Location
- Uphill Village Hall
Apologies
- Lizy Jones
- Linda Walsh
- Laura Clarke
- Olivia White
- Amy Marsh
Present:
- Caroline Jamieson
- Charlotte Rooney
- Kate Sykes
- Holly Charania
- Helena Boot
- Ellen Williams
- Katie Chalmers
- Sophie Norgate
- Toby Blackburn
Chair’s Annual Report
This year has been a learning curve above all else. We started the year off with Christmas activities, notable successful events including the wreath night, which has firmly established itself as a high-quality, affordable favourite on the calendar.
The Christmas bazaar was another highlight, despite the bad weather we made a great profit in the short amount of time and most importantly, the children had a brilliant time. It’s a chaotic festive frenzy but an event I look forward to. Secret Santa was also a joy; although keeping the costs manageable gets harder each year, we ensured that every child received at least one gift, a feat I am proud of.
The Christmas Cards project, however, proved yet again complicated, labour-intensive, and brought in little return. After careful thought, I have decided to discontinue it going forward and replace it with calendars, which I hope will be more profitable and sustainable.
In March we held our famous back to the 90os night, an endeavour filled with challenges, thanks to the closure of our usual venue, and the subsequent months of negotiations and planning.
Ultimately, the night was a success, the event ran smoothly, the feedback was really positive, and we still made a profit, though smaller than in previous years. Importantly, we learned valuable lessons that put us in a stronger position for the next one.
Our Easter celebrations also took a new approach. Instead of the traditional egg hunt, which had been rained off too many times, we decided to gift every child an egg and run a few playground games. It was simple, fun, and still profitable. This could be a good model to build on in future years.
The summer fete was another success. In collaboration with the Village Society, we delivered our most successful fete yet, raising a record profit. The mix of stalls, live music, performances, games, classic cars, BBQ, and bar created a fantastic community atmosphere, helped along by perfect weather. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
This school year began with plans for another adult event—Back to the 00s—but unfortunately, low ticket sales and limited support meant we had to make the difficult decision to cancel. It’s difficult to know what to attribute the lack of interest to, the time of year, the theme, the venue, or maybe a combination of all three. While disappointing, the low overheads meant losses were minimal, and more importantly, it opened up honest and constructive conversations with the school about the level of support for PTFA events, which has already had a positive impact.
In summary, I am proud of what we have achieved this year. We have funded wonderful resources for the school, delivered memorable events for the children and the community, and learned some valuable lessons along the way. As always, we couldn’t do any of it without the help of the wider PTFA and I would like to thank you all for your support. I feel we are entering the new year with a clearer sense of our strengths, what works, what doesn’t and where to focus our energy. I look forward to another year of fun, fundraising, and building our community together.
Treasurer’s Report
We started the school year in September 2024 with £30,800 in our bank account however some of that was already allocated to the pirate ship that was built in the autumn term, the total cost to the PTFA was £12,230 as the school had some PE funds to put towards it.
We also had some invoices from the school after the school holidays totalling £850 which were reference to 2023/2024 expenditure (Dance festival t-shirts/sats breakfasts/leavers
photobooks/leavers activities/year 2 visitor).
In 2024/2025 we have helped the school by funding for Winter Coats through Parent Kind, new rugs for the EYFS classrooms, 16 laptops for the it suite and 16 iPads for the year 5/6.
We have also contributed as we do every year to the Year 6 leavers book and ice cream van, year group visitors, Christmas Party food and sats breakfasts. We also run the secret Santa and easter eggs which although we ask for money towards it there is always some of our money tops up the difference.
In 2025 we had our yearly 90’s night fundraiser which in the past has been a big money earner, this year with a change of venue due to the closure of the Tropicana and also happening later in the year it was not the big money earner we had hoped for. The cost difference for the change of venue was significant, going from £4,300 the previous year to £7,500 this year. Also it was not as well attended as we hoped, whether this was due to the time of year and promotion we are not clear, however we did make a £3,000 profit on the night which all in all we were pleased with and was a fun night for all who attended.
At Christmas we had our second wreath making event and learning lessons from our first one we doubled the capacity, moved it to a Saturday night and was a great success. This raised £800. The Christmas Bizarre was another successful event raising £1,250 even though the rain tried to stop play! Christmas Cards raised £133.
The summer Fete was another hugely successful event, we had nothing but positive feedback, the profit from the event is split 50/50 with the Village society as it is a joint effort.
The weather really helped us this year and we raised £5,000 with the PTFA getting £2,500 share.
