Friends of HVA
This page is dedicated to the Friends of Haywood Village Academy (HVA). The group, formerly known as the PTA, is passionate about supporting the school community and the children who attend the school.
The main two functions of the Friends of HVA are –
- To raise additional funds to enhance children’s school experience
- To create events the school community will enjoy attending
Why do we have a PTA?
We are fortunate at our school to have a group that is an integral part of the school community since being set up in September 2017. We have raised funds over the years for playtime equipment and school resources.
Our association is about much more than simply fundraising. The Friends of HVA exist to provide closer links between home and school and it is an excellent way to bring staff, parents and friends together socially in support of the school, working towards a common goal.
It’s fun too – just ask any of the Committee members or volunteers.
All parents and members of the school community are encouraged to get involved, even if they only have a small amount of time available. All families automatically become members of the Friends of HVA when their child joins our school.
Our Committee members consists of –
Chairperson – Dawn Woods
Treasurer – Julya Turpin
Secretary – Gemma Billitteri
We also have Class Reps who play a very important role, providing a link between individual classes and parents and the Freinds of HVA committee. The support from Class Reps is vital when it comes to organising our main events, from selling tickets to arranging rotas of help.
The Committee meets on a regular basis with smaller working groups meeting as necessary when we are planning larger events. The Committee also hold open meetings.
We welcome any help from parents, teachers and friends, and have a growing list of volunteers who commit some of their time to helping the association. Every little helps, so just one hour of assisting at event or wrapping lucky dip prizes or folding raffle tickets (just a few examples) would be invaluable.
If you have access to Facebook, please join our ‘Haywood Village Academy PTA Events’ Page
How you can help
Donations from parents are extremely important. You can donate time, money, items for sale, raffle prizes and auction lots or offers of services and skills. Here are some other examples-
- The Giving Machine – You can generate free do-nations for Haywood Village PTA every time you shop online via The Giving Machine. Sign up to get started. You can browse the huge range of shops such as Amazon, ASOS, Ebay, Asda, Boots, Tesco and the retailers will donate a percentage to our Haywood Village PTA. Please do tell your friends and family how they can help us at no extra cost too.
- Pre-loved Uniform Sales – Donate school uniform that your child has grown out of to the PTA. We will then sell it on at a small cost to other parents. To donate and purchase pre-loved uniform please contact Sarah Saunter at [email protected]
- Employer match funding schemes – If you work for an organisation that has a match funding policy, any money you raise could be matched by your employer. High street banks, building societies, supermarkets and large corporations are likely to do match funding, but these schemes are not exclusive to the major corporate giants. If you work for an independent company, they may be interested in charitable giving through match funding too. For more information on Match Funding please see http://www.pta.co.uk/funding/faqs-match-funding or contact a PTA Committee Member.
How we raise funds and spend the donations
Like most voluntary groups supporting schools, the majority of our funds are raised through the events that we run. Some of our most popular events are fireworks night, Christmas Fayre, discos, non-school uniform days, cake sales, film nights and tea towel sales to name a few.
The Friends of HVA committee are responsible for deciding how our funds are spent. Funds are typically spent on the ‘extras’ that are not provided by the school’s budget, thus making our children’s learning experiences so much more fulfilling and exciting. The staff team represented on the PTA seek ideas from the staff, including the senior leadership team about how best to spend the money. We also invite input from parents too.
Contact the group with ideas, suggestions or your interests in supporting by emailing [email protected]
