Supporting your school the impact of parent volunteers everywhere. Sometimes parents overthink joining a PTA, but they should just go for it – anything you can do to help will make a big difference to the children.
A lot of our parents work in large corporate companies that offer matched funding
That ' s been quite a big help for us and within the past year, we’ ve raised about £ 1,500. It ' s a completely free process of claiming it back from employers, so we reach out to parents before and after events if they volunteer with us.
Very often parents don ' t even know their employer offers the scheme, but it ' s incredibly common. There’ s a bit of a misconception that only large corporations can do it, but sometimes companies of 100 people or less do it too. It ' s absolutely worth asking parents – you might be surprised how much you can get.
We ' re really proud of the continuous support the Friends provide to the school
Over the years, we’ ve funded major resources and projects that have had a lasting impact – such as working walls for every classroom, new books for reception, and an awning to create an all-weather play space. We’ ve supported outdoor art projects, an anti-bullying drama workshop for every year group, and created a Quiet Space with screens, rugs and an inflatable chair for children who need a calmer environment.
The Friends run the school’ s uniform shop, which ensures families get great-quality uniform at cost with no third-party margins. Orders are delivered straight to children’ s classrooms, making it simple and convenient. We launched our online shop this year.
The Friends also facilitate donations to the Purple Pantry – a food-bank style service that supports our families in need. It’ s another way we try to care for every part of our school community, not just through big projects but through meaningful, everyday support.
Our Astroturf project is our pride and joy
The project came as a request directly from the school. The cost of the project was originally just under £ 40,000, which is quite a lot for us – the average amount we raise is about £ 15,000, sometimes £ 20,000 a year.
It would have taken us two to three years to raise the money, alongside the other things we love to fund. For example, each year we allocate £ 250 towards every class for school trips and educational visits. We didn ' t want to give that up because, if we only ringfenced for the Astroturf, the community wouldn ' t see any impact for years, which also means we ' d lose the platform of communication with the parents.
The breakthrough came from our Trust
Our headteacher reached out to our Trust and they noted the hard work we’ re doing. They said they ' d be happy to match fund us. The school site manager worked hard with the suppliers to knock the price down to £ 30,000. We agreed that the Friends could finance £ 15,000 and the Trust would match the other £ 15,000.
Fortunately, we had £ 14,000 saved, but we still needed another £ 1,000. We decided to just throw it out to the parents and they stepped up and raised it in just 48 hours! It ' s all been possible because of the lovely community of parents we’ ve got here. Now the school can provide more extracurricular clubs and a safer surface for the children to play on during the breaks in all weather. It ' s made such a huge difference to the school.
Photography: Paul Meyler, Friends of St George ' s
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