Tuesday, 11^th October 2016

St John’s PTFA Chairman’s Report

I am delighted to present the report as Chair of the PTFA for St John’s.  Once again we have had a very successful year in terms of money raised, well attended events. Three years ago the PTFA set the objective to increase each year the involvement of the parents, carers and community supporting the PTFA and this year we are proud to announce we have had a record breaking number of parent and carer volunteers as well as a the highest external community support and sponsorship we have ever achieved. We even managed to find a way to fundraise without asking parents to do anything extra just shop online through Easyfundraising which has raised thousands of pounds. All of this is a testament of the dedication of the each and every member of the PTFA.

It was also the mission of enhance the community, provide support benefits all of the children, provides a legacy and diversification. We feel that this year we have been able to deliver that in spades. We were able to build on the community spirit by supporting the Christmas Fair with a range of stalls and live reindeer as well as achieving PR for the school. In February we invited all of the parents and children to show their love to our amazing teachers with a Teacher Appreciation Day. In March we held a fantastically fun and well attended Quiz Night and ending the year with our highest attended Summer Fair - in spite of the rain!  We have been able to support the ITC, Literacy, World Book Day Workshops and Maths programmes and improve the library that the PTFA began in 2011 with the Junior Librarian Programme.  The Junior Librarian Programme not only monitors stock it will create an engaging library for students, staff and parents by being able to track reading trends, make recommendations, link ITC and literacy, promote a love of reading and so much more.

We have been delighted to be able to donate an amazing total of over £18,000 to the school during 2015/16.  The donations have been based on the requests from Ms Wightwick and her Senior Leadership Team which included:

Book Corners for KS2                           £1,027.23

Library Equipment                               £   285.50

KS1 Maths Programme                       £3,000.00

Maths Equipment                                £3,000.00

iPads                                                     £5,000.00

Mini Librarian Programme

& Year 1 Subscription                          £1,500.00

Two Additional Bluetooth Scanners  £   245.00

Mini Librarian Subscription Year 2      £   610.00

Library Books                                        £   405.00

Book Covers                                         £   200.00

Christmas Fair Entertainment              £  450.00

World Book Day Workshops for

November 2016                                   £1,500.00

My experience as Chair of The Friends of St John’s PTFA has been a privilege. The last year has been a challenge and without the friendship, advice, support and inspiration I have received from parents I could have never made it through the past year.

It is important that we continue to build increasing our parent support for our activities and events. In the last year we welcomed several new members to the committee which was fantastic and helped lighten the load and brought new ideas to our fundraising. Thank you to Sihem, Anezina, Claudine, Caroline, Rebecca, Lucy and Zanni for your tireless commitment and inspiration. In the last year have have worked on communicating clearly and regularly with parents in the newsletter and through the parent reps. We couldn’t have done it without the amazing support of our Class Representatives who are the heartbeat of the PTFA.  Thank you to each and every one of you.

A huge thank you to all the parents who donated time to be a parent reader and help look after the library, your dedication and efforts were immensely appreciated and enable us to inspire the hearts and minds of our children which is priceless.

Every year the PTFA relies heavily on a core group of volunteers – you know who you are!  Thank you for your humour, dedication on making our fundraising activities not only a success but fun to plan. I know that each of you has a busy life with a million other things to do so it makes me all the more thankful for your constant support.

And of course, we’d like to thank the school’s leadership team, governors and staff for their continued support, giving us a hand at different events, getting involved and allowing us to use the school premises and facilities for our meetings and fundraising efforts. Our shared commitment has helped make our efforts a success.

The PTFA has really excelled in producing excellent results in regard to fundraising, showing dedication, passion and an endless sense of humour.  Every single member has made a contribution which has positively impacted our results. Each and every one deserves recognition and thanks.  Thank you for your creativity, determination, patience and a sense of fun.

I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate the new committee and am sure that they will continue to build on the successes in the coming year and we wish them Godspeed.

