How do we raise money?

We work in two ways. Firstly we try to weave FROGS into major School and Village events to ensure we remain relevant and visible. Secondly we organise standalone events designed to raise funds. These events are intended to have a broad appeal to children, parents, family and friends and include the FROGS Hop, Christmas Fayre, school disco, and quiz evenings etc. as well as the more creative Family Fun Day and Circus Training. We also run regular Coffee Clubs with sales of items such as fairtrade goodies and greetings cards.

We don’t have a monopoly on good ideas though. If you have something you think would work, or are keen to get involved, or would like to just make a comment then please contact us. We are keen to step up our programme of events to meet the needs of the school as it adapts to the current educational challenges of the state school system.

Finally it is worth noting that as a Charity we are able to claim Gift Aid on all donations. Gift Aid, for those not aware, relates to personal donations and enables us to claim back the portion of tax paid (if you are a tax payer of course). Contact the Treasurer for more details of this.

How do we decide how the money is spent?

Parents and teachers discuss necessary and desirable items or projects, which will benefit the children. They can be either short or long term goals. All parents are invited to have a say on how the money they raise is spent. The needs are then discussed by the committee at each meeting and we allocate funds accordingly ensuring that there is a direct and visible impact on the school and the children. We also try to ensure that we do spend the money raised rather than hoard it.

A recent example of FROGS-funded spending was the new playground markings, which were both needed for sports education but also for entertainment at break times. FROGS also aim to provide paid transport for at least one class trip a year.

A little further in the past we have enabled spending on the Whiteboards and Digital Cameras in each classroom, a wide range of new books for the library, lacrosse tuition for the team and also team tracksuits .

It does not end there though. We have more to do and we would love to hear any suggestions you might have on what would help the children achieve their potential at Ropley Primary.