Welcome to the PTA Podcast!

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Hi, and welcome to the PTA Podcast. My name's Yvonne and I've been a PTA volunteer for a few years now. But I'm just one of thousands of volunteers up and down the country who all want to make a difference to their schools. PTAs are becoming even more crucial in UK schools to boost budgets, and I find it fascinating to talk to other volunteers about the different approaches they take. So please join me in this podcast to share information, generate ideas, debate issues and celebrate success. And I hope that you can take something away for your PTA today. So why have I started this PTA podcast? Well, I'm the chair of my school's PTA, and during the pandemic we couldn't do our usual fundraising activities. Anything that involved groups of people like School Fate or School Disco or Film Night or anything, obviously we had to stop. And as parents, we weren't allowed to go onto the school site, so that meant that it was really, really hard to continue doing any kind of fundraising. But the school was carrying on working and we needed to carry on with the fundraising. So I did a lot of research online to try and find some new ideas that maybe we could adopt. And I stumbled across quite a few different forums where PTA volunteers were chatting to each other about the different events they were holding, they were swapping tips and advice, and they were sharing posters, sharing their experiences of different working with different companies, and it was really inspiring the way everybody was really pulling together and sharing and supporting each other because we're all PTA volunteers, we all know how difficult that can be. So a PTA at a school, what does it do? Well, in my mind, it has two functions really, and this is to fundraise by various events and activities to boost the school budget, and also its role is to bring that school community together, normally by doing these activities and events, but sometimes running um things that don't require any fundraising. So just to put it in perspective for you, I looked at uh the parent kind website and they have a report that they issued in 2019, which said that UK schools, their PTAs, raise at least £122 million a year through volunteers giving £38 million volunteer hours, which is quite an incredible statistic, and I'm sure uh the actual real numbers are much higher than that. But for volunteers to raise £122 million in one year by giving their own time is quite incredible and should definitely be celebrated. Once I decided to go ahead with this podcast, I started to think about the types of things we could talk about. So I just wanted to give you a flavour of what you might be listening to in some future episodes. Um, one of the things we definitely need to cover is the admin side of running a PTA, which I know isn't the most exciting thing to talk about, but unfortunately it is essential. So all our PTAs are probably a bit different. Some of us are registered with the charity commission, some of us aren't. We'll have different committee structures depending on how many members we've got, and we can talk about what our legal requirements are. Um, so things like holding your AGM, producing your annual accounts, that kind of thing. Um, we can also talk about how to manage your volunteers. So that can be quite a challenging thing to do if you if you're not used to having a sort of team and you've never done that before. Some of our PTA teams are really really small and some are really really large. So you need different skills in different situations, and also if you don't have many volunteers, we can talk about what people do to attract volunteers because I know this is a perennial problem that basically all PTAs face is getting new volunteers. There are a myriad of different fundraising events and activities that PTAs organise, so we can talk through as many of those as we can. We've got different ways to do raffles, fun runs, non-uniform days, um, silent auctions, quiz nights, barbecues, bake sales, secondhand uniform sales, PTAs organise film nights, different sorts of races, Easter egg hunts, things for Mother's Day and Father's Day, things like summer fairs and Christmas fairs. There's just so many different events, and people are thinking of new ones all the time. And especially with the pandemic, there are now online fundraising events that weren't available to us before. So I think the more we can share and talk about those different things that we've all done, the better equipped we will be when we choose to do um you know our next camp out or our next silent auction or something like that. So I'm really looking forward to getting um to grips with all those different events with you. And then, of course, there's other sources of funding that PTAs can tap into. So if you're in a particularly small school and you're constantly asking the same, you know, group of parents for money, then there are other things you can do to get money into your school from the wider community. Um, that's something I've definitely needed to look at for my school. So um we can have a chat about where we can find information for other funding and how to apply for it and how long it takes, that kind of thing. So um that will be really interesting. And uh finally, there's lots and lots of different companies that we might come in contact with on a PTA. So, for example, things like uh like a school um disco DJ, or we might have to deal with a company that prints the T Tals that will sell to parents, so it's how to um deal with those companies and um also finding out how they work, which I think will be really interesting. We can also talk about using fundraising platforms, which is again something that's I feel has kind of emerged from the pandemic, and um also planning. Should you have an annual plan for the whole year with your PTA or do you plan per term? And what's your relationship like with the school that you work with, and how to improve that if it's not very good? Because I think uh a relationship with the school is really, really crucial and important. So there's a thousand and one things that we're going to talk about in the podcast, and I hope those things float your boat and you'll come back and listen to some more episodes. But this podcast would not be complete without the listener stories, so I'm really keen to hear about any PTA-related stories that you might have and might be willing to share in our PTA community. I'm looking forward to hearing about the good, the bad and the ugly. So please email me on hello at PTApodcast.com. Uh, I don't need to read out your name or your school name or anything, but I would be really interested to hear about your success stories, um, whether there was an event that you organised