Welcome to 2026!

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

Hi, welcome to the PTA Podcast. My name is Yvonne, and I've been a PTA volunteer for a few years now. 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 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 celebrate success. And I hope that you can take something away for your PTA today. But because we haven't spoken, I thought it would be fine. And apologies for not being able to release an episode a bit earlier this year. I have just been rather rammed and we've had quite a lot of illness in our family since going back to school. I've had various children off sick and so been unable to really put myself down in a quiet place to record the podcast. But anyway, I was wondering how your Christmas holidays were. Does that feel like a bit of a lifetime ago? Mine certainly do. Did you manage to survive all your Christmas fundraising in December? Do let me know how it went and even what you organised. Drop me an email, it's hello at ptapodcast.com. I do reply to all the emails I receive, and I'd be super interested to hear from you and how things are in your PTA. So last term and the Christmas fundraising already feel like another world away, even though they were only a few weeks ago, really. And it's amazing how your mind just focuses on what's coming next. So my Christmas build-up was so lovely this time as we had a number of Christmas concerts to go to because my children play musical instruments, they're learning instruments at school, and it's such a joy to see them progress with those. Um they seem to have absolutely no fear at all in getting up on a stage to play their piece in front of an audience, and and all the children that are at these concerts that we go to are exactly the same. Even if their piece doesn't go to plan and they make little mistakes and they know it's not going to be perfect, um, and it's not very polished, it just doesn't seem to faze them at all. And I have such a huge admiration for all of the children at any music concert who can get up on a stage and play anything in front of an audience. Um, I wish I was the same and could do that. So it's been an absolute joy to see my children perform what whatever they're up to, and also other my you know, my friends' children, other people's children. It's it's just so heartwarming to see learning in progress because that's what you actually see, isn't it, when they're on a stage and little bits go wrong or it's not quite right. That's learning in progress, and and I love to see that. We had quite a lot of fundraising events at our school just before Christmas. Some of them were run directly by the school and some by the PTA, and I actually organised what I think is probably my last ever PTA event. It was a little Christmas fair with about 10 stalls, very, very simple but very satisfying for me, and I got such a buzz after it. I ran it after school on a Friday, uh, just in the school hall, just for 45 minutes, and we raised £177 in that time, which is a really great income for us as a small school. If you haven't listened to my podcast before, my school is a small village school, and we have about 80, 85 children. So we uh never raise loads and loads of money, uh, like some bigger schools can, but um, I do try and put it in the context of what worked well for us. So £177 profit in 45 minutes, that is really good for us. Um, it actually gave me a huge warm glow organising and then running this Christmas fair, which lasted for the entire weekend afterwards. And I was actually reflecting on what my warm glow was all about over the Christmas holidays, and what I figured out, I think, what I think it was all about anyway, is it all came down to the teamwork and bringing people together, and I think for me that is the most important and motivating thing. I think that people coming together to do things that benefit others is such a powerful and I find it a very moving experience. Um, and in this case, it's a group of adults, both volunteers and teaching staff and other staff at the school, who all came together to put on an event for families to attend with their children, and the main beneficiaries are at the end of the day, as we all know, are all the children that attend that school. And to do something which helps to support children in that way by giving them a fun experience at an event is hugely rewarding for me. In fact, I couldn't actually think of anything else that I do which gives me that same feeling or even brings together that same group of people in that way. It it really is such a unique thing, and I think that's why I have been a PTA volunteer for so long, and now why I'm finding it very hard not to be as involved as I have been in the past. Um it's something I need to adjust to this year because my youngest son is leaving primary school in July. Um and yeah, I'm not quite sure where I'm gonna get my where I'm gonna get my kicks from when I do step off the PTA. I will have to keep you posted on that. Um is this something that you also struggle with? I I know that leaving my primary school has been on my horizon for well, a few years because I have had three children pass through primary school and I have actually been dreading the end of primary school. Um please tell me I'm not alone in this. If you have any similar thoughts, I'd be really