BACK CHAT – Inspiring stories
Freya’s bike ride
‘Like a lot of children, my daughter Freya found herself at a bit of a loose end during lockdown. She had been looking through her Brownie Badge Book at the interest badges she could work towards, and really liked the idea of doing her charities badge – we just weren’t sure it would be possible with so many restrictions in place. Once Freya realised her school
PTA, Moorside Friends (known as MOORFS), was struggling to raise funds, she was determined to help out. Her dad is a keen cyclist, and she also enjoys riding her bike, so we alighted on the idea of a sponsored bike ride. Freya, who was only seven at the time, set herself the target of cycling 68km – one kilometre for each
Worth sharing Fun at the movies
‘For the past few years, the Friends of Syresham School (FOSS) have held an after-school fi lm night in October, just before half-term. We would normally charge £5 per head, which includes food from a local pizza company and popcorn, and put on two different fi lms for children to choose between. As things were going to be different this school year, I met with our headteacher in early September to discuss the possibility of still running a movie event, to be overseen by teachers in their class bubbles. Our committee felt that using our funds to provide fun afternoons for the children was as important as fundraising for items for the school, and the head agreed. The school provided us with suitable
dates for us to run fun movie parties, and we allocated a £40 budget and two FOSS members to work on planning and preparation for each bubble. We are a small school, so our bubbles are:
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nursery and reception, Years 1 and 2, Years 3 and 4 and Years 5 and 6. The children voted for the fi lm they would watch from a choice of three age-appropriate recent releases. The youngest children chose Toy Story 4; Years 1 and 2 voted for Frozen 2; Years 3 and 4 picked Dolittle, and our oldest bubble chose Dora and the Lost City of Gold. The volunteers were then able to
source party decorations, goodie-bag fi llers and materials for a craft activity linked to each movie. The party packs were collated into boxes, along with sweets, popcorn and a copy of the fi lm on DVD, and delivered to the school in time for them to be quarantined for three days before the event. The children had a fantastic time: at
the Toy Story party they made Forkies; Year 1 and 2 children made Frozen snowfl akes; those watching Dolittle made animal masks, and the Year 5
day of school she had missed. She completed her challenge in two weeks in September, by cycling around Lancaster with her dad at weekends, to and from school, and also cycling from Lancaster to Morecombe – a 15km round trip. Sponsorship was collected via a
GoFundMe page, which we publicised on Facebook. MOORFS and the school shared the details on social media too. Once Freya’s challenge was completed, her teacher, Miss Cooper, awarded her with Star of the Week, and MOORFS arranged for her to be presented with a certifi cate and a trophy. She deserved it, as she managed to raise £614.’ Caroline Collier, MOORFS volunteer, Moorside Primary School, Lancaster (540 pupils)
PTAs tell us about their recent community success stories…
and 6 children made Guatemalan worry dolls. The teachers shared photos and videos of their classes on our online school platform Seesaw, and we got lots of thank-you messages from staff and parents alike. It was never our intention to make
money from this event. We gave parents the option to donate towards our costs and recouped around half of our £200 outlay.’ Caroline Ferguson, FOSS Chair, Syresham St James Primary School, Syresham, Northants (100 pupils)
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