From our Junior School PTA

I would firstly like to say a huge thank you to all the parents, school staff and Junior School girls who have supported the PTA this past year. Just as the Junior School has had to adjust to teaching online, the PTA has also had to adapt. New virtual fundraising ideas had to be found and in-school events modified.

Class raffle

The first event we held once school reopened in September 2020 was an individual class raffle. This wouldn’t have been achievable without the support of the teaching staff as they had to sell the tickets to the girls in their class and quarantine the cash takings. The event proved to be extremely popular with two lucky winners from each class.

Autumn Pumpkin Carving Competition

At the suggestion of Mr O’Reilly, we held an Autumn pumpkin carving competition. It was wonderful to see the girls’ creative ideas and we received a record number of entries. The incredible showcase of decorated and carved pumpkins lined the Junior School steps.

Virtual Balloon Race

The environmentally friendly balloon race was a wonderful idea suggested during a PTA Zoom Meeting. The girls were able to choose different colours and designs for their balloons along with banners with tags such as ‘Yes she can’. The race commenced at St Mary’s Junior School and lasted 7 days. The winners who came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place received a Waterstones gift voucher ranging from £30.00 to £15.00.

Bag2School

Fortunately, as our regular Bag2school collections are held outside, this fundraiser was able to go ahead with any restrictions (pictured above). Once again it proved very popular with parents being able to donate bags of unwanted clothes and items in good condition for resale in Eastern Europe.

Luxury Hamper Raffle & Christmas Wreath

Our raffle at the Mulled Wine and Carol Evening has always proved very popular. As this wasn’t possible, in December 2020, we instead held an adapted version of the raffle during the run up to Christmas. With the help of the teaching staff once again, raffle tickets were purchased in each classroom with the hope of winning either a luxury goods hamper for adults or a children’s hamper. The Senior School also very kindly donated a Christmas Wreath as a third prize.

Lakeland Virtual Race to Lapland 

Mr O’Reilly and the PTA Committee signed up for a virtual race to Lapland in December 2020. We had 12 days to run or walk a total of 234km between us,  which we soon realised was a crazy idea when we were out one early morning in the sleet and snow trying to complete our mileage. However, we raised over £800, and we were so pleased to donate half of this to the charity Crisis.

It was wonderful to come together with the Junior School community for all these events. Through ticket sales, donations and purchases the Junior School PTA has raised over £1890.00 from September 2020 to date. This is an amazing amount considering our usual large fundraisers have not been able to take place.

With these funds the PTA have been able to purchase the following:

• Additional wooden welly racks 
• A Fire Pit 
• 2 Wooden tepees for the school grounds 

We were also able to purchase Christmas gifts for all the Junior School girls which were handed out by Father Christmas himself and his favourite Elf.

This past year has proved a challenge for charity fundraising but with such wonderful support St Mary’s Junior School PTA has certainly been able to make the best of it.

Junior School PTA

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