PTA
Welcome to all parents and carers. The PTA is a great way to make friends, meet other parents and support this fantastic school. However much you want to get involved, please come along to any PTA meeting which is advertised in the weekly newsletter or contact our Secretary for more information.
The PTA values your views and you can support us in lots of ways, such as:
- Get to know your PTA by coming along to monthly meetings.
- Raise money from online shopping using www.thegivingmachine.co.uk, www.EasyFundraising.org.uk or www.smile.amazon.co.uk
- Give regularly and Gift Aid it by Clicking Here
- Signing up for the school 'lottery', Waldegrave Winners
- Coming along to social events such as the Quiz Night and Comedy Night
- Helping us provide refreshments at school events
- Donating raffle prizes
- Offering your talents
- Providing professional support to the PTA such as fundraising or accountancy advice
School Fund
The school fund is collected through the PTA which is a registered charity (Charity Number 297288) so that we can reclaim gift aid at no extra cost to you. For every £1 you donate we can get an extra 25p in reclaimed tax if you are a UK tax payer, making your donation go even further. Thank you to those parents who have already donated to the school fund your generosity has enabled the school to provide the school planner, rewards, other extra activities and resources which cannot be funded from the revenue budget.
If you haven't already donated and would like to please click here
Donations and Gift Aid
The funds raised by us parents is essential. Together we can support our children’s school, by giving regularly through Kindlink. This allows the PTA to budget with these resources and support the outstanding work at Waldegrave constantly and with a long-term strategy and vision. This is a voluntary request. But please consider, for the price of a cup of coffee a week, we can, together, have a huge impact on the continued excellent schooling provided at Waldegrave.
Donate here. If you are a UK tax payer you can Gift Aid your donation which means the PTA can claim back the tax. You only have to fill it out once but you do need to let us know if your circumstances change
You may have noticed that we no longer ask for standing order donations for the school fund. For efficiency and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliance, we now use Kindlink which is just like other donation websites but with a big difference: Kindlink keep their fees to a minimum. You can elect to donate “regularly” or as a “one-off”. You don’t even need to be a parent to donate!
What’s in it for you:
- Stay anonymous (if you would like)
- You only need to put your address in once for gift aid
- You can keep your credit/debit card points or cash back
What’s in it for the PTA:
- Less card handling fees
- Gift Aid automatically collected and settled every month
- No paper = No secure storage requirements = GDPR compliant
- Gift Aid declaration consent checked at donation = GDPR compliant
What’s in it for the school
- Less fees = more money to spend
- Frequent Gift Aid settlement = funds available quicker
- Less hassle for the school office to inform the PTA weekly of ParentPay payment details
- Less paper to store on behalf of the PTA = less storage costs
For ticketed fundraising activities, we will not be able to move away from ParentPay, but with your cooperation the gift aid process can be essentially cut out from the Treasurer’s workload. A VERY BIG thank you to all who already donate via Kindlink you are a star. If you never have or are contemplating it, please give it a try.
CASH4COINS
Here at Waldegrave School we're busy fundraising by collecting old British or foreign coins and notes, even obsolete currency. Once all the currency has been collected we send it to www.cash4coins.co.uk who exchanges it into cash we can use. The bucket is at the school reception and will be there all year so keep it coming please. Over the last five years this has raised nearly £2000!
How is the money spent?
Teachers' Wish Lists
Teachers were asked to draw up a Wish List of equipment across the school which would enhance their teaching. Applications were made for items to a value of £250, £500 or £1000. The PTA were able to provide funding for a wide variety of items from art supplies, electronic tablets, Orange Tree Theatre performance, online memberships, resources and subscriptions, digital cameras, keyboards, revision guides, science equipment, basketball and netball posts, visualisers and various kitchen equipment for Food Tech!
Aside from the Teachers' Wish List the PTA were also able to put money to other items that the school could not budget for. Replacement furniture for the 6th Form Block, tablets for student learning, PE crash mats, a new band-saw for the DT dept., funds for a parent engagement app. and author visits for Book Week. The PTA also provided funds for the refurbishment of the old school office into a Conference/School Council Room and the two counselling rooms, also money towards a new piano and a revision training session for the Year 11s.
As of 30/6/20 the parents have donated £17,619 to the school fund this academic year, this is down by £9422 from last year. The PTA keeps back 8% of donations (£1409), any Gift aid (£3895) and together with our PTA fundraising efforts - Comedy, Quiz Night and Bingo, teas at events, Christmas tree sale, raffles, Cash4coins and Waldegrave Winners - (£8469 this is down by £6375 compare to last year) we have funded £7250 worth of items for the school and, with extra fundraising by the PTA treasurer, bought 2 rowing machines for the school rowing club and funded the purchase of a second hand piano for the school.
PTA meetings
Please check the PTA section of the school newsletter for the next PTA meeting date or check the latest minutes in the DOWNLOADS section of this page. The meetings are very informal and there’s no obligation to commit to anything. They are usually held in the school from 7.30 to about 9pm often on a Tuesday or Wednesday.
