Minutes of the SOS meeting held on 17 April 2008

Attendees:
Catherine Askham, Margaret Firth, Lin Belks, Peri Calderbank, Jill Dyson & Julie Vincent

Apologies:
Andrea Bunting, Jane Harrison, Donna Machin, Pat Munt, Rachel Brown, Amanda Pearson, Stephanie Crane, Paula Taylor & Lisa McDonagh

Finance update

Balance £1,780 (logo cheque has come out, camcorders £800 and garden equipment £370 still to come out)
Lisa contacted Alliance & Leicester to discuss ongoing problems. Cat can request statements but does not have passwords. Cat to contact Jane Fenton for passwords.

Fashion Show

So far have 43 adults (2 of whom wish to be models) and 22 children (17 of whom wish to be models!). The children who wish to model are mostly Y6s. Something to go into newsletter to the effect that a lottery will take place to select those who will be models out of the children. Models to be advised to bring a selection of shoes and more needed. Jill to speak to Rachel Ackernley, Peri to Julie Wheeler. Need more adult models!
Format for the evening; setting up from 5:30, models arrive 6:30, show starts at 7:00 and finishes at 9:00. Setting up includes helping those running the event, setting up drinks, chairs and raffle. Clearing up includes putting all clothes back on the rails, doing up buttons/zips etc and is usually finished by around 10:00.
Those running the evening sort out what the models will wear and they change in the Foundation Room.
Peri serving drinks (tea, coffee & squash) from the Y1/2 room. Mugs will be used, tea & coffee £1 and squash 50p. They will only be able to purchase drinks on the way in. Mugs to be washed in the dishwasher in the Don staff room.

Marathon Challenge

15/5/08 Y3/4 afternoon
16/5/08 Y5/6 longer route this year as it was too short for them last year
16/5/08 Y1/2 usual route
Voluteers writing out forms, Nicola and Paula Taylor. Cat also asking Helen Turner.
Sponsor forms out to parents 7 May 2008.
Helpers to marshal on the days; Amanda Pearson, Peri, Jane Dyson, Rachel Brown and possibly Cat. From 1 until finished.

Garden

SOS has purchased majority of equipment and signage. Trowels, gloves, spades etc bought with TESCO vouchers.
Children will be growing tomatoes, lettuce and potatoes and selling them. Working in the garden every Wednesday, often at lunchtimes and real buzz about it with the children. All will get the chance to either work on the garden or use it for learning. More signs have been requested; garden birds, creatures and butterfly and flower lifecycles all of which tie in with curriculum.
It was agreed that SOS will fund this at a total cost of £109 + VAT.

AOB

Lottery

Jane Harrison & Peri have looked into how Bradfield School run their lottery.
Procedure is to apply to Sheffield City Council (£40) for license and then there is a £20 annual fee.
A monthly number is purchased for £1 and the lottery is drawn every month with half of the proceeds going to the school and half to the winner. Group agreed that this was a good idea to investigate further.
Bradfield School use Direct Debit, cash or cheques for payment. They pay for a year up front.
Following discussion it was agreed that cash or cheques would be appropriate if this is done at Oughtibridge and that a 6 or 12 month option could be offered.
People can buy more than one number.
New starters parents to be offered chance to take part at the meetings they attend in June.
Letter could encourage them to ask grandparents, friends of the family etc to take part.
Idea that ticket will be laminated and credit card size so it will fit in a purse/wallet.
Letter to ask parents whether they would support this suggested, discussion around whether or not parents would respond which could give a false negative impression. Decided that if it is decided to go ahead, a letter will be sent out saying that the lottery will take place and only not do it if a threshold decided by SOS isn’t reached.
Timescales would be

Letter sent out after Spring Bank Holiday (subject to problems with bank account being sorted out as there could be a lot of cash/cheque handling)
Letter not sent to Y6s
Reminders and payment to be made by end of Summer Term.
Parents to be offered a last chance to join in September, at that point will be able to tell them how many are already taking part.

approx 900 children at Bradfield compared to 300 at Oughtibridge. Would be possible to do a rough percentage estimate of how many might take part. Some parents will have children at both schools and already be part of the Bradfield lottery so may not do both. Might be worth also checking how many parents there are at Oughtibridge rather than children as of course many will have more than one child at the school so total number of potential participants lower than 300.

Awards for All

Almost there… Julie will write to Jane Hall who used to be the Foundation Teacher to ask if she will be the referee on the SOS application.
Cat to get in touch with Jane Fenton to get passwords so that Cat and Lisa can access the SOS bank account and obtain statements.
Cat provided Julie with NCPTA constitution document.

Co-op Community Fund

Peri has looked into this, the school garden at concept stage would have been a good candidate for this type of fund.
Awards of between £500 and £5,000
If the sport Awards for All application is unsuccessful, will apply for the Co-op Community Fund.

Christmas Puddings

Jill said that it is possible to design the labels, so this year could run a competition as they would then be more personalised and it might further increase the number of puddings ordered.