Friday 12th March 2010 From 8.40am-10am

Time is flying in 2010 and it would be great to catch up with parents and carers to exchange news and ideas for events and activities including this year’s Summer Music Festival - all welcome!

Drop the children off in the playground and pop in!

All Refreshments at the meeting are complimentary. Younger children & siblings are also welcome!

Christmas Fair

What a fantastic time was had by all at the Christmas Fair on Friday!  It was great to see so many parents, carers, children and teachers all having fun together on the stalls and enjoying the festive activities.  I hear Father Christmas was particularly impressed with the behaviour of all of the children who visited him in his magical grotto – and he has already promised to come back again next year!

A huge ‘Thank You’ goes out to all who contributed to the Fair in terms of donating prizes, cakes & sweets etc and also to all of those who helped with preparations and on the day itself.  There are too many to name in person, but you all know who you are!  I would also like to say how much everyone enjoyed the performances from the recorder group, choir and the dance group, these created a truly festive atmosphere and attracted the attention of a lot of visitors.  I am delighted to tell you that the total profit raised by the Fair and the Grand Draw is in excess of £900 which is a phenomenal achievement.  Personally, even greater reward for me was seeing so many from the school and parent community working together to create a truly unique event – it has certainly made my Christmas!

Next PTFA Meeting

The next meeting of the PTFA takes place on Wednesday January 13^th at 7.30pm at Katherine Porteous’s house at 27 Claremont Road and all are welcome.  At this meeting some time will be set aside to review the Christmas Fair and to look at ways of improving and developing plans for next year. Also, a full financial report and breakdown of the Fair’s profits and expenditure will be available. Your comments and suggestions are very important to the committee and so if you are not able to come along, please do sign up via our new website www.dealparochial-ptfa.co.uk and share your thoughts.

PTFA New Year’s Resolutions

Looking forward, our biggest challenge is to encourage more in the parent/carer community to support and contribute to the PTFA’s activities. Our New Year’s resolution is therefore to go completely over to email which is faster, more convenient and certainly more environmentally friendly.   For those who are not online, we will post notices in and around the school but our main forum – other than meetings – will be via email.  So if you are reading this, and have not already done so, please visit the website and sign up now, it takes just a few seconds!   Your ideas for future fund raising and social activities are very much welcome, as are any ideas regarding equipment, projects or events we could fund for the school – we have asked Mrs Cremin to confer with the school staff, teachers and children for a wish list of things they would like the PTFA to support as the funds we have raised through events in 2009 can now be spent

The children have had such a great last week of term with their class parties, Christmas Lunch, the Carol Service and the visit to Castle Community School’s pantomime – let’s hope its worn them out a bit and that we can all get at least SOME rest over Christmas!

Katherine, Emma and Russell join me in wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Karol Pawsey.