PTA Committee and Contacts
If you would like to get in touch to raise any issues or ask any questions, please contact the Secretary
The current Committee are:
Chair - Edel Hindley Email: PTA@Waldegravesch.org
Co-Chair - Vacant
Secretary - Rachel Williamson
Treasurer - Nataliya Zadora
Data Protection Officer - Mark Given
PTA AGM
The Waldegrave PTA AGM is held in Spring usually at the end of February. A small but perfectly formed group of parents and teachers attend for the purposes of the Chair's report, the Financial report from the Treasurer for the past financial year and confirmation of the Committee roles for the next financial year. Existing Committee members may choose to continue in their roles but nominations for all the posts are welcomed and voting takes place at the meeting. See the Chair's report and the Minutes of the last AGM in the DOWNLOADS section on this page for more details.
Fundraising
Raise money by shopping online
If you shop online regularly via the website thegivingmachine.co.uk there will be no cost to yourself but the companies will make a small donation to the school. All the major supermarkets and shops are there from Amazon to B&Q. It is easy to sign up as follows:
- Go to thegivingmachine.co.uk
- Click on Join and then click Join as a Giver
- Click Find Beneficiaries and then enter Waldegrave and search
- Click choose next to Waldegrave School and then SAVE
- You will then be asked to enter your details i.e. name, email, postcode and a password to register.
- You can then go shopping!
You can also sign up to www.easyfundraising.org.uk/ or on Amazon, https://smile.amazon.co.uk/, select Waldegrave School as our chosen charity and start shopping!
Waldegrave Winners (formerly the 50/50 Club)
Waldegrave Winners is a monthly prize draw run by the school's PTA. It is open to all parents, carers, staff and governors of Waldegrave School.
You join in the fun by 'investing' in your lucky number(s) for a year. One annual number costs £15, two numbers is £24, three £36, four £48 or 5 numbers would be £60. There is no limit to the numbers you can buy!
Half the money 'invested' goes straight to the school fund, the remainder forms the prize pot. The Waldegrave Winners numbers are drawn by the PTA, and will be announced in the newsletter.
For more information on how to join Waldegrave Winners click here.
Quiz Night
Around £2000 is raised at the annual Quiz night which is usually held in March. Many thanks to all the volunteers who help to make the evening happen and to those parents and teachers who attend, whom without there would be no event.
Comedy Night
Comedy Night is always a roaring success. This is an 18+ event that takes place in the Autumn term. The comedians raise the roof with (raucous) laughter and this year we managed to raise over £3000 for the school. Many thanks to all of you who attend this event, supporting the school whilst enjoying an evening out and even more thanks to our Comedy Night co-ordinator and wonderful team of volunteers.
Christmas Tree Sale
In December we hold our annual Christmas tree sale, selling top quality non-drop Nordmann Fir trees, we also sell festive goodies and treats. 25% from every tree sale goes directly to the Waldegrave School fund. We sold more trees than ever in 2020 and raised £1,330.
Bingo
The PTA presents Bingo Nights in September exclusively for the new Year 7 families, and acts as an icebreaker and an opportunity for newbies to Waldegrave to meet. These are fun, family evenings open to students and their parents.
Summer and Christmas Raffles
The PTA usually hold raffles at Christmas and again in the Summer, these are hugely popular and fabulous fundraisers. The 2021 Christmas Raffle raised an amazing £3755 whilst in the Summer Draw a further £3240 went to the school fund. With thanks to our benefactors who donated prizes (The Ivy Café, Chatora, Ristorante Del Posto, Osteria Pulcinella, WWWT London Wetland Centre, Waterstones, Knights Basketball, Prince Albert pub, Oliver Bonas, Pins & Needles, Real Drinks, Grace and Flora, Richmond and Rose Threatres) as well as many donations from parents.
PTA Refreshments at School Events
The PTA provides drinks and snacks for students and parents at school events such as the Primary Induction Evening, Y7 Welcome Afternoon, Summer and Christmas concerts and Parents' Consultation Meetings and other School Open Evenings. All profits go towards PTA projects such as buying the equipment listed in the section above: ‘How the money is spent!’, so please come and support us.
PTA Data Protection Privacy Policy
Waldegrave PTA is the Parent Teachers Association of the Waldegrave School located in Twickenham, London. It is a registered charity, number 297288. This policy covers how Waldegrave PTA treats personal information that it collects and receives. Personal information, is information about you that is personally identifiable like your name, address, email address or phone number, and that is not otherwise publicly available.
Waldegrave PTA collects personal information to facilitate the process of parents: making donations to the charity, claiming gift aid on those donations, entering a lottery that supports the charity and on occasion recording attendance at events and meetings.
We do not rent, sell or share personal information about you with other people or non-affiliated companies except to ensure donations are processed, when we have your permission.
We will use reasonable efforts to ensure that your personal data is not disclosed to regional/national institutions and authorities, unless required by law or other regulations.
We may update this policy. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by placing a prominent notice on our web site.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact the PTA Data Protection Officer via the SecretaryPTAWaldegrave@hotmail.co.uk