Yay, the new PTFA website is here.... but who are we anyway?!?

We'd love to welcome you all to our new website, full of information on the events we hold throughout the school year.

But it occurs to us that some of you may not really know who we are, or why we do what we do. Especially if you are a new parent at Hill West (hello from us by the way :)).

We are a relatively small group of parents, a friendly bunch if we do say so ourselves!! Our main objective is to raise funds to enrich the school journey for our kids. This is everything from the big stuff to the small stuff. Some of our proudest achievements are funding a defibrillator for the school, the screens in all of the classrooms, the trim trail and contributing to the new play equipment in the KS1 playground. But we are equally proud of the little things we do throughout the year, that you may not know about. Each year we donate money to the year six leavers for their party, money to the school for Christmas treats and a learning experience for all the children... our personal fave being the animal man! We've even donated money to provide essential items that your children use in class, such as glue sticks and scissors.

We are a registered charity, as such we have four 'official' roles that need to be filled. The PTFA chair, Dawn Adamthwaite; the vice chair, Natasha Nodding; the treasurer, Rob Cook and the PTFA secretary, David Mason. And of course all of our fabulous PTFA volunteers, who selflessly give up their time for to attend meetings and run our events. (Look out for a future blog post that goes into more detail about who we all are and what our roles involve.)

Sometimes it can be hard to find the time to run and plan events (especially for our amazing chair Dawn), but when you see the smiles on the kids faces at the Halloween Disco or their delight at meeting Santa at the Christmas Fair, then it is all more than worth it. Truth be told, us volunteers do have fun along the way as well!

Of course we wouldn't exist without every person that attends one of our events or sends their child in with a pound on dress down day for us! So from all of us, a very big thank you for your support throughout the year.

If you were ever able to do more, then we are always looking for volunteers. As a PTFA member you can do as little or as much as you would like. Some of our members aren't able to attend the half-termly meetings, but can lend a hand hosting a stall at one of our events. Or if you can only make it to the meetings, then your input is always valued. Or perhaps you would like to think about taking on one of the main four roles at some point?

If you are interested in volunteering, or have any questions, please email us at hillwestptfa@hotmail.com or message us through our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/hillwestprimaryschool.