‘Putting our school at the centre of the community helped the PTA raise £125,000 for a MUGA’
Our target was ambitious, but the new sports facilities will benefi t nearly every family in the village, says Anna Baker, PTA chair at Alderley Edge Community Primary School in Cheshire
O
ur school has a lovely fi eld, but it’s often waterlogged. This results in cancelled matches, less space for play
and unhappy pupils. Uneven Tarmac on the netball court makes games diffi cult and risks injury. The lack of suitable facilities discourages children from learning the skills they need to play sports. The idea of fundraising for a
multi-use games area (MUGA) had been suggested by the PTA before last, working with the previous head. They’d got a quote, but it hadn’t gone beyond that. Enthusiasm waned as parents watched their children progress through the school with no end in sight.
A team effort I wanted to make a difference for the
school while I wasn’t working. So I
joined forces with a friend, Vicki Nullis, and we created a new PTA committee with fi ve parent helpers. I also formed a separate group with three other parents which concentrated on fundraising for the MUGA. A big fundraising project is a lot of hard work and without this amazing team, it wouldn’t have been possible to achieve what we did. Despite a cost of £80,000, the
original plans didn’t solve all the school’s problems. We wanted to get it right, so we asked for another quote. A MUGA with a netball court and hockey quicksticks pitch inside a mini-soccer pitch would cost around £125,000. It was a lot, but we decided to try.
‘Now, nearly all our
supporters follow us on social media, and everyone knows what we’re up to’
Spreading the word The fi rst thing we tackled was to
improve communications. The PTA had a Facebook and Twitter account, but neither were being used to their full effect. Vicki made huge improvements to what we were already doing and recruited another parent to run an Instagram account. Now, nearly all our supporters follow us on one of our social media platforms, and everyone knows what we’re up to. Our class reps use WhatsApp groups to spread the word and get more people involved. The more people who help, the less work it is for us, and the more we’ve been able to concentrate on fundraising.
Taking action In 2019, we made a plan based around
a packed events calendar, grant applications and a community
10 AUTUMN 2021
pta.co.uk
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