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Friends of Thurnham

The Friends Of Thurnham Association:
“working together for the benefit of our children”

Friends of Thurnham is a registered charity (no. 1168528) and our aim is to advance the education of pupils at Thurnham Infant School through our activities. We raise funds to help and support additional activities such as school trips, support school initiatives such as book week, put on events to bring parents, teachers, pupils and the community together. We continue to develop effective relationships between the staff, parents and others associated with the school and are dedicated to establishing strong links between home and school.

FOT isn’t a small committee of people. It’s every mum, dad, carer and volunteer who helps fundraise for the school from organising an event, baking cakes, donating to the uniform sale or just helping tidy up. Our volunteers/members are key to our success whether you can give up a small amount of time or even run an event. FOT has a long history of supporting the school. We fundraise for resources and the extras which make a difference. FOT has donated towards learning tablets, interactive white boards, playground equipment and the nice things like ice creams for the pupils on picnic day. The more we raise, the more our children gain. Remember this is your Friends Association raising funds for the children of the school to support their education and school life in a variety of exciting and inspiring ways.

Every parent and carer of a child at Thurnham is automatically a member of FOT until the child leaves the school. Anyone over 18 years of age without a child at the school wishing to support and get involved is welcome and can be made a general member of FOT via the committee.

FOT meets at least once every term and we welcome all members to join us. Each September we hold our AGM and encourage all our members of the association to attend. As a minimum the committee will report on the year’s events, share the treasurer’s report, elect a new committee, appoint an independent examiner and decide on how to spend the funds raised. Elected committee members hold office for one year and are eligible for re-election at the next AGM. All elected committee members are trustees of the charity until the next AGM. Every member attending the AGM has the opportunity to vote. As agreed when the constitution was adopted the FOT committee will consist of the following: chair, secretary, treasurer and at least one ordinary elected member.

FOT is a member of the PTA UK organisation. FOT is governed by the PTA UK constitution that was formally adopted in April 2016. The constitution was updated in June 2016 by PTA UK. FOT was granted charity status in August 2016 (charity no. 1168528). Please click on the documents for more information.

All funds raised will be for Thurnham Infant School. At the AGM and any committee meeting any member of the association can put forward suggestions. The Headteacher will also give FOT a ‘shopping list’ of items that the school would like to purchase. All association members have the opportunity to vote on how to distribute the funds. The funds are for the ‘extras’ that are not provided by the school budget. Some projects may be expensive and therefore any money raised towards these as agreed by the association will be ‘restricted’ funds meaning that the money is protected until the amount required has been raised e.g. It may be that over a two year period 50% of the total funds raised by FOT each academic year are put into the ‘restricted’ pot. One of the ongoing restricted funds that FOT committed to in 2014 is the maintenance of the school defibrillator such as replacing the unit and pads as and when they expire.

Does your company operate a matched giving scheme?

Many companies offer “matched giving” to their employees – meaning that if you help raise funds for Thurnham they will also donate funds. This can mean that if you help out at a particular event such as running a stall at the Advent Market your company may match the funds raised in full or up to a capped amount. We would love to hear from you if your company operates this scheme.

Contact FOT via the school office, email friendsofthurnham@hotmail.co.uk or find our Facebook page ‘Friends of Thurnham’ and send a message.

We look forward to welcoming you to our upcoming events and thank you in advance for your support.

Useful Documents (please click on the relevant one):

Would you like to donate to Friends Of Thurnham?

Follow this link: www.givey.com/friendsofthurnham2020

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