Ladygrove Park Primary School

From the Chair:

My name is Mark Field, and I am the current chair of the PALS. Last year’s committee consisted of Emily Pratley as Secretary, Emily Blackwell as Treasurer and Tracey Webb and Alison Burbage as trustees.
Here at Ladygrove Park School we are lucky to have some great resources, but the school does not receive a lot of additional resources from the government.
Therefore, it is vital that we have a PTA to support the school’s endeavours and to raise money for additional things that we would like our children to have access to.
PALS is a charity and exists for two reasons:
1. To raise money to provide additional resources to the children and users of the school and support the teachers and governors in giving our children the
best possible experiences here at Ladygrove Park School.
2. To run events that give great experiences to the children, family, parents and friends of the school.
When a child starts at this school their parents automatically become part of PALS. We are keen for as many parents as possible to get involved, as little or as much as you can, and frankly speaking without the unending support we receive from parents we could not achieve much at all.
PALS meetings are held once every term normally in the evening. An agenda is set to talk about events for the year, share ideas for fundraising and as the school usually has a number of projects to support each year, PALS decides what the money will be used for (in collaboration with the school). We generally do not specify that any events are specifically for one project because we are legally obliged to spend 100% of funds raised at that event on that specific project, but we will talk about the intent for the use of the money.
Over the last few years PALS has raised moneys for the long-term project to replace the playground equipment whilst also agreeing to provide continued support to Ladygrove Park School with Technology, Music, PE and class resources as mediumand short-term projects. To ensure all pupils would benefit whilst attending the school as the long-term funding progresses.
We work hard to keep everyone informed of all the goings ons through the PALS Facebook group. In here, we post the dates and times of forthcoming events, and we use the page a lot for shout-outs and reminders. Each class has a rep which we ask to share our activities within their own class groups.
This has been my second year as the Chair, helped enormously by the committee and trustees. Emily, as Treasurer will take you through the numbers, but due to a global pandemic, we are still to return to face-to-face events over the past 12 months. What we have been able to do has been well received and ensured PALS helped support the school through a very challenging period. We as a Committee, the parents and I am sure the children have done all we can virtually. The coming 12 months look much more promising and event planning is very much underway.
PALS are always looking for volunteers no matter how small the contribution maybe, all the support we get is very much needed and appreciated.
I would like to thank the teachers and school staff who work so hard to support the PTA on top of everything else that they do. Some of our activities and events could not happen without you. I would also like to thank the rest of the committee, trustees, parent helpers and class reps, for your continued support.

Mark Field
Chair