Friends of Newlands – FONDS

Newsletter February 2015

Welcome to my first Newsletter as Chair of FONDS. This is intended to keep all parents up to date with all the fundraising activities that FONDS have already done this school year and what future events are coming up.

Firstly your FONDS Committee Officers are as follows;

Chair – Marina Hughes Secretary – Claire Lloyd Treasurer – Kate Hill

Christmas Fayre We raised an amazing £1,600 in December. Thank you to everyone who came along. It was certainly busy and we hope everyone enjoyed themselves. A big thank you to those parents who helped set-up and clear away and manned the stalls. Thanks to FONDS members too who gave their time from October to arrange the Fayre and ensure it was a

Since October we have also raised over £1,200 through Woking Theatre Ticket sales, Christmas card fundraising, Beat The Teacher Quiz Night, Easyfundraising and Bags2School

Our November Bags2School collection weighed 590kilos which raised £236.00. Thank you to all who contributed.

From our previous fundraising events FONDS were able to purchase the new Staging which you may have seen at the Christmas Fayre and Nativity. This has benefitted the school already by freeing up valuable storage space and will be used for many years to come. So far this year FONDS have agreed to subsidise all school trips, purchase new books and soft furnishings for the library along with Dictionaries for the Juniors.

We welcome all parents to attend committee meetings to see what FONDS do and if you want to, join our committee. If you’re unable to come along we’re always happy to receive ideas for new fundraising events, suggestions for how we can improve our regular events and we never turn down offers of help! You can speak to myself, Claire or Kate in person, drop me an email; [email protected] or pop a note into the red FONDS post box in the atrium.

DATES TO REMEMBER!

Friday 13 th February - Cake Sale Falling on the last day of half-term, we thought it would be nice to have a Valentines theme although it isn’t compulsory as long as they are yummy! Cakes will cost 30p each.

24 th February – 6 th March – Coin Run Our Coin Run Competition starts the first week back from half-term. Each class has a jar to fill with coins of any denomination and runs for two weeks. Last year all that loose change raised £166.01! The teachers get quite competitive and the winning class gets a class treat!

Thursday 26 th March - ‘Beat the Teachers’ Quiz Night This proved popular last year and raised £168! We had six teams that night and the teachers were beaten! It’s a good way to meet other parents and have a cheap night out. Bring your own drink and nibbles (alcohol is allowed). There will also be a raffle halfway through the evening. Tickets will be on sale outside school during the week before the Quiz, but they can be bought on the night at £4 per ticket. Teams are up to 6 people but don’t worry if you’re not in a team, you can make up a team on the night. Please support us.

Tuesday 31 st March – School Discos Going forward the times will be as follows; Infants: 4:45pm - 6:00pm Juniors: 6:15pm – 7:30pm Tickets cost £2.50 and the price includes crisps and a drink. If you can help set up or stay at the discos please let us know. Tickets will be sale Monday 30th and Tuesday 31st after school or pay on the door.

Friday 8 th May 9am - Bags2School Collection bags will be given out a week before but any bag will do as long as it’s secure and has no holes in it. Please bring your bags to the Collection point in the car park by 9am that morning. If you have no room to store bags or cannot bring them in that day let us know and we can store them in the FONDS shed. Only the following items are now accepted: Clothing, Paired shoes, Handbags, Hats, Bags, Scarves, Ties, Jewellery, Lingerie, Belts & Soft Toys. Items must be of ‘good quality’

Tuesday 19 th May – Fun Run We have a sponsored event every year and this year it will be a fun run. Further details will follow nearer the time.

Friday 12 th June 5:30pm – 7:30pm – Summer Fayre We raised an amazing £2,016.00 last year! This was helped in part by the lovely weather and the addition of a Pimms Tent and Ice creams! Having it on a Friday evening also proved popular. Further details to follow.

All these events are planned by a small committed FONDS team. They give up their time in order to make it a success but in doing so sacrifice time with their own families especially at the Christmas and Summer Fayres. We need more volunteers to help us at these events from setting up from 1.30pm,to manning stalls during the evening and clearing away at the end. Please give us your support.

Uniform

Uniform is sold every Wednesday after school by Karen May. Order forms are also in the atrium payment by cash or cheques payable to FONDS.

Other ways of Fundraising

* When ordering from Yellow Moon please quote source code SNE1200.

* You will soon receive a leaflet for ordering from the Scholastic Book Club. For every £10 spent the school will receive 20% back in rewards to purchase books.

* If you do a lot of shopping on-line like me you can raise funds for the school simply by registering on the EasyFundraising website at www.easyfundraising.org.uk/fonds. It just take two minutes to register and then every time you shop on-line you will be asked if you want to make a donation to FONDS (you of course say yes!). Most major retailers are on it Amazon, Tesco, Ocado, Argos, Next, Ebay, M&S, Thomson, First Choice to name a few and donate anything from 1% to 10% or up to £50! So when you are booking holidays, buying electrical items or just the weekly shop you can raise money at no extra cost to yourselves. It’s so easy.

Thanks to Karen Williams we have made over £1000 by purchasing Woking Theatre Tickets. Look out for email and text alerts for the latest offers which are open to all family and friends of Newlands. Karen can be contacted on our Facebook page FONDS Woking Theatre Ticket Group

Lastly, you may have noticed the Noticeboard is missing from outside the Infants gate. After many years of bad weather it finally succumbed. A new one is being purchased and will hopefully be up after half-term and all future events will be displayed there.

Thank you for supporting FONDS