Immaculate Heart Of Mary Catholic Primary School

The committee

IHOMSA meeting 9/11/23

Attendees: Mark Moran, Basia Crosby, Lauren Duckworth, Becca Curtis, Sarah White, Sarah Higgins, Lindsay Timms, Leonie Higgins, Kate Kerr, Kasia, Janette Moran

Apologies: Miss Clark
 

-Discussion re. cheese and wine night – worked well to have this after the reception talk.
-Upcoming fundraisers:

1) Disco (7 th Dec) KS1 straight after school until 4.30. KS2 - 4.45-5.45. Children to be accompanied by parents (need to check how many children one adult can be responsible for). We will supply sweets. KS2 – need to be very clear that phones are not allowed. Discussed having a soft drinks/snacks bar, small charge. Minimum five parent volunteers (can manage this from IHOMSA). To charge £3.50 per ticket which includes a glow stick, drink and sweet (double up on sweets purchase so we can use them for Christmas games day as well).
Lindsay: ask office to send a save the date text. To check with Miss C – need first aider, someone to lock up, and two teachers on the door. Buy sweets (2000 sweets). Basia: check Christmas decorations. Mark: set up Sum-Up link etc.

2) Christmas games day (8 th Dec). Children will pay max £2. Will need parent volunteers (to send Google form out). Could set up the games the night before (after the disco). Basia and Hannah: check what games we have (but likely to be the same as last year). Check what toys/prizes we have (from Paul Whites). Lauren: buy prizes (tattoos etc). Becca: send Google form (liaise with Miss C and Lindsay to coordinate around other communications).

3) Sparkles and snuggles fashion night (tbc). Katherine has asked if we can move this to spring/summer. However if anyone makes a purchase in the shop on 23 rd November (also Chapel A light switch on night; 6-7pm), Katherine will donate 10% to IHOMSA. Becca: arrange text to go out (need to make it clear that the donation is for IHOMSA, not a discount off the price).

4) Sponsored walk to Lapland: approx. 19 laps of playground per child? Do before school with Christmas music etc. Could tie in with wearing Christmas jumpers on a Friday. Becca: check with school.

5) Need to coordinate all IHOMSA December info and all school Christmas events, and pull the information together in one calendar, similar to Mrs Hill’s Lenten calendar. Ask class reps to circulate a link to this info on the website as well. Can insert QR codes for various payments within this.
Becca: liaise with school.
Mark: set up QR codes.

6) Christmas raffles – could use sum up link again to collect money. Worked well last year to have smaller hampers. Agreed it is worth doing again. Friday non-uniform day? (need to check other Christmas jumper/outfit days).

-Feedback on where to spend money: (see agenda)
Agreed to spend on top three: air con, maths resources and sun shelters. Not yet sent money for maths resources. Air-con and sun shelters – school to purchase so that VAT is exempt. May also need to think about energy efficiency/cost of running. Would portable air con units be worth exploring?
Becca: check above points with school.

-Update on uniform shop:
Significant amount is donated and taken away each time – stock is fairly consistent. Some packs have been made up for families in need. Not many coats donated – need to take donations of coats much earlier next year (although storing is an issue if we do it too early). Advertise coat shop better and earlier to help families plan ahead. Can also link in with other uniform systems in Leeds (non branded) and Kelly’s school for blue shirts.

-Forest school:
Difficult to commit to ongoing cost to IHOMSA. Parents this year have paid a contribution. Need to frame this to families as similar to a school trip and to communicate this clearly at new starter events. Could also do a one-off fundraiser for parents to specifically donate for forest school so that it doesn’t come out of general IHOMSA funds? Could also present it to parents as a termly cost, in instalments. Are there other options to explore re. staffing?
Becca: discuss various options further with Miss C.
In the summer term: seek feedback from current reception parents (with information about what the cost to school was).

-AOB:
-To purchase Microsoft Office 365 licences – for governance, email addresses etc
-Look into software for accounting (e.g. Zero) to produce reports etc.

IHOMSA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 14 September 2023

Minutes

1. Welcome, Introductions and Apologies
Apologies received from Liz Butterworth, Gemma Parsons, Sarah Higgins, Janette Moran, Annee Sian & Hannah Kevill
Attendees were – Becca Curtis (Chair) Mark Butler (secretary), Mark Moran (Treasurer), Miss F Clarke (IHOM Head Teacher), Basia Crosby, Kate Kerr, Katarzyna Szymanska, Kelly Williams, Kwan Lam Chan, Wan Ngai Wong, Pui Kong Chui, Lauren Duckworth, Leonie Higgins, Lindsay Timms, Sarah White, Angela Robertson.
Becca welcomed everyone, especially new parents who hadn’t been to meetings, to the meeting and outlined the agenda for the meeting.

