A chat with PTA+

Automatically generated from the audio, so it may not be perfectly word-for-word.

Hi, welcome to the PTA podcast. My name is Vaughn, and I've been a PTA volunteer for a few years now. I'm just one of the thousands of volunteers and the country who all want to make a difference to their schools. PTAs are becoming even more crucial in UK schools to boot budget. 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 to celebrate success. And I hope that you can take something away for your PTA today. And now I'm gonna have to scrubble around to find all the sun hats, um, which just get scattered around the house, don't they? And I can't keep track of them. And then trying to find all the sun cream as well in the back of my bathroom cupboard. But anyway, it's lovely to feel some warm weather and um just makes you think of summer fairs and sports days and ice creams and uh fun picnics and all that sort of thing, doesn't it? It's it's so nice. In this episode, we are going to find out all about a fantastic website called PTA Plus. And I've had a chat with Carol Rogerson, who is the editor of the school fundraising magazine based here in the UK. Now I wonder how many of you have already used their website. It's PTA.co.uk and has a vibrant orange branding splashed across the top of it, and I'm sure you'd recognise it if you've seen it before. If you haven't come across the website yet, then you must go and check it out as soon as you can. It is a fantastic free resource for PTAs, and in fact, it's now my first port of call if I need any information about anything PTA related. So I basically either go straight to their website or I Google my question and the PTA Plus website. It's usually the first suggested link, anyway, so I might as well just go to their website to start with. So when you do go to the website, you can feel such positive vibes coming out of the screen at you from all the articles and the lovely photos. It honestly has such a wonderful feel to it and it makes you feel really proud to be part of a PTA when you go to this website. They have a little video in the About Us section, which I will link directly to in the show notes because it explains in one minute what PTA Plus can help you with. And it I found it so empowering to watch this little video because they've really put into a nutshell the positive impact PTAs can have on a school. So if you are ever feeling just a bit fed up with your volunteering or fed up with your parents because they're not helping you out, have a watch of this short video, and I think it would really help. Their website is crammed full of articles on so many different topics, and they have done a great job of linking all the articles together so that you can easily find loads of comprehensive information on one topic and then how see how it links to other topics. I'm going to give you an example because there's just so much on this website. So I'm going to search for auction of promises because my PTA is looking at doing its first auction soon, and we haven't done one before, so um quite a few links have come up, and I'm going to click on one that says step-by-step auction of promises. So they do actually have a number of step-by-step guides, and these literally do take you through how to organize this particular event step-by-step. So if you haven't done it before and you're not sure, it's a really handy thing to um have a look at, and they also generally give you um like a timeline um like when to start doing stuff, so yeah, really super helpful. So this article, Step by Step Auction of Promises, tells you about how to organise an auction of promises, but there are also other links in the article. So, for example, um they suggest having a big social event or turning your auction into a big social event, so you could have a bar there, and um, if you want to sell alcohol, you'll need a TENS license for this. And you can click on TENS license, and that will take you to the information all about TENS licenses, in case you didn't know what that was. Um, they also have some uh links here. One of them says um boost profits with interval games. So those are little short, quick games that you can play in the middle of another event that just um boosts a bit of fundraising, which is really cool. Um, then they have a guide to silent auctions as well. So if you weren't sure what sort of auction you wanted to do, you could have a look at the silent auction information later on in the same article. They have a list to um uh risk assessments. So if you're not sure how to put together a risk assessment or what a risk assessment is, then you can have a look at that article. And towards the bottom, they even have some information about how to write a letter to a local business if you're struggling for prizes and you want to contact some local businesses, and this is how you can do it. So there are um a there's just so many links to so many topics in one article, and that's what I really love about their website because this is exactly how it works in the PTA world that you decide to do an event, but you have all these then spin-off consequences or spin-off questions that you're not really sure about. Um, but a lot of the articles on the PTA Plus website website have exactly anticipated that, and I think um it's one of the best things about the website that all these different things all link together. So um that was just one example for one topic, but they have a huge amount of information on there. So you can use the website by searching, or you can use the links at the top of the page, so they have information about how to run your PTA, which is things like organizing AGMs, your committee, your volunteers, that kind of thing, how to increase community engagement. Then there's ideas for different events and fundraisers, there's a specific link on fundraising. So if I go to um running a PTA and I'm gonna click on community engagement, let's see what comes up. Okay. I'm gonna scroll down a bit, see what takes my fancy. And I'm going to choose the article which says outside areas success stories, which is where PTAs have transformed their outside areas and how it has worked really well for some PTAs. So there's a link in this article to an article about school gardens, there's a link to a scheme where you can apply for free trees. There is also a link to how to write a welcome letter for people who are attending. Um, there's also links to articles which talk about the benefits of learning outside the classroom and how to raise your PTA's profile with parents. So, um, as you can tell, there's just a ton of information on there, and in fact, I can go on there looking for a particular topic and still be reading this website half an hour later because I've gone down a complete rabbit hole of interesting articles and uh can't seem to leave because it's all very fascinating. And in addition to this really amazing website, they also publish a magazine once a term, so three times a year, and that's called the School Fundraising Magazine. And their recent issue has just come out around Easter time, and you can read it digitally on the pta.co.uk website. And the recent issue is the summer 2025 edition, and I'm just going to read out the cover stories to you so you can get a flavor of the different types of articles in the magazine. So let me just bring that up. Okay, so on the cover page, um, the main story, in fact, in this um magazine is how to how schools, parents, and PTAs can support learning outside the classroom. They have uh an article saying we don't have a chair, secretary, or a treasurer. How one PTA took a new approach to their organization, different sorts of fairs that people have run, um, a video game themed fair, how to build your own simple fair games. Our fair and festival raised £13,000. It's quite astounding, isn't it? Um, and how to hold a better event debrief if you've had a fair. Then let's talk about grants and the focus in this particular issue are grants from your local authority, so your council, your local council, and what um you can find in their grant scheme. And then right at the bottom, we've got a list of some other articles, and this says run a half-term fundraiser, how to be more autism aware, history-themed success stories, and take part in campaigns, competitions, and challenges, in addition to all of those other things. So um, there's an awful lot in this magazine, and when you look through it, all of the articles are talking to. This sounds a bit silly, but they're talking to real people, real PTAs who have tried these events or who are um saying, Look at this event we did, it was really good. This is how somebody else could actually run it. So I think that's what's so nice about the magazine is that they're actually getting real stories from real PTAs that have tried all these items. And this magazine has been published since 2011, so you can find many of the previous issues on the website to look back on. So you've got a lot of reading to do if you haven't already been getting this magazine. If you want to get this magazine on a regular basis going forwards, then there's a link at the top of the main um website in a little orange um bar, I think that's what we call it. Uh, so you can sign up to the uh their PTA newsletter, PTA Plus newsletter, and get regular emails with fundraising ideas and tips and on all sorts of things. So I would recommend doing that if you're interested, and then of course you will find out when the next issue of the magazine is published. And I believe Carol said then that the next issue, which they're currently working on, um, will be coming out in September or October, early early next term, anyway. Anyway, why don't you grab a cupper, sit back, and enjoy my chat with Carol about her role as editor on the school fundraising magazine and how amazing PTAs are. Carol, hi and welcome to the PTA Podcast. I'm really looking forward to talking to you all about PTA Plus and your role as editor of the School Fundraiser magazine. But before we get into all that, would you like to introduce yourself to my listeners?