that you didn't expect to be so successful, but it was, and what do you think the reason behind that was? Um what about the events that didn't go according to plan or just weren't as successful as you expected? And then how did you overcome that to carry on with your PTA and carry on fundraising and and you know keep motivating your parents to join in? As you know, our PTAs are all different, we all come from different sized schools, different types of schools, different communities up and down the country, possibly across the world. So your story will no doubt resonate with somebody else. A story from a school with not many children will really help those people in a similar situation. I just wanted to tell you a little bit about me. So um I'm a mother of three children aged six, ten, and twelve. Um, my eldest son has recently started secondary school, but my other two are still at primary school. Um I guess I've always been someone who volunteers to take part and help out. So when my children were at preschool, I was also part of the preschool committee helping to fundraise um small amounts of money there. So when my children started primary school, it was it felt very natural for me to join the PTA at school and and meet some new mums and other parents, really. Um I really like being involved and seeing what the school can do with the money that the PTA raises. I can see how hard the teachers at school work to teach my children, and volunteering on the PTA I guess is my way of giving something back to the school because I can't teach as well as the teachers, but I can provide some funding to enable them to do their job of teaching and supporting. And being on the PTA is a great way of meeting other parents and spending time with other parents socially, whether it's in a meeting or folding ruffle tickets or hiding Easter eggs in the school grounds or whatever it might be, it's always good fun, and we're all there together doing something for the children for the school, and it's just a great feeling. It helps me really feel like I'm really part of the school community, which which is really really um important to me. Um so just to give you um a bit of context, um, I've been involved in my primary school's PTA for about five or six years, and this is going to be my fourth year as chair. So, just to let you know, my school my primary school is pretty small. We have about 70 children in three classes, and we're situated in a small rural village. Um so our school community of teachers and parents is pretty small, which which brings its own pros and cons, challenges and benefits, I would say. Um we have well, probably no more than about 50 families at the school, which means a limited audience for taking part in activities and also people volunteering to help. But it does mean that we can have a WhatsApp group for the entire school on one group, which is so helpful for reminding parents of raffles and bringing money in or non-uniformed days or whatever, um, and just encouraging them to take part in PTA events. So that that is really, really helpful. Um, and as a small school, we have a small number of teaching staff, so again, limited with volunteers from the teaching staff, but the teachers are incredibly supportive of our events and activities, and are really happy to encourage and support the children in school time doing things for the PTA, which is which is so helpful to us. Um, so as a PTA, we have a really strong relationship with the staff at school, and and that's just so incredibly helpful. So, as I mentioned, my oldest son has recently started secondary school, but I haven't had um any experience with the secondary school PTA at all because of COVID restrictions. So I'm afraid that I can't um help out with any advice for secondary schools and because I really just haven't had any contact with them at all. Um, but I'm looking forward to seeing what they get up to and how they manage because the uh secondary school my son goes to is a lot lot bigger than my primary school, and I'll I'm gonna be really interested to see what kind of events they manage to run, how often, and also what kind of money they raise and what it's like with older children um and just generally how it's different from a primary PTA. So that's why um I am so passionate about PTAs. I I just get so much out of it. I I really passionately enjoy doing it. I love being able to give back to my school. I love seeing my children at the school using things that I have fundraised for. That's fantastic. When the teachers spend the fundraising money very quickly on resources for their classroom, and my children can benefit with it in just a few months. That is that is really, really special thing, and um I like setting a good example to my children. They know that I volunteer at the school and I think they really appreciate it. Um, and so it's just it's just great all around. Volunteering is fantastic, isn't it? It gives you such a warm feeling that you have managed to do something for the good um with a group of friends, um, and and you can see the benefits almost straight away. So that is a bit about me. All of my experiences um have come from being a PTA volunteer and basically learning on the job as I go along, which I'm sure is the case for quite a lot of you. Um I certainly do not have all the answers, um, but I thought this podcast would be a great way to try and find answers to things I don't know, and I thought it would be great to do that together because there is so much information out there and so much you do need to know as a PTA volunteer. Um, that yeah, I thought we could we could find that out together, find out where to get the information from and um hopefully learn a thing or two as we go along. So let's talk about what's happening in September in PTA land. So for my PTA, like many of yours, I imagine, um, it's AGM time and we try and hold our AGM as soon as we can when school returns in September. So that generally means a late September stroke, possibly early October date for our AGM once um once we've got it organised and set up. Um, and we don't do any fundraising for the school um until that AGM has happened. That's just the way it's always been, um, because that also gives us time to prepare for the AGM. And we also use the AGM really as our a recruitment event for the PTA. So with many new families joining the school, um, so we kind of feel that this is the best time to really um advertise what we do and get some new ideas and new faces on board. So um we really, really need some new members this year. Uh my PTA we had about six um volunteers leave over the summer whose children were moving on to secondary school, and those people took with them many, many years of experience of being on the PTA. I think some of them have been on the PTA for