Chairman’s Report – Frogs 2006-2007
It is lovely to sit here once again and report another successful
twelve months. We have continued to successfully raise funds, buy
equipment and get the staff, parents and pupils involved along the way.
On the fundraising front we have continued with some firm favourites and
introduced at least one new fundraiser each term.
Our winter term kicked off with hot dog Friday when over 100 sausages
were cooked by a team of helpers using the new ovens in the new kitchen.
We held a Children’s Christmas disco and with the help of donations from
the parents made eight festive hampers for the Christmas raffle. Our
winter sensation though was the Winter Fayre when we put together an
evening of games, stalls and activities for the children and parents. It
was very well attended and had a lovely atmosphere. The committee rose
to the challenge of making golden stars to hang in the hall. I hadn’t
realised just how competitive you all are. Father Christmas came along
too and recognized several of his ex-pupils, as parents this time not
English students.
In January we came back to find that we had three weeks to organize a
bingo night. After a short discussion, probably the only short
discussion we had about this event we postponed it until April on the
grounds that we needed more time to prepare. We held our Children’s
Fashion show in March, the children were marvellous and the hall was
packed with admiring parents. Our brightest fundraiser so far. We
followed this up with yet another successful Family Easter disco.
Back to bingo, our ‘roving’ researchers found out that there was lots
of bingo knowledge in the playground – Karen Renwick , Sam Howe and
Alison Still were ‘outed’ as bingo divas and so discussions began to get
the family bingo night up and running. I’ve lost count of the circles
and knots we got ourselves in trying to work out whether to charge for a
book, six books, a game, 8 games, 12 games, a strip of 6 games, set of
books, a card, card of games, a strip, six strips, one book and a free
game, one book six games and a jacket potato, six cards, one free game a
jacket potato and a baguette. It was no good we needed to do more
research.
So one Thursday night some of the committee, together with two other
bingo divas, namely Emma Upton and Amy White-Jones ventured into the
smoke-filled abyss that is the Gala bingo hall in Aylesbury. Tooled up
with our multi-coloured dabbers we took on the hardened bingo players of
Aylesbury and came home with one full house, one false call and an
appreciation of the bingo jargon that is cards and games. Over 100
people attended and enjoyed a night’s entertainment led by bingo caller
Andy Scanlon and his able assistant, Alison Still. Jacket potatoes were
cooked in a number of ovens around the village and transported to the
hall. Despite all our planning, we hadn’t allowed for more than one
winner per game so our table of prizes took a bashing in the first few
games. We realised that if people kept winning we would soon run out of
prizes and offering them a leftover jacket potato probably would not
suffice. As the evening progressed and people’s concentration and speed
were slowed down by alcohol, the number of winners reduced to a
manageable number and we had enough prizes in the end. A great night and
very memorable.
The highlight of the summer was the Fete. This always seems a really
daunting event to organize given that it is also the largest fundraiser.
But we got our heads together and came up with a totally tropical theme
– given the wet summer we had perhaps singing in the rain would have
been more apt. For the first time, we had to move stalls inside as we
had tropical rainstorms circling the playground. We managed to have our
own ‘island in the sun’ complete with cocktails, hoola skirts, bright
shirts, steel band music and of course, limbo dancing. The atmosphere
was very friendly and relaxed, children dragged their parents and
neighbours along and we had a lovely afternoon with the usual stalls,
games and activities.
So, how did we spend the money? We maintained the rolling wish list
and encouraged staff and pupils to put forward their requests. After a
few teething problems when items were bought without us agreeing funds,
a procedure was agreed and stuck too. It always amazes me the variety of
items we end up buying.
Just to list some of the wishes we granted:
- a
new Sound system
- gardening club equipment
- circuit training equipment
- boot scraper
- footballs
- books for the library
- face paints
- year 6
leavers gift
- a new Aristotle.
We have also offered some ‘hands on’ help in school. Sam Howe, Liz
Kelsey, Charlotte Forrest, Jayne Johnson and I became eco-Amazons and
helped Mrs. Robinson and the eco-warriors get started. One of our
activities was to distribute flyers and collect bag2school donations
from villagers. Also, one Sunday morning a group of us cleaned all the
chairs, assembled water butts and finally (after 2 years) painted the
rabbit hutch. We have held coffee mornings, sold sweets at the film
nights and provided refreshments at the Christmas, Easter and summer
concerts. Last November, Frogs paid for a ‘parent and child’ workshop
where parents and their children could find out and try some new
learning techniques. This was well attended and it was nice to give
something back to the parents who support us so much.
At the end of the summer term we had a lovely windfall of over £300
given to us by the retiring committee of the Grendon and Springhill
Toddler group. I would like to say thank you to them for this kind
donation.
In essence, we had another brilliant year, it was hard work but when
you realise what we achieved it certainly was worthwhile. The collective
name for a group of Frogs is an Army and this has certainly been true
this year. I would like to finish by saying a few thank yous; to Sophie,
Morag and Sam for their continued hard work and clear thinking, to Emma
and Amy for their energy and enthusiasm for rallying staff support, to
Tim and Cheryl for being so appreciative of the work we do and for their
advice when things seemed to be going pear-shape, to Steven Hawkins for
finding all our lost property and to all the committee, willing helpers
and parents who have continued to give their time and money to us. Also,
I would like to thank those people who are not here tonight because they
can’t be – they are our husbands and partners at home who hold the fort,
go without meals and get roped into allsorts of tasks like folding
raffle tickets so that we can do what we do.
Finally, I would like to wish the incoming committee every success
for the coming year and thank you for having me.
Emma Dearn
2nd October 2007
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