Spring Newsletter and the Great Camp Book Swap

Hello!
We would like to say hello and ‘please help us’ to all our parents and carers! Having just assumed our new roles in the PA we are hoping to follow the success of the great teams before us, and get to know more of you as we plan and run events throughout the year. We hope you can bear with us while we settle in!

Following on from World Book Day throughout the month of March 2014 we’d love you to join us in the Great Camp Book Swap. We’d like to invite you to arrange a get together with friends and family, or your book club (if you have one) anytime during March with each person attending bringing a £2.50 donation to join in, and five books each to swap. Pile all your books on the table and each choose five ‘new’ ones. Have a great evening, you each get five new reads for only 50p each, and the PA gets to make some money too! How about getting the kids to join in by bringing 5 books and 50p to a book-related play date? It’s also great way to get Aunts and Uncles, Nans and Grandads, and other friends who are not so local to join in the fun with their own events to raise some valuable funds. The class who raises the most money will win a prize for the class, with winners to be announced in April. Good luck!

Please download a copy of the newsletter and complete the attached sheet and return to the school office with your donations by 31st March 2014.

Please put the following dates in your diary, for events we have planned so far for this term (also available on our Dates for the Diary page):

28 March – Wear Your Own Clothes Day
1 April – Mothers Day Event (Women Only Event) – 2pm onward in the school canteen
25 April – Cinema Night
10 May – Quiz Night
23 May – Wear You Own Clothes Day
14 June – Summer Fair
26 June – Wear Your Own Clothes Day
17 July – Year End Parties

Please do make yourselves known if you are able to volunteer your services for any help of any kind for anything! Initially we would really appreciate hearing from anyone who knows anyone who does nails, hair, beauty products, jewellery, henna tattoos etc that would like to have a stall at the Mother’s Day Event. All other ideas and suggestions are always welcome. Also anyone who would bake cakes, serve tea and coffee, man stalls, or help set up and tidy up after would be very warmly welcomed!
Full details will be sent out in due course.

Best wishes, Richard and Denise (Thomas D’s Mum and Dad – Year 2)

Download a copy with form- First newsletter of Spring Term 14

Bric-a-Brac donations

Just to say, please start bringing in your bric-a-brac donations as from tomorrow. There will be a box on your way in near to nursery and another outside the office.

Please remember we can’t sell anything dirty or broken!

Many thanks!
PA Team

Camp School PA Away Day

The Camp School PA Away Day will be on Sunday 7th July this year instead of 18th May, as previously advised. For those who have not come along before, the Away Day is a day trip organised by the PA and the coach is subsidised to keep costs as low as possible. Everyone is welcome, all family members, young and old!

This year the Away Day will be to Wicksteed Park (nr Kettering). Keep an eye out for the letter going out with the book bags before half term which will have a booking form attached. Please complete and return to the office to book your space on the coach. The letter will give full details: however here is a summary of the costs:

Coach spaces: £2 per adult and £1 per child

Tickets for the Park itself can be bought in two ways:

Single tickets @ £0.85 each – most rides are 1-2 tickets per person – we will bulk-buy these in advance, so please give an idea of how many you will need – you can buy more at the Park on the Day but will cost £1.10 each

Day Wristbands (unlimited turns on all rides at Park):
£17 per child aged 16 and under
£13 per adult
Note: children under 90cm (i.e. toddlers) are free and do not need tickets

There is also a large playground at the park which is free of charge.

Happy New Year to you all!

Happy New Year to you all!

Hopefully you are all back into the swing of things after Christmas and all the snow! We wanted to write to tell you about a few things that are happening this term.

