| Thurlbear PTA – Who and What Are We? When you support the PTA you are not just giving your time, baking a cake or donating money towards an event you’re buying your child valuable learning resources which will be used every day in the classroom, in their PE lessons, in their extra-curricular activities and clubs and even in their breaktimes. It’s also a great way to make new parental friendship groups contributing to a community helping to make Thurlbear even better than it already is! What is the PTA? The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is an open and friendly group of parents working towards a common goal to support the educational and extra-curricular needs of the School. In recent years we have funded: – New laptops significantly adding to existing IT equipment. – Subscriptions to Learning Apps such as Ed Shed and Maths Shed. – Art, Music and Sport resources. – Swift bird boxes. – Jubilee Pin Badges for every child to commemorate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. These are in addition to the items we fund each year: – Classroom resource upgrades extending to SEN and the Den. – Year 6 Leaving Fund. – Books for each child from Father Christmas. Easter Eggs. Everyone’s Invited. When your child starts their journey through the School you, as a parent or guardian, automatically become a member of the PTA. How involved you become is completely up to you. You may feel passionately about making a difference and wish to become actively involved, you may have some fantastic ideas for the PTA which you wish to share with us to help make a difference, you may just wish to volunteer as and when time allows. From small to big whatever help you can give will make a huge difference! How Can I Find Out More? You could be an existing parent or a new parent. Either way we need your support to make the PTA a success. Following a relatively quiet period of activity due to Covid restrictions we are keen to rebuild our fundraising activities and re-establish the importance of the PTA within the School and wider community. There are many ways that you can find out more and get involved: – Follow us on Facebook (Thurlbear PTA); this is our main means of communicating with you. – Drop us an email (thurlbearpta@hotmail.com). We are keen to re-establish our mailing list as an additional means of communicating. If you would like to be added to this list then let us know! – Join us at our AGM on Thursday 6th October at 6pm in the School Hall. You will hear about what we have been up to over the last year, see what we have planned for the year ahead, put forward any ideas you may have for new fundraising ideas and meet other lovely parents and staff. – We are still looking for a new Chair for our PTA. Sadly, without one we are unable to function as a group. You can be as active and involved in this role as you wish to be. We have a committed team who will remain in post to support you as much (or as little) as you might need. If you are interested, please drop our current Chair an email (guymock@hotmail.com). Other Ways to Support: – Switch to AmazonSmile. It is easy to do and means that any purchase you make on Amazon will see a small donation being gifted to the PTA at no extra cost to you. – End of season wardrobe clear out? Drop your unwanted clothing to our Clothing Bin located in the car park at the Stoke St Mary Village Hall. The School’s View? A PTA can be a wonderful conduit for home and school success. There are times when I attend the meetings and sit back and think: “Thurlbear is so lucky to have this.” But, as with every successful ‘thing’, it needs passion, commitment and positivity. I use the word ‘family’ a lot around here – some might well roll their eyes at it – but I passionately believe we are one large, professional family. I see the PTA as part of this family – and you should, too! As in every house, some people do less, some do more, but they all share a common value or thread and they all work towards that; it is the same with Thurlbear and our PTA. Our common value is hope: hope for the future of our children. We all want the very best for them and will try our best to give them every opportunity to succeed. Joining the PTA – in any capacity – adds a little drop of hope to that bucket. Helping make a cake, sell drinks at a disco, pop your pound in for Dress Down Friday, put up a gazebo at the Piddlewood Plod… all contributes to the partnership. Your TIME can be the most precious commodity! It isn’t all about money! There is nothing more brilliant to our ears than someone saying: “Yes, I can do….” Your contribution of time/ideas/resource turns that hope into reality and that is when the PTA/school collaboration really works. So – please – come to a meeting, listen, talk, engage and get on board. Now is the time. Mr G. |
Our Reception Class