grateful to hear from you. Um it's uh certainly gonna be the end of an era. I can say that. I think I've been at my primary school for 10 or 12 years of my life, and uh and I love to get involved, as you can probably tell. So yeah, it's gonna be really different when um when we all leave as a family. But even though I'm not um as involved on the PTA anymore, I am still volunteering at my school, and actually not being as involved in the PTA has then led to me having a bit more time to do other volunteering. So at the moment I am volunteering in the school library, and the library is very dear to me as we fundraised for the library as a whole school community. Um, you might have already listened to my um episode 25 where I talk about how we fundraised to raise the money. Um, it's a really, really special place. So I'm volunteering in there for two hours a week, and I have a small team of librarians who are children from years five and six, and we learn how to keep the library tidy, and we think of new ways to encourage other children to come in and use the library and borrow the books. Um, they also really like making little videos with the iPads, which they then show an assembly about various topics. Um, they did one on how to keep the library tidy, they did one on advertising some new books that had arrived. Um, so they they have the most creative ideas, and it's such a joy to see what they want to highlight about the library. So, I do really um enjoy my volunteering there. And leading on from that, did you know that it's the national year of reading this year in 2026? So, this is an initiative run by the National Literacy Trust in the UK, and the aim is to get people of all ages back into reading books and you know, remind ourselves why reading is so good for us, and a whole world awaits you if you can open up a book and read it. And it's such um a wonderful coincidence that I'm starting my PTA book club this year as well, because I didn't actually realise if this was going to coincide with the National Year of Reading, and I'm so pleased that it does, which is so lovely. Um, so I talked all about my PTA book club in episode 36 just to introduce it to you all, and I basically have found a few books where PTAs play a central role in the storyline, and I thought it would be so much fun to read those and share our thoughts about the books. So I'd really love to create a virtual book club where we can all read the books at the same time and then share our thoughts, and I'll do an episode where I collate everybody's views on the books. So if you would like to take part in that, if you go to my website and sign up to my mailing list, then I'm going to email out when we're going to start reading the first book so that you know when to join in. I'm going to give us about eight weeks to get your hands on the copy of the book, read it, and then feedback to me everything that you thought about it. Um, I'm hoping that eight weeks is achievable with that. So the fur so I did go over all of the books that I found in episode 36. So if you want to have a little flavour of what's coming up, you can go and listen to that. And I have linked um four of them on my website as well, so you can get the details if you want to order it from your library or purchase it from the internet. Um, or a bookshop, sorry, I meant to say or a bookshop, an independent bookshop, or if you can't find one, then the internet. Um, so the first one we are going to read is called The Hive by Jill Hornby. And uh I have put the blurb on my website if you want to have a little um read of what's in store for you, um, then um then yeah, please do join in. I think it's gonna be loads of fun. Um so if you're not generally a big reader, then this could be the perfect way to kickstart your reading once again by joining in with my virtual book club. There is a new issue of School Fundraising magazine to delve into, which in fact is another way to start doing some extra reading if you need to fit more reading into your life. Um, I'm going to put a direct link to the current issue of the magazine in the notes for this episode so that you can go directly to it. But this magazine is published by an organisation called PTA Plus, who have a website called PTA.co.uk, which, if you don't already know about this organisation, uh firstly, where have you been? Because it is my go-to place for anything PTA related. Um it's uh their website is jam-packed with fundraising ideas and practical advice all connected to um PTAs and how to run your PTA in a practical sense. So um there's an awful lot of information out there to help you if you need a helping hand. And I actually spoke to um Carol, who is the editor of this magazine in a previous episode, and she explained how it all works if you're interested in uh listening back to that. So um so I have read this uh latest issue, which is spring 2026, just in case you're listening in the future um and you're wondering which one I'm talking about, and I just wanted to share my highlights of the magazine with you, uh, like I did in a previous episode. I I genuinely find all of the articles and snippets in this magazine interesting as a PTA, as an ex-PTA chair, as a PTA chair. Um uh it's all interesting. They basically take stories from other PTAs around the country, and um it's so interesting to hear what other