Hi everyone, I'm Carol. Um, as everyone said, I'm the editor of School Fundraising Magazine, which used to be called PTA Plus magazine. And um I am also the editor of PTA.co.uk, which is our website, and I look after our email newsletters and generally look after our PTAs as much as I can.

Oh, how lovely! So nice to have someone that's actually cares about us, that's really nice. And uh one thing I always like to ask my guests is whether they have ever been a volunteer in a PTA or perhaps attended a PTA event. So, can you tell me a little bit about your experiences, please?

Uh yeah, so I have been on a couple of PTAs. My son went to two different primary schools, um, and at the first one, it was a little bit exclusive and it was run by a group of very close friends, and they were they did a good job, but they were not super open to new people, and not very many different types of people really ever got onto the committee. So, although they did raise quite a lot of money and they had some really good contacts, I did feel there was a little bit of a struggle going on there, and then when my son went to his second primary school after lockdown, it was a little bit difficult there, but I think also because of lockdown, it was quite hard for everybody. It was quite hard as a new parent after lockdown as well to meet people. But after a little while, we got a new chair who was extremely open and extremely friendly and helpful and attracted all kinds of new people. And I think fundraising is often a kind of don't ask, don't get scenario. So if you're hiding away as a PTA, people won't suddenly wake up in the morning and think, Oh, you know, I'll donate some money to the PTA, that's a good idea. And there's actually some research from the Institute of Fundraising that shows that more than 80% of people made a donation to charity because they were asked to. So it really is the best way is just to be asking all the time and really, really visible and clear.

Yeah.

And I actually spoke to our the chair of the PTA where my son needs to go to school recently, and she told me they'd done a big match funding drive, and they'd got a company to donate £9,000 match funding. That's a huge amount of money. Wow. So it's a very big media company. Wow, okay. They donated £9,000 in match funding just on top of the summer fair because somebody volunteered at the summer fair. And if she hadn't done that big match funding drive beforehand, yeah, parents looked, this is a really big thing.

Yeah.

They'd be £9,000 down on where they could be.

That's amazing. So we benefited from some match funding at my school. So so match funding is where you have somebody who works for a company, and the company will, if if that employee volunteers to do some charity work, the company will match whatever that person has raised um at the event. Um, and so yes, we also benefited from that. From a um, we had a couple of parents that worked for Barclays, which is another large company. Um, and I did a bit of an I just tried, I tried to do a bit of a push up my school just to find out if anybody else also worked for a company. And and I think often people perhaps don't know that those schemes are around. And even if they work for a company that has one, perhaps just to find out if their company does did it, um, because it can be such huge amounts of money, just basically doubling exactly what you raise, isn't it? And for free.

Yeah. I think the companies don't always publicize them that well. That's right. They do exist and they are there.