Thanks so much,

Lynette Cowen,

Friends of St John’s Chair

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PTFA Financial Statement:  September 2015 – October 2016

Balance August 2015                                                               £14,786.11

Income                                                                                    £9,284.49

Quiz Night                                                                                £1,112.49

Easyfundraising Payments (estimated)                                £1,221.00

Bake Sales                                                                               £1,828.08

Mobile Phone Fundraiser                                                       £   750.00

Summer Fair                                                                             £4,000.00

Expenditure                                                                             £17,952.50

Book Corners for KS2                                                               £1,254.34

KS2 Maths Programme                                                           £3,000.00

Maths Equipment                                                                    £3,000.00

iPads                                                                                         £5,000.00

Mini Librarian Programme

& Year 1 Subscription                                                              £1,496.00

Two Additional Bluetooth Scanners                                       £  245.00

Mini Librarian Subscription Year 2                                           £  610.00

Library Books                                                                             £  404.83

Christmas Fair Entertainment                                                  £  427.23

Bake Sale & Coffee Flask                                                         £  219.54

PTFA Costs & Insurance                                                            £  260.77

Teacher Appreciation Day                                                      £    19.79

World Book Day Workshops for Nov 16                                   £1,500.00

Library Equipment (Covers & Shelving)                                   £   386.50

Mobile Phone Competition Prizes                                            £   128.50

Balance October 2016                                                            £5,918.10

New library system has arrived and we need volunteers!

We are so  excited that the new Junior Librarian System has arrived!  After three years of the PTFA building the library resource we are pleased to have purchased a computer based system that does so much!

An engaging technology that promotes literacy and reading. It helps promote reading by helping the children select books.  To set up the system we need to scan the ISDN barcodes on the books which will provide a catalogue of all of the books in the library that will enable to children to check out books that are logged.

The Junior Librarian is able to do so much more once we get it up and running including:

• Create an engaging online library for pupils, staff and parents
• Track reading progress and trends across the whole school
• Provide an  integrated eBook library
• Embed the library into the teaching of ITC and literacy
• Engage with parents using the fantastic app
• Provide an asset register for the books 
• Provide recommendations for what to read next
• Provide information about the authors
• Read reviews written by other children
• Children can write reviews about the books they are reading
• Helps foster independence and children can scan and check out their books.
• Plus so much more...

For more information visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWPOAG2Oc_g

Can you help us organise the library?  If so get in contact by emailing lynettecowen@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks!

So what is Easy Fundraising?

Do you ever wish you could help the school but not have to do anything?

As a mum of two children at the school I can honestly say I have had this thought many times!  Life is hectic and there always seems to be a million things to do.  The PTFA always wish for a way we could raise money for the school without having to ask parents to bake or donating time and money.

We have found the perfect solution called Easy Fundraising (www.easyfundraising.org.uk).  It is a website that has got over 3,000 retailers to agree to donate to a charities and schools when people shop online. All you need to do is use the link which is listed as Friends of St John’s Primary School – Walham Green and can be found by clicking www.easyfundraising.org.uk/fostjohnswg. 

It doesn't cost you a penny and they won't use your details for anything else.  In fact if you sign up they send you special offers to save on your shopping, electrical bills, holidays and weekly food bill. There are nearly 3,000 retailers like Amazon, John Lewis, Argos, Asda, Sainsbury’s.

Still wondering how it works?  Here is an example:

Let’s say you would like to buy a pair of shoes from John Lewis, instead of going to johnlewis.com directly to the St John’s easyfundraising link above and type in John Lewis in the search box. (The code fostjohnswg is the code that identifies St John’s Primary). Alternatively you can download the easy donation reminder which provides a little reminder every time you shop online.

Make a Purchase: from John Lewis as normal the price is exactly the same but the retailer will know you have come via our link on easyfundraising.

Get a donation: After you make your purchase, John Lewis will donate a percentage of the total spend as a donation to the school with no extra cost to you.  

What are you waiting for?  Sign up today to raise money for St John’s – it is a great way to raise money for our school and you don't have to bake or leave your sofa!

Need more information?  Email us at ptfaforstjohnsprimary@gmail.com

Have you signed up to Easy Fundraising yet?

It is so easy and doesn't cost a penny!

You, your family and friends can start raising funds for the St John’s Primary School right now via the easyfundraising website. Just register as a supporter using the link below and nominate 'Friends of St John’s Primary School – Walham Green' as your. 

There are over 2,500 retailers listed on the site will pay the school a percentage of your spend to the school - with no extra cost to you!

When you have registered, you're ready to shop and raise money. Simply choose the online retailer or search for the product you want and then then shop as you would normally. After a purchase, easyfundraising will send you an email telling you how much you've raised and will pass the donation to the school. The purchase itself will be dealt with by the retailer as normal.

Need help to remember? Just simply download the free app to your mobile or computer that will ask you if you would like to donate when you are shopping online.

Share it on Facebook or by email to friends, family and colleagues. Think birthdays, the weekly shop, office supplies, book suppliers, holidays, flights – with over 2,500 retailers there is no purchase too big or small.