people are doing, how much money people are raising, what other people's um school community is like, and some of the really unusual ideas that people have come up with to raise money. So it's great for being inspired and also remembering that you're not alone in the PTA world and raising money for your school. Uh so um yeah, so I'm just just gonna pull out some highlights for you that I found particularly interesting. So the main article in um this issue of the magazine is focused on STEM, so that's what's on the front cover, which is science, technology, engineering, and maths. And if you add an A into that acronym, you get STEAM, and the A stands for Arts. So if you are currently focusing on any STEM projects or STEM fundraising, then yeah, I would definitely encourage you to have a look into this magazine. But the first highlight for me is um on page seven, and this is an article about actually a PTA chair who has been on the PTA for 13 years, which is a really really long time, and she wanted to leave a legacy, something really nice at the school that she could say was her legacy, and um she organised a fox dome to be built in the grounds of the school by a guy called Chris Oaky. Um, and this article caught my attention because we also have employed Chris Oakie to build a sculpture in our school. Um, so it's so nice that he has got a mention in the magazine because he's such a lovely guy. Um, it tells you all about him in the article and what he does, but essentially he creates willow sculptures for schools and also private clients. Um, so in this case, they picked a fox sculpture, but he has many different um normally um woodland animal-themed um sculptures that he can make. So, we at my school we actually went for a hedgehog, and it's so lovely that the dome sculptures that he makes because the children can then go inside them and sit inside them, it's like a little den. And what he does was he comes to the school and uh the children actually help to make the sculpture, so it's a whole school experience. Um, and the way that he made this fox sculpture in the article is exactly the way that he did it at our school. So he comes for like two to three days, and each class gets a chance to help at different points by doing different things, so they have to build the steel framework first, and then um other children come out to weave willow into the dome. Um, and he does other activities with the children as well. Um, but it's just so lovely, and I don't know if you've ever run a whole school project like this before. We've done a few at my school, probably because my school is quite small, but it's so nice for the children to take part in something that they can then see the results and it's going to be there for a very long time. Um, I'm not sure if this fox one is the same as ours, but the hedgehog one that we have, um, part of it is still growing. So the way they've planted, so they've actually planted the willow and then woven it into the structure. So every spring the willow will make new leaves and in the summer it will be covered in leaves and then it will die back in the winter and you'll just have the twigs and the sort of branches there, which is really nice. Um I'm not sure if the fox one is the same, it doesn't quite say in the article, but but if you're ever thinking of having some sort of sculpture in your school grounds, then I would highly recommend contacting Chris Oaky. He did a fabulous job. He used to be a primary school teacher, so he's all over how to look after the kids. Um, and uh yeah, I don't think you could honestly go to a better person. And now we're just going to move on to the STEM section of the magazine with a little snippet that caught my attention, and um I think it's just absolutely fantastic. It does look like it's quite pricey, but the uh school in question does explain how they raise the money for it. But I just think um, as something that's quite unusual to have in your playground and as an amazing visual aid for the children to learn about energy, this this is just fantastic. So basically, um the school worked with a company called the Hideout House Company to create an eco-hub with its own renewable energy system, which the school could then use um to teach the children about sustainability and climate change. So it has a wind turbine on a pole, a solar panel on the roof, and this is the best part, um, a kinetic energy bike that the children can peddle to generate power so they can see a direct correlation between energy being created and then energy being used. Um, and then inside the building, there's this lovely wool-mounted board, and there's a picture of it in the magazine, which has a digital display that shows how much power is coming in from each energy source and how much energy is in the battery that's storing the energy, and then the children can use that energy to power a CD player or a laptop, and um it's a very visual way of learning about energy, and they say that even the youngest children can understand where energy comes from and see it on the battery, and then see how it decreases as you use the energy. I thought that was such a brilliant idea, um, especially the bikes, so that children can have a go at generating energy and how much effort it takes to generate that energy. I wonder how long they've got to pedal for to charge half