Yeah. So gosh, and because she put out those emails and sort of highlighted it to her parents, then they got an extra nine grand. Oh gosh, that's like the stuff of dreams, isn't it? Wow. And that's so nice that your your first PTA experience was obviously not a great one, but it didn't put you off trying again at the second school. So that's that's really nice that you you managed to find a PTA that that you could fit into or that would welcome you with open arms, which I'm sure they did.

Well, that's right, and PTA committees do change. So if anyone's listening to this and they think PTA is not so welcoming, well number one, you could volunteer. Yeah. But it may things may change over the time that you're there. So yeah, yeah.

Oh, that's great. Well, I'm glad you ended up with a positive um PTA experience anyway, in the end. Um, okay, so I've wanted to talk to you for a little while now because I find the school fundraising magazine and the website one of the most helpful areas on the internet for PTAs because it's very targeted information rather than just general charity fundraising. So, could you tell me and my listeners a bit about how PTA Plus started, please?

Sure. So PTA Plus is run by a company called Community Inspired, which is a social enterprise. So I work for Community Inspired. Okay. Um, and a social enterprise is where all the profits go back into supporting your work. So they all go back in supporting schools and PTAs. Um, and a little interesting nugget of information is that our first ever editor was Tim Southwell, who, if you don't know, used to be the editor of Loaded Magazine. Oh my gosh!

Wow, that's such a different, different type of magazine. Indeed.

So he was our editor for a little while. Um and the original idea behind what we do is to create a service that supported PTAs with advice and inspiration from us, so kind of us pushing out information to you, but also enabled PTAs to interact with each other because, particularly at the time when we started, and there wasn't kind of social media so much, and there's a lot of knowledge in PTAs, and people gain a lot of knowledge by being on one, and then they leave. So there is this, as I said, there's this turnover of people, and what we wanted to do was enable people to connect with each other and ask questions and say, I'm coming up against this thing, I don't really know what to do. And there'll be a PTA out there, maybe even in the next town to you, who can say, Oh, yeah, we had exactly this problem, and this is what we did. And then maybe there's another PTA who had a different approach, so at least you can get some ideas and some different angles and some from real PTAs and real people who've really been there, rather than necessarily us or an expert or somebody saying this is the definitive answer on what we should do. It's great for everyone to get opinions. So we've also got our local Facebook groups, which are more than 60 county and city-based Facebook groups that people can talk to that person in the next town if they want to recommend a supplier, or they want to find somebody to come to their fair or somebody to come and do a talk. Um, we've got our main Facebook group, which is the ideas and advice network. Yeah. And everyone on there is super friendly and nice. And yeah, and they're all super, really super supportive community.

Yeah, it is so supportive. And I mean, I've certainly posted questions and contributed to the discussions on there. I think maybe almost on a daily basis, because there are so many um questions and um, you know, areas in which you can help people, and and I think it's so lovely that somebody um, you know, noticed the amount of knowledge and experience that's held within a PTA, um, just simply from having a go and doing stuff and the amount of things you can learn and then wanting to sort of use that knowledge and share it, and it's like a sort of method of peer support, really, isn't it? That you have other people doing the same thing, supporting people wanting to do the same thing, and and I just think that's so invaluable.

Yeah, exactly. I think that people leave, and the with the best will in the world, you can do the most incredible handover, you can hand over folders and files of information, and and you still may not get that scenario that the next chair comes up against.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, or you might be trying different events, and then it all you know you have a completely different team and the dynamic is different, and or there's a new product on the market that's aimed at PTAs, and you want to know if someone else has tried it. It is changing constantly, and so I think that is why the Facebook group in particular. Is just so helpful because it's instant answers from you know any anywhere in the country and sometimes across the world as well, isn't it? It's international almost. It is. And so I was going to ask you what PTA Plus offers to the PTAs, but I think you've covered that, Carol, haven't you, with the website, the magazine, um, the Facebook forums.

So we also run a membership service at funded.org now that supports all schools, even if they don't have a PTA, because some don't. So PTAs can sign up for our website to get School Fundraising magazine and also access the funded grants database, which I've been told this morning has now £15 million worth of grants that are available to schools and PTAs. So it means that any school can find the money they need.

Yeah. Oh wow, that's a lot. And do you know how the does somebody go out searching for that grant information, or is it the grant holders come to you to sort of advertise their schemes? Do you know how that information is gathered?

Yeah, we have a very lovely grants person, Sarah, who works very, very hard to find grants that schools can apply for. So she's always looking everywhere for new grants and updating the database and making sure that they're still relevant.

Yeah. Oh wow. So she's basically doing a lot of the hard work for us on our behalf so we don't have to trawl through the internet. She's already trawling and um picking out the best ones. Oh, that's great. Um, I have to admit, I haven't really looked at that part of your website, but finding out there's 15 million pounds just sitting there, I might go and have a little look later. So that sounds really helpful. So your role at PTA Plus is more on the side of the school fundraising magazine. Um, so could you tell me a bit about what your job involves and how you kind of put the magazine together?

