Parent & Friends Association (PFA)

The Parent & Friends Association (PFA) plays an important part in our school, organising events that our children can take part in, for example the Christmas and Summer Fairs, Christmas Shops, Halloween Party, Sponsored Bounce, and many more. The profits from which all go towards our school and our children’s education. Each year we raise more than £10,000 which all goes towards the children’s education

But it’s not just about fundraising, it is also about building a sense of school community between parents, pupils and staff as well as providing our children with some well deserved social and fun times.

OFSTED reports clearly show that where the parents get behind the school, the school flourishes.

New members will have the support of a strong experienced committee that is already in place and can guide them through the school year.  We look to our parents to help co-ordinate events and activities, liaise with the school, attend PFA meetings.  What is needed is some support and a bit of time.

This is a great way to get to know parents, the school and to add something extra to your child’s education, so please contact our current PFA chair Lesley Mardon via email lesleyasampson@googlemail.com to find out more or to offer your support.

Many thanks in advance,

The PFA

HOW YOU CAN HELP WITH FUNDRAISING

Dear Parent/Carer,

I am writing to update you on changes to the way schools are funded. You may have read recent news reports about the changes that have now been announced, so I wanted to take this opportunity to explain how we expect them to affect St Joseph’s Primary School and our provision for your child.

The funding situation

The government has confirmed that a new national funding formula will be introduced from April 2018, in order to address long-standing variations in the funding of schools in different parts of the country. The formula aims to ensure that schools with similar contexts and pupil characteristics receive the same amount of funding.

Our actual funding has not yet been confirmed but based on the information we have at the moment, it is estimated that £15 million will be cut from Islington schools alone by 2020. This is likely to result in 400 fewer teachers across the borough and £711 less per pupil per year. As a school we are also affected by these cuts, and look for support from all of our parents to help close this gap.

All schools are still facing rising costs due to, among other things, increases in the National Insurance and pension contributions that we have to make for staff. London living wage and Inflation also means that the costs of resources and services that we buy are rising.

We, like many other schools, are thinking carefully about how we can continue to provide your child with an outstanding education in a sustainable way. For example we are continuing to make sure that our costs are as efficient and effective as possible, analysing our expenditure with similar schools and benchmarking these results, so we know we run a well-organised and efficient school.

We are also lucky to have such a supportive parent community in our school and they do an amazing job fundraising on our behalf.

Combining our resources we are writing to ask if you can help in the following ways:

1. Volunteer your time either with the PFA or within the school (ask for the volunteer application form), we are always looking for help in the garden or if you could lend a hand painting classrooms and so on.
2. Does your employer operate a Corporate Matched Giving policy if they do please apply or if you don’t know, please ask.
3. When buying on line, do it via https://www.thegivingmachine.co.uk and select ‘Support a cause’ and search for our school St Joseph’s Primary School, Highgate
4. Please donate to the school building fund through the School Fund via ParentPay, we are asking for a minimum donation of £60 per child, just £1.54 per school week per child and of course all donations, whether they are more or less are gratefully received.
5. Do you know anyone that would be willing to provide sponsorship to the school, if you do please can you ask them to get in touch with us via the school email office@st-josephs.islington.sch.uk or let us know the details.

If you have any specific questions or concerns about anything covered in this letter, please contact the school office, office@st-josephs.islington.sch.uk. We will continue to keep you updated as we gain more information on what this means for our school. Thank you for your continued support.

Yours faithfully,
Mrs. A Noronha
Head of School

——————————————————————————————————————

CORPORATE MATCHED GIVING

Here are 2 questions for you.

Question 1: Does your employer operate a Corporate Matched Giving policy?

Question 2: If you don’t know, would you be prepared to ask them? Your HR or Personnel Manager is usually a good person to ask.

How could Matched Giving benefit the St Joseph’s?

Matched giving / funding is a simple way of maximising your fundraising efforts for the School. It is an arrangement between a company and its employee. Many companies will pledge a sum of money relating to the amount their employee has raised for, or donated to, the charity of their choice.
Some will match £ for £, others may match with time, others a combination of both. It could be they will offer a service such as the opportunity to print posters, programmes, newsletters etc.

Which organisations will support St Joseph’s in this way?

There isn’t a definitive list, but it is usually large organisations, such as banks, finance companies, pharmaceuticals however, it is worth asking as matched funding can be operated by any company – whatever the size.

Examples of matched funding.

Barclays offer employees the chance to match funds they raise for their chosen charity up to £750 per year (available for 3 activities a year).
Lloyds Bank Foundations operate matched giving and is open to all Lloyds Banking Group staff in the UK or Channel Islands, including Group subsidiaries. Staff can claim £1000 for charities of their choice. Up to £500 can be claimed for fundraising events as well as up to £500 for voluntary time given – provided that claims falls within the rules of the scheme and the charity is eligible for funding.

It isn’t just banks that take part. PTA-UK gave us details of a PTA Committee Member from a school in Fetcham who took advantage of her employer’s Volunteer Involvement Programme for employees (ExxonMobil). For every 20 hours of volunteering she undertook, her employer matched her time with a donation of £250 to the school! And this could be claimed up to 4 times per year!

So, what to do next?

First – could we ask you to check the list of companies to see if your company is listed or ask your employer directly if the operate a Matched Giving / Funding scheme.
They will then probably ask you to complete a request form; alternatively they may put their pledge in writing to the PFA.

Please let the PFA know if you are successful, either by chatting to one of the committee members when you see them next or come along to the next meeting . Alternatively email Lesley at lesleyasampson@googlemail.com

Thank you & Good Luck!