Link:  http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/fostjohnswg/?t=PTA-UK-li&u=CWA90L

Help us raise money for free!

You, your family and friends can start raising funds for the St John’s Primary School right now via the easyfundraising website. Just register as a supporter using the link below and nominate 'Friends of St John’s Primary School – Walham Green' as your. 

There are over 2,500 retailers listed on the site will pay the school a percentage of your spend to the school - with no extra cost to you!

When you have registered, you're ready to shop and raise money. Simply choose the online retailer or search for the product you want and then then shop as you would normally. After a purchase, easyfundraising will send you an email telling you how much you've raised and will pass the donation to the school. The purchase itself will be dealt with by the retailer as normal.

Need help to remember? Just simply download the free app to your mobile or computer that will ask you if you would like to donate when you are shopping online.

Share it on Facebook or by email to friends, family and colleagues. Think birthdays, the weekly shop, office supplies, book suppliers, holidays, flights – with over 2,500 retailers there is no purchase too big or small.

Link:  http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/fostjohnswg/?t=PTA-UK-li&u=CWA90L

Easy Fundraising

We have raised nearly £55.00 on Easy Fundraising with only ten parents signed up - imagine how much we could raise if every parent at school signed up?!?

The PTFA has signed up to Easy Fundraising which provides commission when parents shop online, there are over 2,000 retailers to choose from.  It is a great way to raise funds for the school without adding any extra workload to people's schedules and it doesn't cost a penny extra all you need to is register online - here is how it works:

1. Click on the easy fundraising icon on our blog and sign up.  It is free.  You might also find it helpful to install the 'Find & Remind' button to your web browser - it highlights retailers which donate. 
2. Once you have registered, search for a retailer you would like to shop with, there are over 2,000 to choose from including ASDA, Ebay, Next, Tesco, Boden, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, ToysRUs, Easy2Name, Vision Express, Argos and many more.
3. Then you click through to the retailer and shop as normal.  Everything costs exactly the same.  When you make a purchase the retailer will make a donation to your cause to say thank you for shopping with them.  Best of all it costs you nothing!  It will also alert you by email of your donation.
4. You will need to select Friends of St John's as your cause - if you need the link it is:  www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/friendsofstjohnsprimaryschool
5. To keep things simple you will see we have added a new link on our blog page. The Easy Fundraising provides you special discounts too when you sign up.

Please support our fundraising by signing up to Easy Fundraising.

Thank you so much for your support and happy shopping!

Keeping kids safe online

It is ITC Week at school and thought I would support the week with some information about keeping your kids safe online.  

The internet is stuffed full of great resources and activities for kids, but it is also packed full of things that aren’t so wholesome too.  Parenting challenges get more complex as our kids seem to be born digital natives – having grown up with the internet and have no concept of what life was like without it (unlike me who remembers when the fax was introduced).  Kids are completely at home with technology: using a mouse or touchscreen to navigate is as much a life skill as learning to read and write.  In fact, many young children learn to use a touchpad or touchscreen way before they can read or write, using colours and symbols instead of words to navigate around websites.

Whatever the age of your kids, it’s important to keep them safe.  Much of the internet is a fabulous resource for kids, whether it's Wikipedia for helping with homework, online games, social networks, videos, music and more. However, there are an equal number of websites that you wouldn’t want them going anywhere near.  With that in mind, I thought I look at ways to keep kids safe.  Much of the advice is common sense, but there are some applications and utilities such as parental control software which can help to act as a digital nanny and protect your children when you’re eyes aren't watching making ‘computer time’ more fun (and safe) for everyone.

Websites and Search

Even if you've not seen much evidence of it when you've browsed the web, it isn’t too hard to imagine the kinds of things that you wouldn’t want your kids to see. Pornography is the most obvious, and the web is jammed full of it.  Young kids might stumble upon a porn website by accident (usually by clicking on photos or links without understanding what they’re doing) while older kids might curious and actively seek it out.  Besides porn, there are a plethora of gambling sites, plus others which promote drugs, guns or things kids don't need to be looking at.  Even YouTube isn’t necessarily safe. Innocent searches could turn up unsuitable material, and some people make a habit of swapping the soundtracks of, say, children's cartoons with music bad language.

Parental guidance

The first and strongest protection for your child is parental guidance. Ideally, if you can participate in their browsing - particularly in the early days when the web.  School homework is an ideal opportunity, to explain the web's positive and negative sides, and reinforce your own standards without sounding too severe. Children are natural experimenters, and nothing is more tempting than finding out by trial and error why something has been prohibited. But if you've explained it, and your explanation has been accepted voluntarily, the experiment is much less likely to be made.

