Friends of Filton Avenue
Our parent/carer associations, the Friends of Filton Avenue (FFA) and Friends of Filton Avenue Orchard (FFAO) are a great way you can get involved in school life. They are run by parents and carers to raise money for the school and its pupils and to organise social events to which anyone from the school community is invited. Please look out for posters and flyers around the school advertising upcoming events and meetings.
The FFA is always grateful for volunteers. If you are interested in helping at an event or joining a committee please contact the FFA via the form on our contact page, selecting Lockleaze Road or Orchard Campus for the message to be directed to the right place.
Friends of Filton Avenue Lockleaze Road Who we are and what we do: The Friends of Filton Avenue (FFA) is the parent/carer/teacher association for the Lockleaze Road site. Otherwise known as a ‘PTA’, a ‘Friends of….’ operates in the same way but involves all parents, carers, guardians as well as teachers and non-teaching staff, rather than just parents and teachers. The group is run by volunteers who seek to support the school by developing effective relationships with the school and the parent/carer community, and also by fundraising to provide facilities and equipment to the school to advance the education of the pupils. The FFA hold regular meetings where all are welcome to discuss fundraising ideas, and also to have a say in the spending of funds. The Committee: There are voluntary positions within the core of the committee that help with the smooth running of the FFA; the Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. There are also a number of people who lead on certain events, help with our communications and are active in helping with events. However, every parent, carer and guardian with a child at the school, as well as teachers and non-teaching staff are members of the FFA by default and are able to attend meetings or get involved. To ensure that the FFA is run fairly, there is a ‘constitution’ in place that sets out how we are governed, which is agreed at an annual general meeting (AGM). This meeting is also where members of the FFA can be put forward for the core positions above. Next AGM: 25th April 2019, then April 2020 What have we paid for? It is important that you know where the funds we raise go to. We invite the Phase Leads to complete a spending request form in consultation with their teaching teams. Spending request forms are used to ensure that the committee understands the justification for the request and to ensure that spending is spread fairly across year groups and subjects. We also invite the Student Council (made up of students from years 1-6) to make a request on behalf of the students. These requests are then discussed and agreed on the next FFA meeting, which everyone is invited to attend. In the last year we have spent the following; £25 on a reading event for Reception – hot chocolate etc. £1423.13 was donated to the OPAL/MUGA project which all school years have access to. £99 on shelving for our FFA cupboard, which is stocked and ready for all types of event and sales. £40 was given to each class at the end of Term 4, from money raised directly from the brilliant school disco in March. We have asked the teachers to share with us the stories of how they have spent the money! We have also had some brilliant ideas from our Student Council and will update soon on how we’ve been able to put their suggestions into action. WE NEED YOU! The FFA relies on volunteers, and any offer of help no matter how big or small is gratefully received from all family groups and backgrounds. You do not have to attend meetings to be involved, you can instead contact the FFA via email, Facebook or in the playground to let us know how you can help or about an idea that you have had. We also have an online suggestion box, where you can let us know about fundraising ideas, spending ideas and if you have skills that you are keen to use to help the FFA. Online suggestion box: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PBNCL7M Email: [email protected] In person: Come and talk to us at our next playground sale. Facebook Group: FFA Lockleaze Road member page Upcoming dates and events: As we rely on the time of our volunteers, we are sometimes unable to run as many events as we would like to. In the last year we have held a successful summer fair, which we hope to repeat every year, we have also had film nights for years 1-2 and years 3&4. We also took advantage of the heatwave and had ice pole sales in the playground after school. Looking ahead, we are looking to hold regular playground sales, which will include a second hand uniform shop as well as snacks and cakes, and in the warmer weather we’ll be selling fruit and ice poles.
Who we are and what we do:
The Friends of Filton Avenue Orchard (FFAO) is a collaboration of parents, carers and teachers at Orchard Campus. As a parent/carer of a child at Filton Avenue Primary you are by default a member of the Friends group.
We are all volunteers who aim to support the school by developing effective relationships with the school and the parent/carer community, and also by fundraising to provide facilities and equipment to the school to enhance the education of the pupils. Some examples of what we have done to raise money are as follows; winter and summer fairs, film nights, discos, cakes sales, plant sales, uniform sales, Christmas card design project and a circus performance,. Also we have ongoing fundraising initiatives such as Easyfundraising (funds from online shopping) and Stikins (funds from sales of sticky name labels for uniforms), we welcome people to join these schemes and tell their friends and family members to join too!
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/ffao/
https://www.stikins.co.uk/?NAME-LABELS=13622
We hold regular meetings to discuss fundraising ideas, fund spending and up and coming events. Pre-school children are welcome at these meetings and we try to run them at different times and days to suit a majority.
The Committee
The committee helps to oversee, account for and manage the group activities. There are 3 core roles the Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. An AGM is held annually (around May time) when anyone can put their name forward for these roles and are voted in by attendees of the meeting. This is also a chance to hear what the FFAO has been doing through the year and what purchases we have made.
Our moto is to have fun, be kind, fair and transparent and have the children at the heart of all we do. We also know that engaging with parents and carers is very important to make fundraising events as accessible and successful as possible.
The group is a member of Parentkind UK who is one of the lead advisors and source of information for our friends group and provides us with event insurance and a model constitution. All parent/carers are welcome to access this website under our FFAO group name. It has loads of useful information on the education system and advice for carers/parents of school children.
What have we paid for?
It is important that you know where the funds we raise go to. We invite the staff of the school to suggest items for us to buy based on their priority. The FFAO committee discuss purchases over social media and at meetings to decide which purchases we would like to make. We endeavour to ensure that spending is spread fairly across all classes and will benefit as many children as possible.
Any member of the FFAO can request to see accounts of expenditure and purchases using our methods of contact below. Here are some examples of what we have spent our funds on;
Sports equipment
Cooking equipment
Books
Playground items – outdoor furniture and play items
IT equipment
Expenses: Event/Cupboard resources, annual membership of Parentkind UK, MPLC film licence.
WE NEED YOU!
The FFAO relies on volunteers, and any offer of help no matter how big or small is gratefully received from all family groups and backgrounds.
We welcome you to our meetings to get involved, but we appreciate not everyone can make these so you can contact the FFAO via email, Facebook or in the playground to let us know how you can help or about an idea that you have had.
Chat time
We have various ways to communicate with you, we treat communication with the upmost importance and diligence in line with our code of conduct;
- Our playground notice board, flyers, posters, school comms (texts and emails via school messaging system – this relies on you having given a suitable phone number and/or email address).
- Friends of Filton Avenue Orchard facebook page
- Friends of Filton Avenue Orchard Website
- WhatsApp FFAO Helpers group (you need to provide us with your phone number)
- Face to face in the playground
- Additionally you can email us [email protected]
- Or just speak with a member of staff and they can pass the message on.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING OR HEARING FROM YOU SOON!
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