An outstanding year for the school, a year of change for the PTFA.

It would be remiss of us as co-chairs, not to open this message with a nod to Mr Dunmall, the teachers, and the rest of the school staff on successfully negotiating an OFSTED visit and securing an “Outstanding” rating for the school once again. I can only imagine the amount of hard work, organisation and dedication that goes into this, so on behalf of the PTFA and all the parents of the school (if I may), I’d like to offer congratulations on seeing all your efforts pay off.
 

From a PTFA perspective, I think it has been a year of change for the PTFA, with handovers taking place from Nolan as our outgoing chair and Charlotte as leader of our treasury team. It’s fair to say, it has taken the newer members of the PTFA leadership group a bit of time to find our feet, so a special thank you to Nolan, Charlotte, Blair, Chloe, Jenny, Patti, Amon and all the other experienced members of the PTFA who have shown tremendous patience and goodwill and providing guidance and support to us as we move this along.

 
I’m also pleased to announce that the PTFA has raised approximately £ 44,000 over the past year, which I think is a great achievement given the period of flux experienced. As a school and community we have come together and enjoyed spectacular Christmas and Summer fairs, brought in exciting new events such as the laser tag and continued with old favourites such as the parents quiz night, movie afternoon, the magic show, and the school disco. From a sustainable viewpoint, we now have a dedicated secondhand uniform shed, which has been a great success, and we also saw the return of the bake sale, together with a seedling sale, which was a parent-led initiative. A sincere thank you to everyone who got involved and helped ensure all events were a success. A big thanks also to all those Y6 parents, and indeed any parents whose children are leaving the school for pastures new, your contributions and support will be missed, and we wish the children all the very best as they move to new schools.

 
The year ahead – Looking at the school year ahead, we will be in touch in September, with some thoughts on how to ensure the PTFA is even more successful. It goes without saying that the PTFA is run by volunteers, who give up their time and energy to help support a wonderful community that has built up over the years, and at the same time provide additional funding to the school for extra resources such as the school garden and playground equipment. Those additional resources do provide a lot of additional benefit to the children so we believe it’s vital to continue that work.

 
The PTFA would be nothing without its volunteers, and speaking from personal experience, while it can be challenging at times, we have found it really rewarding and a fantastic way to meet new people and develop new friendships. For anyone that is new to the school or new to volunteering, we urge you to consider getting involved, whether it’s getting involved with planning school events, becoming a class rep or even if it is just to support your class stall during a fair or other event, it would be hugely appreciated by the other volunteers. Please email fieldingPTFA@gmail.com if you would like to get involved or would like to find out more. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please feel free to say hi if you see any of us around the school at drop off / collection. Have a wonderful summer and see you all in September.

 
Conor Lyne – chair PTFA, Fielding Primary School
Jen Timoshanko – co-chair PTFA, Fielding Primary School
Prashant Patel - co-chair PTFA, Fielding Primary School