Tag Archives: Christmas Fair

PTA Christmas Fair – Part 2!

Posted in PTA and all that by

Well it turns out sticking Christmassy stickers and gems and a couple of porcelain pens is exactly what kids want to do with 500 baubles and are prepared to pay £1 a bauble for the privilege. I strongly recommend that PTA’s across the UK buy up baubles (shatterproof!) in the January sales and give it a go next year. Whilst this did not fully deplete our entire bauble mountain, it made a jolly fine dent and on the plus side we have a Christmas craft activity in the bag for the next few years!

In addition to this, feeding off the current Frozen mania, our HO craft, Charlotte, came up with a fab idea for sock Olaf Snowmen, which were a sell out success. Utilising mens’s sport socks, loom bands, an orange pom pom, pipe cleaners and a black felt tip these were simple for the kids to do, appealed to girls and boys and low cost – genius!  Below is an image of the little fellow and next week I shall provide, courtesy of the lovely Charlotte, a step by step guide to how you make them!

FullSizeRender

Indeed, despite my previous grinch like rant, the fair was a great success (most money raised to date at over £4,500!) and gave me a jolly good Christmas cuddle to kick off the festive season!  Hats off to “HO Everything”, our Chair, Mrs Marcou, the rest of the committee, the lovely happy to help crew (who were just that) and all the staff who did not have clashing events (which turned out to be quite a few!) who made it the success it was!

Next on the agenda is the now legendary PTA quiz night! Anyone out there got any good question rounds we could utilise to save me 12 hours of googling?! If so, please email me at heather.leveton@live.co.uk – all help gratefully received!

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!