Together – School information - Friends of Filton Avenue

Friends of Filton Avenue

Our parent/carer associations, the Friends of Filton Avenue (FFA) is 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 email on [email protected].

Who we are and what we do:

The Friends of Filton Avenue (FFA) is the parent/carer/teacher association for Filton Avenue Primary School. 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.

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;

This year the Friends of Filton Avenue have spent £600 so that all children could go to a Christmas performance, £1165 on the festive fun night (£250 on phase 3 silent disco, £600 on a book for every child, £315 on T-shirts, food, craft) £600 contributed to the Arts enrichment day.

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. 

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.