Yeah, so we put the magazine together. We are so we're starting now. This is spring, we're starting on our autumn issue, so we're already thinking Christmas. Oh wow, you poured things, and we will all sit down together as a team and we'll kind of thrash out ideas and we get ideas, we're constantly looking for ideas, and we're constantly talking to people as well. So we get ideas from absolutely all over the place. We get ideas from chatting to suppliers, we get ideas from press releases, we get ideas from local news stories. So if you've sent something like a press release to your local paper, we may contact you to feature you nationally. Okay. Um, we're always having conversations with PTAs. When we chat to people, we say, anything else you've done that interesting that we our audience might like to know about? Um, we look on social media and things often spark an idea. And as you said, things are always changing, aren't they? So like colour runs are a big thing now, which they weren't a few years ago. So events are sort of changing, bake-offs are a thing, whereas performance might be cake sales. Yeah. So we've got an article coming up in our next issue all about cake sales and cake. Oh, excellent. Things you can do with that. Oh, that's good. Um, yeah, so we anything we can think of that's lacking, any questions that we ask ourselves. So, for example, I thought to myself, I know quite a lot about planning a summer fair, I know all about kind of stools and games, and I have sort of hundreds of stools and games ideas in my life, um, particularly you mentioned the coronation around. I sat for a whole day thinking of game ideas based on which is fun.

It is oh, I love that side of being on the PTA, that is my favourite part of it.

Yeah, yes, that that's kind of how we always say about our always updated guides to Christmas and Summer Fair games, which is this is the fun part. Get stuck in with some great ideas. So, so for me, I knew all about that side. I know all about publicity and communications, but the thing I really didn't know was like you turn up and it's a field, and you've somehow got to make it into a fair. And I thought, perhaps the PTA chair I'm talking to here, or the PTA member, maybe they're not going to be the person doing this, but it's really great if you've got some idea of what's happening. Yeah, so we went off and we spoke to various people who'd who were either kind of logistics experts or had put together 10 PTA fairs in their lives before. And we got loads of interesting, great information about water and power and all sorts of things I would have had no clue about. Gosh, what do you think? Yeah, sometimes it's literally that that we just think I don't know this. Yeah. And if I don't know it, maybe nobody knows it, or very few people know it. And so this is some information we need to get out there.

Yeah, and yeah, and that could be especially helpful if you want to try a new event that hasn't been tried at your school before, or perhaps put an event in a different place at your school that doesn't have easy access to those things, and just like you say, it's it's like the practicalities, isn't it? You could have an amazing idea, but you're not quite sure how to actually roll it out at your school. So that sounds like and all those things are articles on your website, aren't they? When you mentioned the um list of summer fare stalls and Christmas fare stores, and you said that you're constantly updating that list as well. That sounds really useful to throw to get sort of fresh ideas in as well.

Yeah, and we often look through, well, again, all our kind of different sources and what people have been posting on Facebook, and we have a look at what people have been doing and their new stall ideas and anything we just think is hilariously funny, like topple the teacher, where you put the photograph of a teacher on the cans and throw things at them, and one school did topple the PTA where you could throw things at the PTA.

What invent your chores really put your frustration at them? Our teachers had a stall uh a few years ago now at our summer fate. Um, we asked them to come up with something, and what they came up with was they all they took photographs of their toes, of their feet, and so the children had to guess whose feet belong which teacher had which feet. And they I think each each photograph of feet had three clues next to it, so they could basically you know work it out because there's not there's not so many teachers at our school because we're quite small. But I I did think that was a very funny but quite genius idea, and the kids absolutely loved it because it was just so funny.

Yes, it's a well-known thing that they like anything to do with their teachers being real people and like poking their head in the stocks. I mean, they all they all really like that.

Yeah, yeah, we we did do have access to some stocks, but it's always extremely difficult to get any teacher to volunteer to go inside it. So I think the last few summer fairs we um had to. I think that the children always are willing volunteers, so I think we just let them get on with it and left the poor teachers, gave gave the poor teachers a break, which they probably deserved. So, your um magazine, how often does that get published?

So we try to come out around the beginning of each term. So hopefully, which is why we're always so far ahead. Hopefully, when by the time PTA sits down and thinks, what's this term looking like? Let's have a meeting. Which events do we want to run? Do we want to fund some fundraisers, some sponsored things? Do we want to do an a-thon? Do we want to do a big um call out for match funding? Do we want to, is it AGM season? By the time they're looking at what their term looks like, our magazine is there for them to kind of you know anticipate their needs before they even know what they are.

Yeah.

So yeah, so so the issue we're working on at the moment, which is the autumn issue, will come out at the beginning of September. Okay. So just when schools go back. So we'll be talking about that term mostly. Sometimes we go a little bit further in advance, but we'll mostly be talking about what's going on for you that term, what ideas can we help you with, and what can we make work for you? And we're also overall looking ways to for PTAs and their schools to work a bit more closely together. So outside of traditional PTA fundraising events and activities, how we can support activities like grant applications, building relationships with local businesses, or a load out, or one-off donations from members of the public. So we're all kind of also sort of looking how you can push your PTA forward a little bit.