Search and Filters

But parents can’t be everywhere at once so to help there are many search engines designed for kids.  Their aim is to filter out sites that parents and teachers might find inappropriate and make searching on the internet a simpler process – protecting them from stumbling over material that is inappropriate and help make it easier for kids to find what they are looking for on the internet.

Unlike the main search engines, which use automated software to analyse websites, search engines for kids like Yahoo! Kids, Ask Kids, KidsClick or AOL Kids use human beings to build a limited directory of websites, each one is slightly different but much safer than the main search site.  By doing this it allows these services to ensure that every site they link to has been vetted and approved.  Some of these sites also offer games and other entertainment, and many are designed to be visually appealing.

But children growing up with this technology are often far more comfortable with it than their parents are, and are unlikely to remain content with the ‘walled garden’ approach for very long – at this point installing search-engine filters is a good idea.  If your main goal is to prevent them from accessing inappropriate material, the major search engines all have filters you can turn on. Usually, these are called something like ‘SafeSearch’ (Google, Yahoo!). This approach allows your child to learn how to use a search engine – arguably one of the most important tools they will need – while giving you some peace of mind.

But bear in mind, however, that no search engine or software can guarantee that your child will never see anything you disapprove of. The most certain approach to internet safety is adult supervision.

Social networks

Facebook and other sites are great places for sharing photos and chatting. They’re especially good for allowing children to keep in touch with friends and family who don’t live nearby.  Privacy is something of an issue with social networks, though. It's all too easy to make the wrong security settings or not make any at all, leaving messages in the open for others to see. You don't want your kids sharing any personal details such as their address, location or phone number.

Online games

Virtual online worlds are becoming more and more popular with kids from around 6 upwards. Sites such as Moshi Monsters, Disney's Club Penguin and Habbo Hotel allow children to be a character in one of  these games, joining for free and paying for certain in-game add-ons.

A core part of the games is being able to chat with friends and make new friends but, although every click is monitored and every word moderated, you never know for sure who they're talking to. While all three websites claim to be safe for kids, you should still supervise them as they play. 

Instant messaging and email

As with Facebook, instant messaging clients and email make it possible for untold numbers of people to contact your child.  The innocent-sounding messages coming from an innocent-sounding name might in fact be a pedophile ‘grooming’ your child by establishing their trust. Such conversations have been known to lead to real-world meetings where anything could happen. 

Bullying

The ease of communicating online has disadvantages as well as benefits. It’s easy for other kids to bully a child through social networks and instant messages – even email. Unflattering photos can be posted online and lead to insults, taunting and threats. Because there’s nothing physical, online bullying can go unnoticed by parents if kids don’t say what’s happening – so talk and watch their behaviour after online sessions.

Internet Safety for kids

• Before you post anything online, by text or email ask a parents permission.
• Be nice and polite online and avoid contact with strangers.
• Do not share your passwords with anyone other than your parents - not even your friends.
• Do not provide information regarding where you are online without a parents permission.
• Never meet someone face-to-face you have met online.
• If you receive a message from someone that makes you feel upset or worried show it to your parents or a teacher.

For more information visit:

NSPCC:  Advice and support for adults concerned about a child

CEOP:  Organisation that works to stop child abuse on the internet

Know-it-All:  Information on benefits, risks and safety on the intenet

Which?:  Information and advice on child internet safety

Safe Kids:  Rules and advice for online safety

BBC:  Staying safe online

Visit www.thinkyouknow.com a website for young people and their parents, carers and teachers - run by the UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP),! there are some useful advice on parental control software on www.choose.net.

Happy surfing!

Weekly Planner....

Well got through week one and we have been introduced to homework.  As a Year 1 parent I am a newbie to this and was a bit daunted to think this is going to be even more dates and things to remember  - and I was just getting to grips with shoes, coats and out the door!  So I thought I would have a look around to see if I could find something that would engage my little one in remembering what we need to do and also keep me organised (not an easy job at the best of times!)

Well I found this sweet but quite practical Homework Planner which is designed by Jay at www.creativemama.com.   She is certainly one 'creative mama' and has also provided free labels and other helpful things to print out.  Tried them out on boys and girls and they have that Moshi Monster look that kids seem to love.

If you would like a Homework Planner drop me an email ptfaforstjohnsprimary@gmail.com.