the battery. I'd be really interested to know about that. Um, and of course, they can see that if it's not a windy day, you don't get much energy, if it's not a sunny day, you don't get much energy. Um so I just thought that uh as a concept that was really brilliant. Um, and I'd love to have one of those at my school. I think it will be so much fun for the kids. And on page 21 is another well, this is the start actually of the fundraising section with advice and ideas about fundraising. And one school here has created and published a joke book, which I thought was such a brilliant idea. So they say that each year, and I thought this was interesting as well, that each year they alternate the fundraisers. Um, so they do one thing for Mother's Day and one thing for Father's Day, and they alternate them each year, which by the way, I just I think that's very clever because um it's I always think it's good to keep all your fundraising ideas fresh so people just don't get tired of them and bored of them. So they decided um somebody just had the idea of making a joke book to sell for Father's Day. So they sent out letters via the teachers and um children could submit their jokes by returning the bottom part of the letter. Um, and they said that so their book is called the best book of dad jokes. So they defined what a dad joke was, which is probably very sensible, um, as a cheesy or a corny joke rather than a joke that came specifically from your dad. Um they obviously went through the jokes, made sure they were fine, and tried to make a balance of jokes from all the year groups, um, and I think they used Canva to design it, then they got it printed with an internet printing company, and um they bought a hundred bound copies for £120, sold them for four pounds each, and made a profit of two hundred and thirty pounds. Um and their favourite joke from the entire joke book was what do you call a cow on a trampoline? A milkshake. Perfect, perfect dad joke. But as a concept, I thought it was really clever. Um, a new fresh idea. I haven't heard of anyone doing um a joke book before, and I bet the kids absolutely loved it. I bet they loved submitting their jokes, and then I bet l they loved reading the book afterwards. So um I think that's a really great one to really engage your school community. So yeah, really good idea there. And on page 23, there's another lovely article here. Um, again, actually, about um a dedicated chair who's leaving the school and they wanted to make some special celebrations because it was also the school's um 50th birthday. So they had um a massive um summer fare, like a festival-style summer fare, and um to do some fundraising, and she um the chair uh noticed that the caretaker was trying to fix a broken vacuum cleaner um and um because the school couldn't afford to buy one, and so they decided um to ask the teachers, um other staff members and pupils to make a birthday wish for their 50th birthday celebrations, and they decided as a PTA that over the course of the year they'd grant as many wishes as they could, aiming for 50 wishes because it was the 50th celebration. Um and they wanted to balance um buying things the children would love with things that actually would make school life a bit easier for the staff and were kind of essential actually at the school. And the Hoover, a new Hoover for the caretaker was the first wish that was granted. Um and then um they just went through the um wishes and tried to pick um the ones that that were appropriate and could fund. And um this was also they said this was also a really great way of publicising to parents where the PTA money is going because they could say every time they granted a wish. And I just think the concept of granting a wish to the children and the staff members is such a lovely idea because I do feel that PTA money is this extra money that wouldn't be there otherwise, and it is like they say in the article, like the PTA is a fairy godmother and can provide money for things that the school just otherwise couldn't afford and couldn't otherwise do for the children. So I think it was such a lovely idea. Everybody got involved, everybody made suggestions. I'm sure there were suggestions there that the PTA hadn't thought of, and maybe the school staff hadn't thought of as well. But you know, it's great to combine um thinking power from lots of different people. So I really loved that, and I think um also some of the wishes were you know very small items, and others were probably quite big items, so I expect they got a really lovely mix of lots of different things. Page 26 is where you need to go if you are trying to think of a different way to fundraise at Easter time. I know lots of us have done many, many chocolate egg hunts, and sometimes it's really hard to think of an alternative. So they have let me just count them one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight different ideas of how you can do your Easter fundraising. Um, I'm not gonna go through them all here because um they all take a little bit of an explanation, but do go and have a look if you just want to shake up your Easter funding a little bit. Um, I thought they were really good ideas, fresh ideas. Some of them are really easy, some of them take a bit more work, but um yeah, I thought it was a really good article just focusing on different