Wow, those are really interesting ideas. And I think it's really nice to try and get that. I was sort of frame that as external money, that's money that's coming in that's sort of from outside of your immediate school community. Um, because that does take the pressure off the parents, doesn't it? To provide money for everything all the time.

Exactly. And especially like you were saying, a small school, you don't have that many parents. So so your fundraiser, even though you might not sit down and write fundraising objectives, though it arguably you should. Yes. Even if you don't, your objectives will be in your head somewhere, and they'll be different from a really big school where there are lots and lots of parents. So you might be looking a little bit more to the community, or you might be looking more at grants, or it depends what your parent demographics like.

Yeah, and and that's exactly what I did do. Um, the episode I just released, um, I think it was episode 25, I talked about the fundraising we did for our new library. Um, we had to raise something like 8,000 to 10,000 pounds, and at the time we were only raising maybe about three to four thousand a year, and so um I was really racking my brains to think of anywhere we could get extra money from to you know feed in and managed to think of a few places. Um, parish councils, I think, are a highly untapped resource when it comes to getting extra funding. And my school is quite lucky in a sense, and it sits sort of on the boundary of three parish councils. So I wrote to all of them and um and said, Wouldn't it be lovely if our little school had this amazing library? And they all very generously donated a few hundred pounds. So, and for us to raise a few hundred pounds is not a small event for us, so you know, just getting anything extra. And then we could say to the parents that, oh yes, you know, this parish council has donated money, and it and it kind of made I felt the project feel like bigger, and you know, more people are excited about it, it's not just our school, other people want us to have it, and I feel like that also really kind of raised the profile of the project just because other people like almost felt it was worthwhile, you know, putting money into, which was really nice.

Yeah, and that can also encourage unexpected donations from people who just uh the more publicity your project's got, the further its reach, the more you might just get somebody come to you and offer to help.

Yeah, well, we did have that actually. We did have um one of the parish councillors brought us a load of books that they'd um just gone to buy for us, and uh we had donations of books from other people as well, which we weren't expecting. And we didn't at that time we weren't asking for donations of books, we were more focused on money. Um, but yeah, it was really nice that people just presented us with these things that we hadn't even asked for because they wanted to be part of the project, I guess.

Yeah, and it's not always with businesses, it's not always money as well. It could be time, it could be painting services, yeah. All kinds of things, and just some general volunteering time is extremely useful, isn't it?

Yeah, it is. And I suppose if you're looking for particular skills, you could even try and approach a business that works in that area and ask them, you know, for their special skills to come and do uh half a day helping with something.

Yeah, absolutely, yes. I think it is all about getting the message out there, isn't it? In every way that you can. What's my what's my problem? Who can help?

Yeah, yeah. So you've obviously been involved in the PTA world for a few years, and I wonder, Carol, how you think PTA fundraising has changed over that time and if you've noticed any changes or if um anybody that you've been speaking to has highlighted anything to you?

Yeah, well, I think it's always, as we said, it's always evolving, isn't it? So I think the big, big, big difference, and I was looking at some old articles a few weeks ago. The big difference is digital to the way people communicate. So there's a lot less cash going on, although there is still cash. So I hear about very few flyers in book bags or anything like that. Yeah, that has stopped now. Yeah, there are still paper subscription forms, but in many ways, online payments are kind of easier. So if you've got an online fundraising platform, you send it off to your Auntie Ginny in Canada and she sponsors you and gives you the money, and that's really, really easy, and no one needs to do anything complicated to achieve that.

Yeah.

So, and online also extends to obviously social media, um, ticketing platforms where you can book seats and record allergies, and yeah, I think there's there's a lot that has changed.

Yeah, I think things certainly change for my PTA after COVID, especially with the cash and um sponsorship forms. And of course, with I mean, you you could do this with paper sponsorship, but just claiming gift aid is now so much easier, isn't it? And that's an extra 25% on top of what you fundraised if you're a charity. So that's a and again another huge amount of money that you can get for free. And and I know you can do it with paper sponsorship forms, but I think it's a little bit onerous, you have to get everybody's names and addresses and send it all off. Or I I never actually did do that um with paper forms, but I know that they're they're just giving uh website that we use could just collect gift aid, you know, automatically. So that was a bit of a game changer for us as well.

Yeah, and there's apparently thousands of pounds of gift aid that goes unclaimed. So any PTA who's you need to check it out on the gov.uk website, but any PTA not claiming gift aid should have a look and see if they can.

Yeah, yeah, because it's it is quite straightforward to claim it. You just need to apply for a reference number from HMRC, and then once you have your reference number, you just plug it into whichever website you're using and and it just happens magically, as far as I can tell.

Yes, I think it does these days. It used to be much more complicated and involves spreadsheets and things, and now it doesn't seem to involve that.

So no, it's it's much better. So that is quite a positive thing that I think because, like you say, that the online stuff has has, in a sense, made um people donating money, it's it's a lot easier for people to do the donations, it's less time consuming, it's perhaps more convenient because everyone's got mobile phone now, so you don't even have to be at home with your computer to book your tickets or whatever, you can just do it on the go. So, yeah, I think that is a major factor that's changed. Were there any other changes you've seen?

