Monthly Archives: December 2014

PTA Christmas Fair

Posted in PTA and all that by

Which bright spark first came up with idea of PTA’s holding Christmas Fairs?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m their biggest fan, once they’re in full flow, but really? Just before Christmas?

I can’t argue that the Festive Fair is a lovely money spinner for the school, I appreciate it is wonderful way to bring some Christmas cheer and make the families feel enfranchised with their school, and thus, more likely to support the learning experience.  However, for some reason, at this time of year, simple conundrums, which you would usually brush off with a gay laugh and a quick solution, become like trying to broker piece in the Middle East. I just don’t know…

1. How you collect the free Starbucks coffee from Bromley, when it:

Weighs a ton so you need to park nearby

  1. You can’t park nearby because you can’t get into the INTU car park because… it’s December
  2. You can’t pick it up early because it will go cold
  3. You can’t really afford the time to pick it up anyhow because you are so blooming short of volunteers to help… at the aforementioned Christmas fair!

Which brings me nicely onto the eternal PTA problem of an overall shortfall in the “volunteers to help” category.

2. How the dickens do we get more people to lend a willing helping hand ?

 Who can imagine the chances of such a vast proportion of the teaching staff all having major personal life events happening of that date of the Christmas Fair. Moving house, Dec 6th. Kids birthday, Dec 6th. Root canal surgery, Dec 6th. I’m surprised the world hasn’t ended with the probability paradox of it all.

The most common excuse from parents not to help is that they will be going around the fair with their kids. Clearly, we do need some people going around the fair with their kids or the whole thing is pointless, but could they not spare one hour of the three? I don’t think I’ve ever actually taken my girls to a PTA event and actually just enjoyed it with them and they don’t appear to be psychologically damaged. Although, I have a suspicion the leading man might have been by three hours and three girls in a packed Christmas fair!

  1. Santa’s CRB – or as it is called now DAB – who knew he needed one?

But then again, any chap who is sauntering down chimneys into houses with kids, should probably have all the appropriate police checks!

  1. What can we do with 500 free Selfridge baubles?

baubles

Dilemmas, dilemmas… of which I must now try to resolve… arghhhh!

You Choose

Posted in Storytime by
Enjoying You Choose on Rosie's sofa!

Enjoying You Choose on Rosie’s sofa!

All my girls, including my teen angel, absolutely love You Choose, by Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt. If they had their own way we would, without fail, read this every night. I have to admit that every night is a couple of nights too far for me, however, the leading man and I are also huge fans and if I ever leave him in charge of story time you can pretty much guarantee the four of them will be snuggled up with this book!

For those not familiar, You Choose is a picture book in which you get to choose your perfect life from Nick Sharratt’s wonderful illustrations. Pick your family, pick your friends, pick a dream home, a dream job and a bed to dream in! This is a simply lovely book for children aged 2 to adult and would make a fabulous Christmas present for anyone with pre-school children!