Minutes of HSA meeting on Thursday 26th February 2009
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Present
Alison Barnett, Maria Skoyles, Mandy Roberts, Sally Wheatley, Cath Davis, Sara Burnell, Sarah Brown, Denise Clanfield, Sarah Rayson, Claire Megarity
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Apologies
Harriet Rutter, Jo Mitchell, Nikki Parsons, Polly Blay
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Maria welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for coming.
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Accounts Report.
Alison presented the accounts. Thanks to Alison for all her work on these accounts.
Our financial year runs 1st September to 31st August each year. The accounts have been independently examined by Mr J Clements and will be submitted to the Charity Commission during June 2009.
September 2007 to August 2008 our total income stands at £10,470 this includes all sources of income including fundraising events, £240 donations and corporate item sales. Our total expenditure for this period was £12,271. The reason for the deficit is because we started the year with a large BF from the previous year, and these funds were spent during the year 07/08. The total cook for books and mufti money from 06/07 were carried forward and paid in full during 07/08, whilst money cook for books and mufti raised during 07/08 were paid to school the same year.
Key Fundraising events
Cook for books £384.33 (paid directly to school)
Mufti days £488.26
Christmas bazaar £1200
Easter raffle £114
Sports day fiesta £774.33
Pampering evening £190
2nd Hand uniform £91.00
Collection for outdoor classroom at pagent £231
Funds paid directly to school
September 2007 - £423.07 cook for books (06/07) and £277.10 – mufti day (06/07)
November 2007 - £600 (cooker & freezer for small kitchen) and £1050 (teachers extras – paints, sand, games, wet playtime games)
February 2007 - £800 (toolboards and DT equipment)
June 2008 - £367 (mufti money and skipping ropes)
Other outgoings included £938 for Christmas Carol books which were presented to the children in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the school, and £340 for a barbeque which is a useful asset.
At the end of the financial year our bank balance is £4200. This includes £130 mufti money carried forward to 08/09. The remainder will be carried forward towards our goal of buying an outdoor classroom.
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Interim report – February 2009
Money raised so far:
Book and toy sale £168
Christmas Bazaar £1275
Plum pudding sales £58
Quiz night £76
Current unprocessed transactions stand at:
Current account £3271
Saving account £1505
2nd Savings account £1000
Grand total of £5777
(This includes £402 mufti money and £210 cook for books)
With these taken off we have a grand total of £5164
Maria Skoyles and Sarah Rayson signed the accounts as a true record.
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Pancake Day sales
The sale of pancakes on pancake day raised £83. Thanks Alison & helpers for your work with this.
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HSA Treasurer
Alison will be stepping down as Treasurer at the end of the current financial year. The post will be advertised via book bags, newsletters and through the year reps. The HSA has to have a Treasurer, Chair and Secretary to be able to continue. Thank you Alison for all your work so far. You have done a great job.
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Easter Raffle
This raised £114 last year. Denise Clanfield and Alison Barnett agreed to run it. They have up to £40 to spend on easter eggs in advance. We decided that the school council could draw the raffle and that the draw would take place on Wednesday 1st April at 11am. Action: Denise & Alison
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Gift Aid & Justgiving
Justgiving is used by 6,315 charities worldwide as a way to claim back gift aid on donations. Maria explained that this a service the HSA could take advantage of. This service is free for the first 3 months. After that there is a 5% transaction fee. This transaction fee is taken off the total of the donation and the gift aid added together. The money is paid directly in to our account by Justgiving on a weekly basis (if we reach £100 a week in donations) or otherwise it is done monthly. It saves the HSA doing the lengthy admin procedure to claim gift aid. The HSA can have an on-line fundraising page where people who want to donate can go to to add their name and donation. The page explains the reason for the fundraising and can include pictures, messages and photos. Cherwell school is registered with Justgiving as is Christian Aid, Comic Relief, The Fairtrade Foundation, Oxfam, World Vision, The Red Cross and Sobell House – to mention but a few. Mandy is to set this up. Action: Mandy
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HSA website
This costs £20 per year subscription. It was agreed to continue with this and to link it to the school website.
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Opera Anywhere Event
This will take place at school on Thursday 19th March between 6.30 and 8.15pm.
Sally W explained the background to this event. This is all part of the “big vision”. This is a costed project that will take place in 4/5 phases and involved redeveloping the current school site. It will improve the quality of classroom spaces and the administration spaces. The first phase of this vision is to rebuild the front of the school. This will includes a new headteachers office, a new secretary’s office, a disabled toilet and an airlocked entrance hall. Morgan Cole are working in partnership with the school and have gifted the above event. All monies raised from ticket sales for the event will go towards this first phase of the building project. Morgan Cole are asking their business associates to attend and information has gone out to parents inviting them to attend the event too. The school choir are to sing arias on the night and a busking bowl will be provided for those that wish to give money.
The HSA has agreed to sell cold drinks at the event. We will sell individual cartons of orange juice and individual bottles of water. Action: Mandy & Maria
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Outdoor classroom
We expect to raise £2k from the sports day fiesta and the Christmas bazaar, this added to our current bank balance, makes it feasible for us to think about starting the process for installing the outdoor classroom possibly by February 2010.
This will be a wooden circular structure with a roof and a decked floor and will be on the field. It will seat 30 children. Alison obtained a quote from Schoolscape for £5,200 including installation. The extra cost will be providing access to it as it will be used all year round.
