PTA

PTA Chairman’s Report 2016-17

2016-2017 has been another very successful year for AGS PTA, both in terms of fundraising and playing an important role in the school community. This year we have raised £31,904 of which £3,292 has already been handed over to the school for the Rewards Scheme and Staff Departmental Bursaries. The following is a summary of the activities and events organised by the PTA this year:

New Year 7 Parents’

Information Evening - due to

dwindling attendances, this year the event changed format, became a school led event and attracted a greater audience. The PTA organised a bar and refreshments. Mr Sturgeon and Mr Singh led tours showing the parents the fruits of PTA fundraising, including the PTA Science Laboratory, the refurbished Music Rooms, Gym Suite and Mini bus, whilst the PTA chatted informally to recruit new supporters. The new format was a great success for both school and PTA and will be repeated next year.

Outdoor Laser Event for Year 7’s and Paintballing

- Laser had over 100 boys attending, spread over 3 sessions in one day. A great bonding event for the boys. Paintballing was held in March for all year groups. This year we had 50 AGS students and 2 Dads who ventured to Sabotage Paintball in Swanbourne – an excellent day’s entertainment. Once again, the organisers at Swanbourne were very complimentary about the AGS students – saying they are a credit to the school. The total for the 2 events was £728 and I would like to thank David Greig for organising these popular and fun events.

Lower School Film Night

- a pre-DVD release of ‘Star Trek Beyond’ held in the Lecture Theatre and enjoyed by over 60 boys and Mr Dallas. The event, organised by Rona Heritage raised £208. As Rona’s son is in Year 13, Rona has now handed over the running of this event to Thildie Peacock. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Rona for all her help and support at PTA events over the years and wish her well for the future.

AGS 23RD Art and Craft

Fair - we welcomed 50 exhibitors and about 500 visitors to the Fair. Through a great team effort, a total of £3,383 was raised a huge thank you to the Art and Craft Fair Team. We are also very grateful to Cartridge World (now re-named 2D & 3D Printworld), our event sponsors, who also provided 3D printing demonstrations. We would like to thank Gaynor Bull for everything she has done to ensure the smooth running of this event for several years and as her son is now finishing at AGS she has handed over the reins to Lisa Kemp. Quiz Night - a brilliant evening with an excellent curry again provided by an anaesthetist, a surgeon and parent who have volunteered to be part of the succession planning in the kitchen. The reputation of the curry goes before them and is instrumental in the sell-out status of the event. A record 218 tickets were sold this year, which meant a second sitting in the dining room. Including the helpers, who paid £5 a head for curry, a total of 240 meals were cooked and served, quite a feat. After a tie break the quiz was won by a team of Foundation Governors and family members. I am delighted to announce that the Quiz and Curry Night raised an amazing £4,048. Thanks go to Liz Alexander, her willing team of supporters and to the chefs. Liz steps down after 5 years leading the Quiz Committee and she hands the reins over to Jo Cay.

Bar and Raffle at Cabaret

Night – the Bar raised £568 and raffle raised £424 which has once again be donated straight back to the Music Department to fund equipment and music for next year’s events.

The Summer Fete – so

dependent on the weather and this year we were very lucky to escape the heatwave of weekend before and thankfully no rain! Along with the usual attractions we had a Rio Olympic Torch and also up and coming AGS Bands playing outside and quieter music inside for people to listen to while eating some of

the wonderful cakes on offer. I am pleased to announce the Fete raised £3,849 and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Deborah Staines for heading up the Fete this year, under Cathy Winman’s expert guidance and to all the Fete Committee Team, a real team effort. Numbers attending were certainly less this year so some work will need to be done to see if we can encourage more of the school community to engage with this fabulous event.

Summer Ball - The last event of the year was ‘The Best of British’ Summer Ball. The Hall looked absolutely amazing and again we were so lucky with the weather enabling us to have pre-dinner drinks in the Quad, alongside our special guest “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. I would like to thank Asset Wise for sponsoring the event (they have also agreed to sponsor Burns Night in January 2018) and also, all our table sponsors. There was a great atmosphere and 131 guests enjoyed a delicious 3 course meal. The evening started with a mad rush by the ladies to buy a glass of champagne to be in the chance of winning a designer handbag! £600 was raised in less than 5 minutes! There were some excellent auction prizes and following some frantic bidding and thanks to Tim Chapman our Auctioneer we raised £3,415 with an additional £635 in the Gold and Silver Raffle. Guests were treated to the sounds of Junktion Band, our very talented musicians, and the dance floor was packed. A truly fantastic night raising an amazing £9376 the highest amount ever made at an event (as far as we can track back). So, huge thanks to Sarah Howard, Posy Maloney and the Summer Ball Team for organising a brilliant evening. A fantastic result.