Uh I think, yeah, we think we see more people applying for grants, as you said. People a little bit more, they've got more information about how to do that, they're a little bit less scared of it, I hope. Um, another thing we try to do is demystify how that works, explain to people that you know you can do this too. So at my son's old primary school, there's a dedicated team of people who work only a little bit, a few hours here and there, yeah, to look for grants. And they sit, they sit completely outside of the PTA, so they look for grants that the PTA all the school could apply for. Um, and if they find something, they just pop it on an email and send it over and people can have a look, or they can help with applications because they are some people who just happen to have knowledge of how to do grant applications.

So are you saying that they are parent volunteers but they're just volunteering to look for grant opportunities? Yeah.

Yes, so for somebody who hates the idea of a summer fair, who just thinks really like if somebody thinks a PTA is all about a summer fair or events or sponsored walks, this might be a good job for them because this is not that at all. They don't necessarily have to come to PTA meetings, they don't have to get involved in all the chat if they don't want that. Yeah, that's a great job for even if you've just got one person who could spend a couple of hours a week control on the internet.

Yeah. And that's what's so nice about a PTA, really, is that there are so many different little jobs that people could do without a huge time commitment, and yet those little things could make a massive difference to the rest of the team or to the school.

Well, they do, and there are lots of jobs that you can do on a PTA that don't involve events, other than you after uniform. I did that for a little while, after uniform, that was quite fun. Yeah.

I enjoyed that. Yeah.

So yeah, and I think the other thing I've really seen changing is events becoming less onerous on the PTA, so perhaps the PTA not completely organizing it, or perhaps finding a different event that they can run that's based on what their community wants. So it might not be a summer fair, it might be in my town there's a local Christmas market, and they that raises funds for arts at a local primary school, and hardly anyone knows it's a PTA event at all. It's been going for years and years and years. Wow. Loads of people involved in it, makes loads of money, and yeah, people just people come, people don't come because it's a fundraiser for the PTA, they come because it's a great event.

Right.

And it's a great local thing. Yeah. So it's also because it's been running for years. Again, there's that information, there's that knowledge, yeah. People know what they're doing. Yeah. It works really smoothly.

So that's so interesting. So a PTA is it's like they've sort of branched out, left the school grounds and gone into the local community to hold an event for everybody that that they want everybody to come to. That's and that's been running for years, that's really amazing.

Yeah, and there's another school that we're hoping to speak to again that we've spoken to before, who run a car boot sale, and that's really similar. They've raised, I mean, really thousands of pounds. Wow. And it's a local car boot sale, and it runs, I presume, in the summer.

Yeah.

And I don't think people think of it again as a particularly a PTA event, it's just that's that's what it is, and that's where we go to if we want to go to a car boot sale.

Wow.

Yeah, and people will carry on helping at those events, even when their children have left. Oh, that's um that's so refreshing.

People still want to help us so nice. Oh, how how interesting. I I find it fascinating. One of the reasons I really like your magazine when it comes out is because all of the articles are from a different PTA. Like you reference, you know, which PTA and the information has come from people that you've talked to, and it's so interesting to see the huge variety of things that different PTAs are doing, whether they're big schools or small schools and where they are in the country, and it's all so different because of the communities in which they're all you know resting in, isn't it? It's it's really interesting.

Yeah, it often surprises me when I speak to a PTA and they tell me about the school community, and it's in a deprived area, and they have this many send pupils, and then they're doing this incredible, incredible thing. Absolutely inspiring.

Yeah, it is, yeah. And all from people volunteering and giving their free time to support all the children. It's it's lovely, isn't it? That's why I like talking about it so much because it's such a nice thing in the world, really. Um, so do you have any thoughts um about PTAs in general and what kind of contribution they make to society as a whole?

Well, yes, and there are lots of stories around, aren't there, about PTOs funding textbooks and pens and things like that. Most PTAs that I speak to don't do that, they fund enrichment, so it's workshops and STEM weeks and things in playgrounds and forest school and trips and all those things that kind of work around the basic education to make school more fun and better. So, and I'm very glad that PTAs are there doing that. Um, I think a really interesting thing that compared to most charities, people people don't necessarily think of PTAs as charities, but they are.

Yeah.

Um, is that the beneficiaries are the children and a lot of The time the people working for the charity are the parents, so they it's really really in their best interest to be helping out because the money's that they're benefiting themselves in many ways. That's right, yeah. So, and I think also if you help on the PTA, you're hopefully providing a great role model for your children. You're showing that it's good to help people, yeah. That's yeah, that's amazing. I mean, the more of that that you can do the better. Yeah. And there's some research from we spoke to Dr. Alison Boddy, who um is at the University of Kent in the philanthropy studies department, and she does a lot of work about children as change makers. Okay, so how children can shape their own communities, and how that also gives them confidence in the future to believe that they can achieve change. And I think the PTA is amazing for achieving that because it's it's showing you, even when you're really very young, that well, we wanted to do this and we wanted things to be this way, and then we went out and we did this thing and we raised the money, and then we we could do it, we could hold the STEM week, we could hold an arts week, we could have a new playground. So I think, in terms of that, just showing children that it's possible, yeah, it's really beneficial.