things you could do at Easter time. Then uh page 29 is where the magazine leads into different event ideas, and the first article um in the events section is about an iftar feast which a primary school in London ran. Um, now I love this idea. Um, I actually attended an a similar event um when I was at university. We had what we called an international evening at university where all the international students cooked a dish from the country that they're from and brought it along. We had a massive buffet, um, and uh you could just help yourself to all this lovely, delicious food and talk. It was it was kind of an opportunity to talk to the international students who we didn't necessarily cross over with very much. Um, and it was it was just such a fun evening, and this event just really reminded me of of that night at university. So basically, um this uh PTA decided to run a fundraising dinner and auction for Iftar, which and if you're not sure, Iftar is the sunset breaking of the fast during Ramadan. So they got together um with the local community and businesses in the local community, um, the local mosque generously donated some funds as well, which covered the cost of the food and they decorated the school hall. Um, and basically they have a lovely dinner with everybody. They have starters, main course, dessert, and tea or coffee, um, and loads of different um food. So they had let me find it. Items on the menu included North African soup, fruit salad from Asia, samosas from um Arabic countries, kebabs and baklava for dessert. Um, the children performed um some entertainment, they read some poetry, they recited from the Quran, or they talked about what Ramadan means to them. Um, and I think there was a teaching assistant and her husband performed Iranian classical music as well. So that's like a really fun evening. Um, and then after the meal, they had an an auction um and they donated off uh they sorry, they auctioned off donations from local businesses. So I just thought that was a really lovely idea. They sold tickets uh for the event, that's how it was a fundraiser. Um, the tickets were seven pounds each to include um all course of the dinner and freshments. Um, and I just think that's a really nice way to bring your school community together and celebrating all the different things in your school community, whether that's different nationalities, different religions, different foods. Um, it's so interesting to talk to other people about um their lives and and what they do and what they eat and everything. So um, if you're looking for a way to get your school community together as a more cohesive group, then something like this evening might be a really good option. And on page 31 is a really interesting article about a school in Liverpool who actually were the primary school where John Lennon and George Harrison went, who are from the band called the Beatles, if you're not already if you don't already know. Um, and the PTA chair says when she became the PTA chair, she felt that the school should really tap into that connection, which seems like a really sensible idea to me. And they basically started um a music festival which was run by the PTA, so they had normal school fair things like food stalls, games, inflatables and stuff, but they have a bar and a proper stage with big bands and choirs and groups of dancers performing. Um, and uh the PTA do a large marketing campaign for the festival, um, and last year more than 3,000 people came, which is amazing, and they made £13,000 from the festival. Now that's obviously a very large event, you need an awful lot of volunteers to do something like that, but how amazing! Um, another great way to bring your local community, this is bigger than your school community now. Great way to bring your local community together. And what I liked about this um article was that it seemed like previously in the school or previously in the PTA, nobody had really tapped into the um notion that this primary school was connected to some very famous singers and band members, and it just made me think, uh it just made me want to throw the question out to you, really. What uh are there any special contacts that your school has? Maybe there's something at your school that's happened in the past, a famous person or something, or famous event um that you could tap into for your PTA. Um I'm sure they're not the only school that has something special hiding in the closet, so um yeah, maybe that's something you could use. Okay, now we're in the section about running your PTA. Uh, and on page 45, there is an amazing poster which PTA Plus have created, um, which actually you can download um from their website and use yourself. But it's a poster and of about how volunteers can help the PTA by um not necessarily giving loads and loads of time, as we all know how hard it is to get people to volunteer to do anything. So um this poster has 10 different ways for your parents to help at the PTA. I'm just going to tell you the 10 things because um I think they're all very good suggestions. So the first one is can you share your skills? Are you particularly good at social media? Are you an odd job person, good at practical things? Then you could help that way. The second thing is bring in business. You could ask your company to sponsor a PTA event or donate a prize. The third