Friends of Windmill Hill
Who we are
Friends of Windmill Hill (sometimes also known as the Parent-Teacher Association or PTA), organise fundraising events for the Windmill Hill community to raise additional money for the school. We work with the school to understand how we can support them to buy materials, resources and equipment that will help to enrich the children’s education and school experiences. Recently, we have bought new books for the library, a bike/scooter shelter, funded new playground markings and purchasing Personal, Social, Health and Education (PSHE) curriculum resources.
All the parents and carers of children at Windmill Hill, together with school staff, are automatically members of Friends of Windmill Hill. We also welcome anybody who is looking to support the work we do, so grandparents, other relatives and community members can join us.
We have a committee of volunteer members who manage the activity of Friends of Windmill Hill, discussing ideas, planning events and deciding how, and where, we should spend the funds we raise. This group are supported by three volunteer Officers: a Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. The Officers are elected each year at an Annual General Meeting (“AGM”), to which everyone is invited, and advance notice is given on school communication channels.
Our fundraising events take place each year and we try to introduce new and different events, but in a typical school year we will usually host a disco, a summer fair, pop up shops where children can choose gifts for loved ones, and our Friends of Windmill Hill Book Fair.
How you can get involved
Become a volunteer
We always need more volunteers, and welcome everyone’s involvement no matter how much time you have to spare. Quite simply, the more volunteers we have, the greater the event and fundraising opportunities for the children and school. You are very welcome to join us at our committee meetings, or, if you prefer to support us on a more ad hoc basis, we are always looking for volunteers to help out with our events.
For more information on being more involved in Friends of Windmill Hill please contact us on our Facebook page: Facebook or by emailing windmillhillpta@gmail.com
easyfundraising
The easiest thing you can do to support us is to start using easyfundraising. This is a free website and app that allows users to raise money for causes, such as Friends of Windmill Hill, by shopping online. easyfundraising partners with over 8,000 brands who will donate part of what you spend to a cause of your choice. It won’t cost you any extra. The cost is covered by the brand.
To sign up visit www.easyfundraising.org.uk and select Friends of Windmill – Chapeltown as your chosen cause.
When it comes to shopping online just visit the easyfundraising website first and search your retailer. Alternatively, easyfundraising make it much easier for you to capture the donations with their browser extension – if you install this then you can browse online as normal and when you visit the website of a partner brand you will get a pop up asking you to click to receive a donation, and then you can shop as normal. There is also an easy fundraising app you can download and this works in the same way as the browser extension.
Friends of Windmill Hill Book Fair
The Friends of Windmill Hill Book Fair inspires a school-wide love of reading and in doing so, improves literacy among all children. We aim to do this by offering low price, affordable fiction and non-fiction books for all age ranges.
Our Book Fair was not set up to be profit making but it does need to cover the costs of buying the books we have on sale, so we rely on donations of pre-loved (second hand) books and parental support to buy books during our Fairs.
We offer a rewards scheme for supporting our Book Fair, where each child receives a stamp for every book purchased. Once they have collected eight stamps on their loyalty card, they can choose a book for free. In addition we award a free book voucher and certificate to each class. The winner of this voucher is selected by school staff and could be awarded for great effort, improvement or engagement with reading or it may be awarded to a child who otherwise may not attend the Book Fair to enable them to choose a book to take home.