Yeah, I think that's so important. Um, going back to our library project, when um the teacher who was leading the project first sort of planted the idea, we did apply for a grant to get the funding, and um unfortunately we didn't get the money. Um, and then I felt at the end of the at the end when we'd raised all the money ourselves in school, that I felt it was almost better that we didn't get that grant money because it meant that the whole school got behind this project and the children um did lots of challenges and were sponsored um and raised money for the library, so that when the library was actually opened and the children went in, they they knew that they were part of that process, and without them doing their activities and people sponsoring them and and us having the cake sales and the non-uniform days, etc., that we wouldn't have had the money. And so I do feel that whilst it would have been so much easier to just get £10,000 filling out one application form, in a way, the library means so much more to the school because we all took part in actually making it happen.

Yeah, and that's quite a nice way to fundraise as well, isn't it? Fundraise for a specific project and also in a specific way. So if you're hoping for a library, perhaps do a sponsored read, if you're hoping for a playground, perhaps do a sponsored skip or jump or an obstacle course or uh something, but to kind of theme your fundraiser around what you're raising money for, because although PTA funds are extremely useful for boring things, and I've told this by some schools that if a PTA just raises kind of general funds, they can they can use those funds for the sort of day-to-day kind of things that perhaps aren't so exciting. Yeah, yeah. It's also good for a PTA to have a fundraiser based around we need new iPads, and so we're holding a video games based some of that. So you know, I guess it kind of works both ways, but yeah, it's it's easier, it's easier to get people to give money, I think, if they're giving money for a library or for some iPads or for a STEM week.

Yeah, and it's and it's also then also very easy to show the outcome of that project, isn't it? You know, you can you know invite people to come in to see the library or you know, show photos of the children doing something at STEM week, whereas if you're um, you know, I suppose buying lots more Pritsticks or whatever it is that the school desperately needs, but it's not as exciting to send home a photo of lots of Prit Sticks arriving, is it?

No, no, exactly. And and CTAs really should be doing that, they should be sending home lots of photos of children, or even if they can't photograph children if that's a bit difficult. New libraries, things they find, even if it's a rug on the floor of their reception class, just make sure everyone knows you bought it. Make sure everyone knows that all that hard work wasn't just about we raised X amount, it was about we raised X amount, and then we bought this thing. Yeah, and it doesn't even stop there. It's we raised X amount, we bought this thing, and this is what the children said about it. This is how much they loved it. Oh, yeah, that's the impact, and that's important.

Yeah, and that would be such a lovely thing to do, actually, is to ask the children, just like you said, just you know, we've we've got this new thing, what do you think about it? And then and then tell parents that's such a lovely idea to, you know, when you're communicating back, to put that that in as a as a sort of testament to what's happened. That's such a great idea. So you're obviously a great expert at communication, Carol, being a magazine and website editor. So, do you have any other tips or advice for PTAs on how they could communicate better with their school community or how they can um you know promote themselves within the school community?

Sure. Well, in many ways, it goes back to where we started about being really open and really visible. So we've got lots of stuff on our website. You head over there, pta.co.uk, lots of things on PTA visibility and publicising everything, and this demonstrating impact thing, which I feel is really important. Um, so I would kind of start at the end and think, what do we want to achieve? Like, what do we want to happen? What change do we want to make? And who's going to be involved? How can we get them on side? So, a lot of that is this speaking to people quite directly. Um THR we spoke to recently said, don't fear the no, and this is such great advice because I feel people are quite scared of hearing no, but it's just no, and you could move on again, maybe ask them again later, ask somebody else. People are unlikely to be rude, they're probably just saying really sorry, I haven't got the time. And this particular chair, she said to us she'd asked somebody to do a very specific job, and they said, I'm really really sorry. No, I can't just can't do that, I can't fit it in. And then a year later they came back and said, Oh, this thing you asked me about, I can do it now. I've got time. Oh wow. Yeah, so suddenly she didn't even have to ask anybody because this person was there saying yes, but if she'd never asked, yeah, they would never have volunteered either.

So she would never have put the idea out there that there was a need for something.

That's right. So it can have kind of belated happy consequences. Um, I think also strive for a committee that's made up of parents that really represent the school demographic. So if you've got lots and lots of different nationalities in your school, try and get as many of them on the PTA as possible and really make sure that they don't feel excluded. Really make sure that everyone knows that the PTA is for you. And then I guess to really drive home the benefits of what the PTA does and the difference it makes. I think the clearer you can be about that and and the better relationship you've got with your school, I think that's all easier to do. If you want to get quotes from the children, you need a great relationship with your school. Absolutely, yeah. Do that because it's not a particularly easy thing to get. It really does involve somebody going and asking. Yeah. And if you've got a great relationship with your school and you can tie all those things together, then your PTA should be successful.

Yeah. And there's so many different ways you can get the message out as well, isn't there, by emails or newsletters or social media. Do you think there's a a sort of better a bet like a best way of doing it, or is it best to try and do lots of different ways to kind of catch somebody's attention?