2. Chair’s review of the year
Becca outlined her thoughts on the year. This was her first year as chair and said it has been an interesting year and she gave her thanks to everyone who had got involved and supported her and IHOMSA over the last year.
She covered the work done to outline the ways people could help support IHOMSA and how this can be built on this year going forward. This includes driving fun for the children, raising funds and becoming part of the community.
She outlined the activities and events that were run last year, culminating with the amazing family night. Highlighting over 100 parents volunteered their time across the year – which was brilliant.
Miss Clarke thanked Becca and the rest of the committee and those involved with the amazing work that was done to raise the significant amount of money for the children/school.
3. Financial Report 2022/23 – Mark Moran (Treasurer)
Financial report attached to the minutes. Financial year runs to end of August.
Full year of fundraising after a couple of years paired back due to COVID.
22/23 was a successful year and raised £12,516, with Summer Family Night raising £5,360. In addition over £2,000 was raised through direct donations and interest.

Donated £14,887.12 to the school for various items including books, a new archway canopy, and end of year leavers activities. For the year this resulted in a small negative income for the year of - £199.50.
The current balance in the bank is £34,544.33.
Mark outlined that we still receive money through Easy Fundraising which requires another push to increase its use as its free money. In response to a question Mark told the meeting that in comparison to the 22/23 school year net income is broadly similar especially taking into account some of the non direct activity purchases that had been made – e.g. an additional sum up machine and that higher spend on increased quality items for Mothers and Fathers day reduced the profit on these events (but feedback suggested this was the correct thing to do). Mark presented the accounts for agreement, subject to audit and the meeting agreed the accounts presented.

4. Election of New Committee.
Election of the committee. The current committee and officials stood down for this part of the meeting and Miss Clark took over the meeting at this point for the elections. Miss Clark outlined the roles of the Chair, Treasurer and Secretary. In addition we need three ordinary committee members.
Chair: Katarzyna Szymanska nominated Becca Curtis as chair. This was seconded by Leonie Higgins.
Treasurer: Katarzyna Szymanska nominated Lauren Duckworth and this was seconded by Mark Moran.
Secretary: Katarzyna Szymanska nominated Sarah White and Lauren Duckworth seconded.
All the above officials were voted in unanimously.
Committee Members: Katarzyna Szymanska nominated Kate Kerr as a committee member and this was seconded by Bassia Crosby
Leonie was nominated by Bassia Crosby and was seconded by Mark Moran.
Bassia Crosby was nominated by Becca Curtis and was seconded by Miss Clark.

All the above were voted in unanimously.
Other roles (not subject to votes) are:
Website Manager - Katarzyna Szymanska
Stockroom Control: Hannah Kevill and Basia Crosby
Uniform control: Leonie Higgins

5. Fundraising ideas/spend options
The staff of the school had been approached to think of ideas of areas that fundraising could be targeted and the suggestions were:
Large/long term fundraising opportunities:
- Chromebooks
- Air conditioning for the classrooms upstairs
Other opportunities for smaller fundraising/spend:
- Reading for fun and increasing participation and shared reading
- Wellie Trolley for reception
- Maths resources to support reception to year 6 supporting the current school maths scheme.
- New Cross Country Kit but this could be achieved by external sponsorship
- Shades for the playground
Other items discussed – Forest School, Year 6 leavers events. There was a discussion about thinking about a different way of funding the forest school that could use the forest area to raise the funding for it. Items for IHOMSA use to be considered for purchase:
- Chip fryer/air fryers
- Second Candyfloss machine
A question was raised about the mini bus and this is still under consideration but not an immediate need. It was agreed that all fundraising/spend ideas would be collated and considered by the new committee and put out to vote to parents, including a request for their ideas also.

6. First term activities plans:
Reception Parents welcome – potential for cheese and wine event to be combined with the school reception parents evening. 4 th October

Autumn (Halloween) Event – pumpkin event similar to last year and also a autumn disco. Disco to be run on a Wednesday 15 th December as first
choice and Thursday as a back up. Break the rules event – at the end of this half term/end September – 28 th September Christmas Family night – discussed and it was agreed Lindsay Timms to look at options of doing something in the Church hall. Christmas games day if Christmas family night doesn’t work out – possible Friday 8 th December in school.
7. AOB
Miss Clarke thanked everyone for attending and the effort last year. Next meeting will be at the start of the next half term – date and time to be confirmed.

Immaculate Heart of Mary School Association Registered Charity Number 1167473