What do PTAs do and why should I join one?
The following questions have been extracted from an interview with the Chairperson and Secretary of St James' Primary PTA, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
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What do PTAs do?
A PTA is a Parent Teacher Association, an organisation with a mission to make the school a better place for children to learn. A PTA brings together parents, teachers and children to raise funds and strengthen the school community. Money raised is usually spent on things that the school budget does not cover. In contrast, a Governing Body exists to support the strategic leadership of the school. The Governing Body consists of staff, parents, Local Authority and community representatives. The governors have three main roles - Strategic Planning, Monitoring and Finance.
Why should I join one?
There are many reasons why you should join your PTA. From making new friends and getting to know the school environment, through to helping raise much needed funds and making a difference to the children and school community. All of these things help you grow in confidence as a parent and it feels good to know you are making a difference for your children and for generations to come.
What will be expected of me?
There is no expectation on any parent volunteer, any amount of time you can give to the PTA will always be well received. There are a variety of ways you can get involved, from engaging with social media activity, attending PTA Meetings through to volunteering at events or coordinating events. Even donating preloved items, raffle prizes or suggesting brilliant ideas are ways of getting involved. There seems to be a myth that if you get involved with your PTA you will never be able to escape! We make it clear that parents can come to our meetings to just listen and learn, or they can take a more active role if they want to, there are no set expectations.
How do I join my children's school's PTA?
In most schools you automatically become a member of the PTA simply by being a parent at the school. If you would like to take a more active role and find out more about PTA volunteering opportunities then attend a PTA meeting. This is a great first step. It is always a good idea to attend a few meetings to get to know the PTA and then when you are more confident you can start to take a more active role if you wish. You could always take a friend or two along and take on some tasks together.
How can I attract more support from other volunteers for my child's school PTA?
This is the million-dollar question for all PTAs, worldwide! The PTA runs on a continuous cycle, as children reach their final year and leave, so do the parents. PTAs are constantly needing new volunteers to ensure the PTA continues. From experience it is key you are clear about how people can contact you, get involved and keep a friendly tone to your social media and communications so people want to volunteer. We have found that volunteers are wary of taking on too much and often like to get involved in one or two events each year so we have recruited volunteers to events, rather than the entire PTA. For example, we have a Cake Sale team, Preloved Uniform team and a Christmas Card team with specific people who look after those events. We also have PTA Champions; these people are our go-to people in each year group for all PTA queries. It helps having someone in your year group who you can bump into on the playground to answer questions and dispel myths. We still need volunteers who want to take on more and this is where the PTA Chair, Secretary and Treasurer roles come in. People tend to build up to these roles as they are a bigger commitment with more experience required.
How can I come up with new event ideas, particularly non-traditional ideas?
We find joining national PTA groups on Facebook and other social media platforms a great source of new event ideas. We are also very open to parent suggestions and are dynamic in our approach to trying new things. Our Easter Trail came about from our 'Wednesday Well-being Walks' through lockdown. We realised we knew lots of families who lived near to school and developed a trail to get everyone out walking as a family. We also decided to promote the #shoplocal ethos when creating our Christmas and Summer Raffles. Without the actual Christmas and Summer Fairs, which usually hosted the raffles, we had to make our raffles special. We decided to ask our parent community if anyone who had a business would like to donate a raffle prize. In return, we promoted each business with a social media post and showcased their business and raffle prize. We created a marketing campaign #ChristmasRaffleCountdown and #SummerRaffleCountdown. The school community loved it as they all learned about the wonderful businesses on our school doorstep and the prizes were just brilliant.
Why is it important for a school to have a PTA?
A good PTA can help strengthen the child, parent, school community and can become a huge marketing tool for the school, a way of strengthening their reputation and increasing family engagement. The PTA can help communicate with families more effectively, enhance fundraising efforts and qualify for grants and awards to support the school. All of this activity helps enhance a school's reputation within the community. The PTA is often referred to as the heart of the school community and in our case it really is.
