Lisa & Juliette for organising these.

CS reminded the Committee that our 3 new policies (financial control, safeguarding & complaints procedure) have been uploaded to the website & can be accessed here and requested all Committee members read them and are familiar with their contents: https://www.claremontprimarypta.com/financial-policies https://www.claremontprimarypta.com/safeguarding-policy https://www.claremontprimarypta.com/complaints-policy

2.    Financial Summary (SB/NJ):

Current Status: Healthy balance of over £31,000 in the bank

Total Income for the Year from Events: Just over £39,000, with a profit of £21,875 to date.

• Clarefest & playground sales have been the most profitable with Clarefest looking to be highest profit ever made from the event - over £11,000.

• Other expenditure (bank fees, PTA overheads & general expenses) totalled £29,361 with £27,380 going to the school towards things including I.T., repair of the footpath, theatre trips, sports kit, DT and parking signs.

• Expenses voted for but not yet paid include the Year 6 BBQ & yearbooks, summer fete and cinema club expenses totalling £3,031

• Expected expenditure (not yet approved by the committee) includes Trim Trail (playground) equipment and a wet weather canopy for Maslow’s corner. The amounts are TBC.

• NJ highlighted the school lottery as a significant, low-effort income source. Action for Holly: Highlight lottery sign-ups in the weekly PTA newsletter.

• Chip In Initiative: Need to clarify funding goals and broaden its scope beyond IT. Action for Lucy: Prepare some year-specific communications about IT funding usage and research Chip-In banners for future consideration by PTA for purchase.

3.   Funding for the School (CR):

• Trim Trail: The responsiveness reps worked with Mrs. Cook & Mr. Coulson to look at options, process & eventually presented a shortlist to the school.

• For KS1 - images were put up & children were asked to travel to the Piece they most liked.

• For KS2 - Responsiveness reps went to classes to have an ‘eyes closed, hands up’ vote.

• Votes were collated & the Net Tunnel & Chin Up Bars were the winners

• Mrs. Roberts presented this data to the PTA on June 10th (at this committee meeting)

• The members present at the meeting unanimously voted in favour of the potential expense of £4,321 for the trim trail with installation set to be completed by September 2024.
  

• Maslow's Corner: CR mentioned quotes had been obtained for the different sizes of canopies with costs ranging significantly. She is awaiting a final quote and will come back to the PTA once she has it. Work will potentially only take place during the October half term. CR requested PTA support for funding these. The Committee considered the current funds available, and need to maintain reasonable reserves and concluded there is in principle broad support from all members that at least £10,000 could be donated towards this project but that there would need to be a formal vote once final numbers were in and fundraising from the rest of the term’s activities known.

• CR highlighted the serious challenges with school funding and that it would be beneficial if the PTA could fully fund the above items.

• Ben emphasised the importance & value of CHIP-IN especially now that schools need to self fund more due to reduced funding. CR agreed to put out more information to the school about funding in September.

• Summer Fete team suggested they fundraise for a specific item from the Summer Fete silent auction. The Committee agreed the trim trail would be an ideal item to highlight in the marketing of this.

• Action: Claire and Anna/Zoe to prepare blog for parents about funding and work with school on comms on this.

4. Summer Fete:

• Preparations: HS updated the Committee on preparations underway and that plans and budget is broadly on track. Discussion & advice shared about logistics, communications to parents/children etc.

• Approach to cash floats on the day was agreed - Shagun to secure £400 cash float.  Summer fete team were advised to read the financial control policy.

• Decision that animal encounter tickets to be sold online prior to the event

• PTA advised to ensure clear signage on age restrictions for bottle tombola.

• The platform for, and the comms around, the Silent Auction was discussed - will launch 2 weeks before and close 2:30 PM on the day of the fete.

• Donation for Kent Radio - fete team to request a bank transfer to avoid cash on the day.

• Vote: Vote to increase Fete budget by £300 to account for additional costs for the summer drinks stall - unanimous

• Vote: A unanimous vote on expenditure for headsets (£300) and gazebo replacement (£600) - if they are required to be purchased. [Post meeting note - items are being borrowed for the fete so this expenditure won’t be required this year]    

• Action: CS to share details of liability forms and insurance required from 3rd parties and for fete team to collect and file on drop box.

5.    Recruitment for Next Year:

• CS reminded the Committee that after four years CS and NJ are stepping down as Chair and Vice-Chair from September - no interest yet received and PTA is at risk of continuing without more volunteers for these roles. Clarefest team also needs volunteers (supported by current year).

• Action:CS to prepare short bullet-point explanation of chair, vice chair/co-chairs roles, and Clarefest team roles for communication after the summer fete.

6.  AOB:

• Anna Pearson was nominated by CS to join the committee and seconded by NJoliffe.

• Ice lolly expenses of £34.75 for the upcoming playground sales were agreed upon by CS, NJollife, LP, LG, AP, JB, BD & NJamal.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES BY CHAIR OF MEETING:

SIGN:   C Summers

DATE:  27th June 2024