1. Autumn term funds raised and spending
   Thank you to all those who got involved in PA activities last term whether on the organising, or the spending money, front. We raised over £3000 through the Camp café, the greeting cards project and the Christmas Fair and, as you know, this directly benefits all of our children. Spending last term included completely replacing the chairs in the dining room which had been in use for about 25 years, paying for a professional company to come into to perform a pantomime to the children, and treats at Christmas including crackers and chocolate bars at the Christmas lunch and a teacher’s present for each child. We always ask the teachers for ideas of what the PA funds should be spent on, but we’d be pleased to hear your views too!
2. Class Reps
   A big thank-you to the current team of class reps who are doing a fantastic job. If anyone is interested in becoming a class rep, please do let us know as we did say we would rotate this on a termly basis.
3. Camp café
   This term Reception will be hosting a café on Thursday 7th February. Please come along and buy a cake in a great cause. It doesn’t just have to be reception parents making/bringing cakes. All offerings will be gratefully received.
4. Regular unwanted gifts or new items.
   As you know, we are keen to get our hands on any new items, which could be suitable for prizes at the school fairs. We thought it would be a good idea to have regular collection weeks. The first one will be w/c 25th February. Look out for the collection point by the PA shed and start digging out any unwanted Christmas presents. Remember this collection will only be for new items as storing loads of bric-a-brac won’t be possible.
5. Calling all Mums!
   We will be holding a Mother’s Day event Friday 8th March, from 1.45pm in the dining room. This will take the form of a coffee afternoon, and we hope that people will be happy to bring and share a yummy treat. We are hoping to have a few stall offering pampering treatments, or products. If anyone is interested in offering their services/products, please let us know. You just have to pay £5 per table and then you can sell your wares. This is a great way to promote your own businesses
6. Quiz Night
   Our very popular annual quiz night is planned for Saturday 23rd March this year. However, we are currently missing a vital element – a Quiz Master! If you feel that you, or a team of you, could fill this role, please let us know. The quiz has always been a really great evening and it would be a shame if it couldn’t go ahead.
7. Ink Cartridge Recycling
   Please, please can you bring in your old ink cartridges (collection box by school office) as we can recycle these for money. We have already made £50 and it’s such an easy way to make a few pennies.

Many thanks!

Helen, Caroline and Karen

Download the newsletter

Don’t forget the PA night out

Don’t forget the PA night out next Thursday – from 7.30 at Bar 62. Everyone welcome so hopefully it will be a great chance for a bit of mixing across the year groups and sexes! It would be good to have an idea of numbers so please can you comment on this post if you’re able to come along.

Best wishes

Helen, Caroline and Karen.

School Fair Today 1st Dec 12 noon to 14.30

Come along and join in with the festivities

Fantastic raffle prizes

– Nintendo DS Lite games console
– Nintendo DS Brain Training game
– Mobile Phone Handset – Samsung CH@t355 handset
– Mobile Phone Handset – LG Tune up you Life LG-P350

………………….. and many more

See the Band in action, School Choir, Sweet Stalls, Tombola, Gingerbread Decorating, Candle Jar decorating to name but a few.

All money raised goes to PA funds to support children at school.

Keeping in touch

There are many ways to keep up to date with the latest news and events from the PA.

• Join our email list
• Like our Facebook page. Don’t forget to click on the Liked button afterwards and select Get Notifications, so that you don’t miss out on posts!
• Subscribe to this blog: via email (link on the left of this page), or RSS
• Find one of the PA committee or your class rep in the playground and say hello!

Sunday 15th July – End of Summer Social Event

To celebrate the end of term and the end of our run as the PA Committee, we’d like to invite you to join us at  our End of Year Summer Party on Sunday 15th July from 1pm.

Venue: St Albans Rugby Club, Oaklands Lane, St Albans AL4 0HR – the club is just off the Hatfield Road near Notcutts Garden Centre (turn left at the Smallford mini roundabout just before Notcutts and entry to the club is signed on the left). It’s also on bus route 602 – Smallford Roundabout Stop.

• Bring a picnic and/or some food to barbeque – they have barbeques there that they’re happy for us to use.
• Live music from Camp School’s very own Band Camp, in one of their only live performances this year!
• There will be a cash bar run by the rugby club, which will be open all afternoon, with both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks at very reasonable prices (please do not bring your own alcohol / drinks)
• You are very welcome to bring a football / outdoor games / picnic rug / picnic chairs etc – the huge field will be at our disposal so children (and adults!) are very welcome to run around and play
• In the event of wet weather there is plenty of space indoors and a covered area for the barbeque so we will carry on regardless

Everyone is welcome, so please invite friends and family to join you. We hope to see you there

The PA Team

Camp School Summer Fair Saturday 23rd June 2012

Camp School Parents’ Association invite you to the school Summer Fair

We have loads of fab stalls and events, including a brilliant raffle, bouncy castle, football tournament, wooden games, cafe, homemade cakes, bbq, strawberries, Pimms, pocket money stall, tombolas, Year 6 are selling books that they’ve written themselves, face painting, crafts for the children to do, cup-cake decorating, Neal’s Yard, plants, wine game, a performance from our fabulous choir and loads more too!

Entry is 50p for adults and free for children.

Really hope you can make it – we look forward to seeing you there.

The PA Team

Mother’s Day Afternoon Weds 14th March