about seven years. Uh it was really sad to see them go because some of them were pretty close friends of mine as well. Um and they're gonna be pretty big boots to fill, to be honest. But we're hoping that you know, sometimes new faces and and new ideas and new energy is just what a PTA needs. So I really hope that some of the new families can step forward because losing five to six people is is quite a significant loss to a committee of volunteers, and we really need some replacements. So, in order to entice uh some more people to come, we have decided this year to hold our ADM in the pub. Um, I know that many of you probably have your uh PTA meetings in the pub, but we haven't met in a pub for a PTA meeting for quite a few years now. Obviously, in the pandemic, we couldn't. Um, but we were just so desperate to see each other that we thought, why not let's go to the pub, let's have a meal at the pub and have our AGM there just to have a really nice evening together. And uh because our school is quite small, I thought we could also turn it into a parents social. So I haven't done this yet, but my plan uh for next week, once we finalise the date of the AGM, is just to um throw it out there into the school community and say, you know, please come, please come and have some food and a couple of drinks, and we're gonna do the AGM at this parent social. Um and I just hope that some new parents will come to that to say hi and volunteer their services, and even if they don't volunteer their services, it's it's always good to meet people, isn't it? And meet new faces to the school. So um, and that's part of what the PTA is about, isn't it? It's it's about bringing the school community together. And um, if people can't be involved in the PTA, that's fine. Um, we can still um have them in our in our group, so um so it should be should be good. Um I'm really hoping it's gonna go well. I have to say I'm slightly nervous because I have never run a meeting after a pub meal, and I'm not quite sure of the logistics of doing that. So whether to have the meeting first and then enjoy our meal afterwards, uh but actually I thought probably people get too hungry, so I think what we'll do is we'll have our main course and then do the AGM whilst we're kind of nibbling at our desserts, um, keeping everybody sweet, maybe enticing people to volunteer as they eat their cheesecake or something like that. Anyway, I'll we'll feed back to you on how that goes, um, just in case you had any similar ideas. Okay, the other thing that happens um in September is that many PTAs welcome the new families to their school, primarily those who have joined in the new reception class, but also other families that have joined in different years. Um, and I know that many of you I've seen on the internet are making sort of little welcome packs where you've put some where you put like a special poem in, um, some tissues for the for the grown-ups waving their children off to school, um, maybe some tea bags or um a gift for the child, or I don't know, lots of little bits. Um it they look really good, uh, and I'm sure they're very much appreciated by your new parents, and that's that is also such a great way of welcoming them to the PTA as well. Um, so my PTA doesn't actually do that, um, and in fact, we haven't really thinking about it, having seen all those ideas, I've realised that we haven't really officially welcomed parents in that way and shown that we're the PTA. Um, we tend to invite people to our AGM instead, I suppose. Um, but this year the head of school has suggested we have a whole school family picnic on the school field because the school community has not been together for such a long time with this um COVID pandemic that she felt it was a great opportunity for the new families to come and for the old families to you know just socialise a bit. Um, and I'm so excited by this, I think it's a fantastic idea. So it's going to be on a Saturday just for a couple of hours. The family's going to bring their own picnic, so the PTA won't be catering or anything. Um in fact, it's not uh going to be a fundraising event, it's just a social event, which is which is really lovely because I guess it takes that pressure off um the PTA a little bit there. Um but what we've organised so far, it's very chilled out. We are just gonna have some sporting activities laid out for the kids. We're going to have um a selection of books from um the library, um, some new books that the PTA funded last year, and a sort of quiet area where the children can look at the books, and also the parents can look at the books which they provided funding for, which is a really important part of um communication with parents, is actually showing them what their hard work and fundraising is going towards, and so they can clearly see what they've been supporting. So I'm really pleased that we have that there. Um, we're also going to have well, I'm hoping to set up some sort of um PTA well not display, but maybe a table just with some PTA stuff on it. And I was going to put up a um like a whiteboard or something, haven't quite worked out the details yet. Um, which where I'm going to get the children to write some suggestions of uh non-uniform dates that we can run throughout the year. I was going to put a whiteboard there with some non-uniform ideas and a pen and just see what the children could think of themselves. Because if you've ever asked children, a group of children for ideas, they come up with the most brilliant ideas that you would never think of in a million years. Um, and you know, if somebody, if a child has thought of an idea and and that idea is chosen, that is a great thing for them, and they can encourage their friends to take part. So um yeah, I'm hoping to have a little PTA um display or something and to get the children involved in that and also to have a chat with the parents. And I have engineered the um date of my AGM to be after that picnic to encourage people to come to the AGM. So we shall see how that goes. Wish me luck. That's the end of episode one of the PTA Podcast. So that was just a little introduction to me and what we're going to talk about in future episodes, and you've found out uh what my PTA is up to at this time of year. So if you have any suggestions or want to share any stories, please do email me. It's hello at PTApodcast.com. Uh, you might like to keep it on my website or Facebook page to find out about what's going to be in the next episode. Of course, I'm going to update you on my um ATM in the pub. Hope it goes well. And also the next steps that my PTA is going to take with our fundraising journey for this year. Uh, good luck with whatever you are working on in your PTA at the moment, and I look forward to chatting to you next time. Thanks very much for listening. Goodbye.