thing is you can help the PTA by clearing out your cupboards, so bring in Christmas jumpers, dressing up costumes, toys, donations, um, unwanted school uniform, that kind of thing. The fourth way is to make or bake, so you can help by baking cakes, making costumes, making decorations, putting together hampers, packaging things up nicely, that sort of thing. Five is that you could volunteer your time, even just running a store for an hour, as we all know, don't weigh makes a big difference. Makes a big difference. Um if you are time poor and can't volunteer in that way, then just donate. Donate some money, and then um you can feel like you are contributing. Number seven is you can attend PTA meetings so you can come along, find out what the PTA is doing, contribute your own ideas and make some new friends. Number eight is just take it a step further and actually join the committee, so take on a named committee role. Number nine is that the parents could help by applying for funding. Um, we all know how time-consuming it is to apply for grants, and sometimes it's really helpful to have a dedicated person or a dedicated team just looking at that, so they could do that. And number 10, the final one, is again a really easy one to spread the word um and tell your family and friends about what the PTA is doing and share posts on social media. So if you are really struggling to get parents to volunteer and you just wanted to throw some different ideas in front of them, then you can download this as a poster for free from the PTA website and share it with your parents. And the final article I just wanted to share with you from this amazing magazine is on page 51, and it's all about payroll giving. And this is actually something that I did not know about or I haven't known about. So this is a scheme run well, it's not run by HMRC, but it's approved by them, and basically it allows employees to donate money to a charity directly from their salary before income tax is deducted, um, so it's a lot cheaper for everybody, and the PTA benefits from that extra money. So all you have to do is to encourage your employer to register to join the scheme, which is called payroll giving. Um, this article lists the website um where you would need to go, and um basically anybody employed on a pay as you earn basis can donate if their employer is part of the scheme, and um it's a really easy way to give to your PTA. Um I guess this goes back to how parents can contribute. Um, so if you wanted to publicize this to your parents, you may find that somebody is interested in um donating in this way. So um, yeah, if you're interested in looking at sort of regular donations, you know, whether it's paid directly into your bank account or um or done in a different way, this is another method um that you might want to consider. And again, it's probably a question of throwing it out there to your parents and asking if anyone uh if anyone works anywhere that is a member of the payroll giving and maybe they might like to nominate um your PTA as a charity and give um a donation to your PTA. So um it does actually say in the article that public awareness of payroll giving is low. So um it's definitely something that you'd have to educate your school community about. But once um you've done that, you might find possibly, hopefully, that there might be somebody um willing to give it a go. So uh yeah, I thought that was really interesting, something I hadn't heard of, and I'm sure it would be of interest to you raising funds for your PTA. So those were my highlights from the School Fundraising magazine. Um, the next issue of School Fundraising magazine comes out in term five, so that's just after the Easter holidays, and no doubt that's gonna be jam-packed with ideas for summer fundraising, um, uh as it always is. The other thing which I didn't specifically mention in this magazine is that they have a section all about uh grant applications, and they do have a list of um ideas um of where to apply for funding in the magazine as well. So it's definitely worth a flick through if you have time and a cup of tea nearby, then um yeah, do check it out. And that's all I wanted to say for this episode. Um, thank you for being patient with me whilst I got back into the swing of recording. I am looking forward to another year of uh PTA podcast episodes. I've got some interviews lined up that I'm hoping to share with you. Um, we're going to be starting our book club reads very soon. So, again, do sign up to my mailing list if you're interested in taking part and keep an eye on my Facebook page because I'm hoping to um publish on there when we're actually going, just in case you missed any of the details. Um do drop me a line and let me know how the start of your year has gone. I'm always um interested to hear what's going on in everybody else's PTA. So um and if you're listening in another country, also please drop me a line and let me know um if you're on a PTA in another country because I know school systems around the world are very different. Um and if you're not part of a PTA and you listen to my podcast, again I'd love to know what parts of the podcast you find useful and why you listen. So uh my email address is hello at ptapodcast.com. So good luck with whatever you are working on in your PTA at the moment, and I'll chat to you next time. Bye.