The other main fundraisers are the Christmas and Summer Raffles, which raised over £6000 between them. The raffles are being handed over to a small event team for next year, but will still need support from the main PTA committee in obtaining some of the larger prizes.

Selling second hand uniform at the Parent Consultation Evenings (Years 7 – 10) remains both a successful initiative and a service for parents, raising £309 in the process. I would like to thank Caroline Darling and Cathy Winman for running the Second-hand uniform for several years and they now hand over the reins to Jacqui Williams. As Caroline Darling’s son is in Year 13, Caroline will be leaving the school and I would like thank Caroline for all her help and support over the years and wish her all the best for the future.

The Giving Machine has continued to help boost our fundraising by parents registering and shopping on line. This year £1,373 has been received to date. I am pleased to report that we have raised £1,460 this year by parents obtaining Match Funding through their companies. There are also a few other key people in the PTA that I must mention as I could not do my role as Chairman without their support.

The first is Liz Alexander, Vice Chair you have been a tremendous support to me over the last 2 years, and in particular, dealing with the succession planning for all our events to ensure the momentum of the PTA for the future and of course not forgetting heading up the very successful Quiz and Curry Night.

Secondly, thanks to Peter Chapman for taking over the role of Treasurer from Gaynor Bull in February. Peter has had a very busy couple of weeks with the Summer Fete, followed the weekend after by the Summer Ball and then a 5-day turnaround of the numbers for the AGM so thank you!

Huge thanks to Lorna Noble for doing brilliant job with all the catering, Ian Sexton and his team for running a very successful bar at all our PTA events. I would like to take this opportunity of thanking Graham Woodage for managing the Database collating parents’ offers of help for many years. Graham has now handed over the reins to Tracey Boyd Hall.

Enormous thanks to Cathy Winman who has been a fantastic support over the last 5 years.

A big thank you to Gillian Barnett who has been the PTA Secretary for the last year. I am pleased to report that Gillian is going to head up Burns Night in January 2018, although she is standing down as Secretary and handing over the reins to Tracey Boyd Hall. And finally huge thanks to Gaynor Bull, who is now leaving the school and has been a tremendous support to me as Chair over the last 7 years.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the PTA and its events to make it both a social and financial success. And very importantly, a massive thank you to all the students for their help at all our events, from playing in the bands to washing up glasses until 1.00 am in the morning. We couldn’t do it without you.

I would also like to express my thanks to Glen Dallas for all his support as the liaison between the PTA and school; to Mark Sturgeon for his ongoing support; all the teaching staff involved with our events and Alison Cox and the Development office. Also, Martin and Khuram, the caretakers for all their hard work at all our events, all the office staff for all their help and support and the IT staff for all their help and guidance.

As you all know, I am standing down after 6 years as Chair and one year as Vice Chair and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for all your support it really has been a team effort. I now hand the reins over to Kate Locke, who I know will do a fantastic job. I know the school really appreciates everything we do and I would like to ask all of you to give Kate the same support you have given me to ensure the success of this PTA, which we have grown over the last 6 years. It has been a real pleasure to work with you all and I wish you all the best for the future.

I think we all deserve a huge pat on the back for having a very successful year fundraising and for continuing to develop and play an important role in the school community.

Thank you everyone and now the great part to be able to confirm we will donate £17,500 to the school for the Computer Science Room. With £15,000 carried forward from last years fundraising, we have a further £22,500 to give to the school. I wish everyone at AGS a successful year ahead and look forward to hearing what new projects future fundraising will be used for and attending rather than organising events!

Mrs R Gate

Rachel Gate

On behalf of the school I would like to thank Rachel for all she has accomplished as Chairman of the PTA for the past six years, not forgetting the one year as vice-chair which was clearly excellent training for

the period that followed! Rachel has worked tirelessly over the years to ensure that the PTA could be built into the fundraising powerhouse it is today allowing the school to fund and complete projects which just would not be possible without the generous financial donations from parents and others via the programme of events and activities. But more than that Rachel has ensured that the PTA is a community primarily of parents and students who work together for the good of the school and each other – a galvanised team of individuals willing to offer their time and support to the cause.

Rachel will certainly be missed but we wish her all the best in her future endeavours safe in the knowledge that the PTA can build from this fantastic platform which she has meticulously crafted over the past six years. We now welcome Kate Locke as Chairman and we look forward to working with her on a variety of new ideas in and around the established events. Thank you Rachel!

Mr G Dallas