"The new school year has started and we have sprung into action with some fresh fundraising ideas for the 2009/10 year.  A few of us met this week to discuss what we can do to jump-start this year and get more involved with the school, pupils, parents and the community.  Our aim is to 'get more involved'. 

Here are a number of ideas we have discussed/ pencilled in for the year and we would like to know how you would like to get involved:

• Big Coffee morning – we ran it last year to support ‘MacMillan Cancer Support’. We had a good turnout last year and raised a good sum towards the charity.  This year we plan to make it bigger and run it on Tuesday 29th September from 8.30am to 10.30am (our busiest school day).  This allows parents to pop their heads in, top up their coffee cups and grab a bite to eat before continuing with their busy days.  We are asking parents to contribute a small monetary donation towards the cause and/or any cakes/fruit (for fruit salad) to be sold at the event.  All funds raised will go directly to the MacMillan team. Please drop any cakes and/or fruit off on the Monday or at the school drop off on the Tuesday morning.  
• Suggestion box for parents – to be positioned in the foyer for parents to post any suggestions/ideas for activities or even feedback on how we could do things differently. We'd love to hear your views.
• Hay day – On Friday 16th October the children will be dressing up for school and contributing a small monetary donation toward the Riding for the Disabled.
• A ‘Nearly New’ sale for Saturday 7th November to be held at the school from 9.30-11.30am with 30% (given on an honesty basis) of the proceeds going towards the school. So dig out any good quality nearly new baby equipment/ toys/ books/CDs/ DVDs/ clothes up to the age of 8 that you would like to sell. More details to come.
• Christmas Concert – in conjunction with the nativity plays this year we will be running small activities, such as a cake stall, hamper raffle, ‘guess the weight of the cake’ type activities, to help raise money.
• We are looking at Mum and/or Dad activities independently. We understand that it is difficult to ask both parents out to such school activities. Thus far we are investigating a Pampering night for the mums. Ideas are still brewing so any suggestions will be gratefully received.
• Open Day/ Farm Day/ Fete in Spring
• Sports Day raffles
• Annual BBQ
• My School Book Club – we have discussed signing up to a book club whereby the parents can buy directly from this book club and have books delivered directly to your homes  - up to 20% of sales go to the school.
• Regular Home and School Association morning teas – for parents/carers to drop in for a cuppa and share ideas or just drop in for a chat. We are investigating the best mornings and/or afternoons to run these. What works best for you?

We appreciate that we all run busy lives and thus are limited as to how much time we can assist the school. However we rely purely on volunteers and we would like to involve as many parents/carers as possible to contribute towards the environment that our children live in.

You may be able to help by:

• sharing fundraising ideas/ contacts
• assisting with getting our scheduled events off the ground and/or setting up on the day
• baking a cake or donating items for our raffles

Now you have a flavour of what we have lined up for the year we’d like to know how you would like to get involved. Please do not hesitate to contact us via the office/suggestion box and we can pass on your details to the relevant persons.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Kirsten Webster and the HSA Team."