Uniform sales this year raised £130 and we made a huge £530 on the ASDA Money pot scheme, so thank-you.
We left the school year with a total of £9,630 in our bank account, we need to ensure we have enough funds to cover the 2026 90’s night but with plans afoot for future events this
should not be a problem.
Committee Officers
The following committee roles were proposed and voted upon:
- Chair – Kate Sykes to remain
- Ellen proposed
- Unanimously seconded
- Treasurer – Charlotte Rooney to remain
- Kate proposed
- Unanimously seconded
- Secretary – Toby Blackburn to remain
- Kate proposed
- Unanimously seconded
- Vice-chair – Caroline Jamieson to remain
- Kate proposed
- Unanimously seconds
- Co-Vice-Chair – new role proposed for Ellen Williams
- Kate proposed
- Unanimously seconded
Trustees
- Trustees were agreed to remain as before as no-one requested to step down
Upcoming Spends
The following upcoming spends have been provisionally proposed by the school:
- Playground Gym Refurb – no costs or timescales at the moment
- Bee-Bots – awaiting further information on this
Calendar of Activities
The following events are currently scheduled for the upcoming year:
- Sip & Paint – 06/11/25
- Wreath Making – 29/11/25
- Christmas Calendar – November (awaiting confirmation of details from school)
- Proposed to add on school term dates to calendar along with as many PTFA events where dates can be given specifically.
- Secret Santa – December
- Class Parties – December
- Christmas Bazaar – December (date TBC)
- It was noted that the Popcorn still needs to be fixed – ACTION
- 90’s Night – 21/03/26
- Provisionally venue cost of £2,200 for two rooms as before complete with security and crowd barriers.
- Need to find out who the venue used for recent event with projected screen behind stage to see if we can replicate and get costs – ACTION
- There will be a cloakroom this year. Details on who to run TBC
- Consider adding a last-minute pricing tier for tickets in the last week or on the date – ACTION
- Look at alternative ticketing platforms to ensure we are getting best value for money and functionality – ACTION
- Easter – April (date TBC)
- Summer Fete – 27th June (date TBC)
- EasyFundraising – ongoing
- Parent Lottery – to be launched soon
AOB
- Year 6 Fundraising
- Following a number of issues with last year’s event for Year 6 it was proposed to implement some additional measures to ensure a consistent level of fundraising is managed going forward.
- Ellen proposed finding a way to moderate fundraising and expenditure
- Year 6 sub-group to PTFA – ring-fenced budget (agreed with school). Books and ice cream monies to come from PTFA budget. Budget agreed before fundraising starts and Yr 6 agree to fundraise to that amount. Excess funds to be retained by PTFA for future Year 6 years where fundraising falls below expected levels. Year 6 representative to act as sole conduit between PTFA and Year 6 parents. Agreements for loans of assets such as card readers and other PTFA equipment like urns or popcorn machines which will include condition and dates of loan ACTION
- Grants – Kate requested some volunteers for filling out applications for grants for the PTFA. Helena and Holly volunteered. ACTION
- Raffle prizes – Kate requested that a volunteer be found to email local companies in the run up to Christmas looking for donations to use as raffle prizes. Sophie volunteered ACTION
- Ellen noted that there may be availability at an upcoming event if we wanted it. Uphill Methodist Church on 25th October. ACTION
- Toby raised the question of whether we should become GiftAid registered to benefit from the extra 25%. Charlotte raised some concerns that there may be significant amounts of paperwork involved. Toby to investigate complexity and benefits ACTION
- Charlotte noted that running raffles through the PTFA shop is currently quite labour intensive. Toby to look for a better product for managing online ACTION
Actions
- Popcorn Machine – Kate to investigate what can be done
- Venue Costs – Toby and Ellen to liaise with Pier and other providers to firm up costs for event.
- Pricing Tiers – Toby to look into some proposed pricing tiers to allow us to increase cost on tickets bought last minute and also to enable parents an opportunity to buy tickets early through their friend groups.
- Ticketing Platform – Toby to look at options, including Foo Events
- Year 6 Fundraising Committee – Ellen to start organising Year 6 parents for fundraising efforts and to liaise with school re. budget and activities
- Grant Applications – Helena Boot & Holly Charania to look into any grants that may be available and apply where appropriate
- Raffle prizes – Sophie Norgate to get in touch with local organisations to see what prizes can be donated
- Methodist Church Event on 25th October – Ellen to look into feasibility of running a stall or possibly the popcorn machine if available?
- GiftAid – Toby to investigate
- Online Raffle Platform – Toby to investigate