I know it's a busy landscape, isn't it, at the moment these days. Everyone gets hundreds of emails, exactly, yeah. New letters, and I think try and keep things kind of simple and clear and don't over-explain and over-complicate it, and think about who your audience is, where they are, what times they're there. So you're probably not trying to communicate with them when they're doing the school run, unless you're face-to-face. Yeah, you're not sending out a new a PDF newsletter that they need to put on their desktop and open and then read 50 pages. Uh-huh. Just keep it nice and simple and clear, and this is what we're doing, this is what we need, this is how you can help.

Yeah.

We need a new secretary if you're interested. This is five quick points on what you might need to be able to do. Email this person if you're interested.

So just keep it short and sweet, basically, so people have time to read it. Yes, exactly. Yes.

Because everyone's daunted by a 50-page PDF.

Yes. And I have to put my hand up and say I'm extremely guilty of that kind of activity because I think I'm I'm quite a detailed person, and I feel like I suppose if something was coming to me, I'd want to know quite a lot of details. So I find it really hard to restrain myself from adding in all the details that I think other people would be fascinated to read about, but of course they're not as fascinated as me.

So I think that's the thing with editing, isn't it? You can always edit.

Yes. So I do um when I was chair and writing those bits for the newsletter, I always got other people on my PTA to check it for me, and they um could helpfully kind of take some bits out very, very diplomatically, I have to say, but it was it were made for a better, you know, article, little mini article in our school newsletter, anyway, that's for sure. And hopefully people read it. So well, Carol, thank you so much for chatting to me today. I find the PTA Plus website and your school funding magazine so useful, even I would say completely invaluable on um all sorts of topics. And I don't think there's anything else quite like it on the internet in terms of um independent advice and support for PTAs. And I have spent quite a long time looking on the internet for information like that. So a huge thank you to you and your team for the website and the magazine and all the stuff you pull together and um kind of disseminate to all the rest of uh the PTAs. And uh thank you for talking to me today.

You're really welcome, and good luck with your podcast, which is also helping get all the information out there. Yeah, well, I'm trying. Thank you.

I loved talking to Carol about all things PTA related, especially thinking about the important role a PTA can play in society with parents raising money for the children. I think when you take a step back and look at it in a wider context, it's it's just such a wonderful, heartwarming, positive, cozy thing in our world today. And I loved Carol's ideas about how you can communicate what you have funded by putting the children at the heart of that message. I thought that was really genius to get some quotes from the children, um, especially to go in your social media or your newsletters or however you communicate to parents. In fact, it made me think about what would happen if you really made that the focus of your PTA, put the children right at the heart of everything you do. I wonder how it might change what you do or the approach that you might take. And therefore, I just wonder what the outcomes would be and if they would be any different to what you have now. I just wonder if the fundraising element would be higher because people felt more invested, um, because the children felt more involved, and and as a kind of byproduct of that, what would that do for your school community? Would it be more active? Would it be more important in bringing um people together to kind of put the children right at the heart? That that's something I would absolutely love to try for a year and just see what the impact of it was. Um but perhaps that's something you already do. Do let me know by email on hello at ptapodcast.com. When I was chair, we did run events solely for the for the fun of it for the children, but not all our activities have been like that. Um I did try, it's just reminded me actually, I did try at one point to set up a mini PTA in the school. Um, my aim was to generate a small team of child helpers who could basically help us at PTA events. So, for example, being behind a stall or maybe helping set up something, but also who could act as advisors to us and who we could sort of bounce ideas um on and see what they thought of particular things. Um, I thought it would be a really good fun thing to do and um to get the children involved in that way. Um, but unfortunately we never managed to really get it going because Covid happened, and then by the time we'd come back to school and come back to fundraising, we'd moved on to our big library project. So the idea of our mini PTA kind of drifted by the wayside, sadly, so we never really got to properly give it a go. Um, it's still something that I would really have loved to have tried, but I don't think we're gonna get a chance to do that now. Anyway, I would encourage you to go and have an explore on the PTA Plus website, which is pta.co.uk and sign up for that newsletter. Very helpful newsletter. You can also find information on how to subscribe to the paper copy of the magazine and the funded website, which, as Carol said, has £15 million in grants just waiting for you to come along and apply for. And if you haven't already joined the PTA Plus Facebook group, then do that. It's a very, very supportive place to be where you can ask all sorts of random questions to other PTA members across the country, and you find at least one person, usually more, but definitely at least one person, has been in the uh situation that you're asking about or has run the event that you're asking about and can give you more help or advice. And I highly recommend joining. I think there's over 30,000 people in uh the PTA Plus um Facebook group, which is a huge amount of people to ask for help and support from. So do get yourself over there. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I do hope your summer events are going well so far because we're in turn five now and the planning is going smoothly, and you have loads of willing volunteers signing up to fill all those slots. Don't forget to visit my website and sign up to my mailing list so you can be the first to hear when a new episode is released. It's PTApodcast.com. And if you like listening to my podcast, it would be great if you could share it with other people you know who are PTA volunteers because they might like it too. So that's all for this week. So I will catch up with you next time. Bye for now.