It was agreed that we pursue this and find out the feasibility of having the outdoor classroom installed in February 2010. Remembering that it must also go through the Governing Body and the area surveyor and we must find out where this company have installed similar structures and go and see them. We also need to provide 3 alternative quotes from other providers of this style of classroom. Sally W is to speak to the area surveyor. We also need to arrange to go and see a Schoolscape outdoor classroom installation and provide the alternative quotes. Action Maria, Alison, Sarah R, Sarah B & Sally W
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Sports Day Fiesta
Wednesday 17th June 2009
The stalls will be run as follows:
Reception – water slide
Year 1 – Water shooter
Year2 – Craft stall
Year 3 – Pimms tent and cafe
Year 4 – Ice cream palour
Year 5 – Barbeque
Year 6 – games around the playground. For example, hook a duck, lucky dip.
We wondered whether Mr Wells could do the Penalty shoot out ?
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Staff Wishlist
Sally W explained that there are currently no important items on the schools wishlist.
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Second hand uniform
Cath Davis kindly agreed to take on this role. We are going to sort through the uniform thats currently there and decide what we can sell and what we can’t. There is lots and lots of it. We will run a second hand uniform sale alongside the next cook for books event. Some of it can be taken to the charity shops in Botley. Sally W asked that we do not sell the blue or lemon collar neck shirts as they are no longer part of the school uniform. Action: Cath D, Mandy & helpers
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Sweatshirts
Maria has sourced a new supplier for these. With our new supplier, sweatshirts will be able to purchased on line and are no more expensive than the current ones. Maria has road tested a sample sweatshirt and has found that is washes well and is a robust as the current ones. Being able to order them on line also means we do not need a volunteer to do this at school. Polly Blay is the current HSA sweatshirt representative. We agreed not to buy any more sweatshirts from our current supplier. We have some current ones left over and so these will be sold first. Anyone requiring a sweatshirt will go to Mrs Harrison who will sell them a current one, assuming the correct size is in stock. If the size required is not in stock, Mrs Harrison will be able to hand out a form explaining how the parent/carer can order a new sweatshirt from our new supplier. This sweatshirt will then take no longer than a week to arrive. We will sell the current stock of sweatshirts at the same price as the new supplier is charging. We will also sell some of the remaining stock at the second hand uniform sale.
It was agreed to progress with this new supplier. We will order some sizes for Mrs H to keep as samples so that parents/carers can use these to gauge which size to order. Maria offered to sew on the words “sample” on these ones that are kept in school. Maria will give Sally W the prices for Mrs Harrison. Polly Blay also needs to know the new prices of the old stock. We agreed to keep the standard sweatshirt and the cardigan option. This will be reviewed at our September meeting. Action : Maria
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Cook4Books
Sally W asked if the money raised at Cook4Books could be spent on items other than books. For instance games. This was agreed. The price of the cakes at the sales has been the same for a number of years; 10p biscuits and 20p cakes. We agreed to increase the price to 20p biscuits and 30p cakes. Children get two items for their 50p.
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Publicity and advertising.
Sarah Brown kindly volunteered to advertise our events. Mandy will email Sarah a list of our upcoming events with ideas of when they should be advertised. Action Mandy & Sarah B
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Metal filing box
Alison is going to buy a metal box for the paperwork. This costs £30 and is fireproof. Action: Alison
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North Hinksey Festival
Sally W has offered the school as a venue for this. Alison suggested that year 6 run a car wash in the playground. Sally W said that to do this access would be needed to school site/building for water. She suggested that a governor could be given keys/codes for this event, that way staff do not need to be present. Alison agreed to ask Mark Round, a governor, if he would do this. Alison will also ask Gill and Sarah (year 6 reps) for their assistance with this event. Action : Alison
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Circus Workshop
Monday 20th July : 9am to 12 noon.
Maria has contacted a company called Splatt. They will charge £690 (incl. Vat & their staff).
Staff agreed that one team will run 1hr sessions with KS1 children.
Reception 9:00 - 10:00
y1 - 10:00 - 11:00
y2 11:00 - 12:00
Staff felt it might make most sense to run 2 staff x 4 sessions at 45min length so each year group could stay together. For example
9:00 - 9:45 y3 & y4 with 2 Splatt staff
9:45 - 10:30 y5 & y6 with 2 Splatt staff
10:30 - 11:15 y3 & y4 with 2 Splatt staff
11:15 - 12:00 y5 & y6 with 2 Splatt staff
It should be bourne in mind that the school has one main hall, a playground and playing field. If the weather is wet, then a weather plan will be required and the use of classrooms.
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AOB
Nikki P suggested (via Maria) that following an event we provide feedback on how the event went and any changes that could be made in future. This was thought to be a good idea. This information will be sent to Maria to put on the website. That way it is available to all for future reference. Action : All
Urn
Nikki P also suggested (via Maria) that we have an urn. It takes a long time to boil kettles at events for tea and coffee. Sally W said that an urn has been found in school. She said we should take a look at it and test it out.
Sale of Puddings at Easter
There would be a choice of chocolate, ginger or citrus. We buy them for £3.20 and sell them at £4.50. It was felt that people would probably not buy puddings at Easter, so we will not progress this.