Newsletter Highlights
We’re coming to the end of another school year and what a year we’ve had!
As always the end of the year is bittersweet with a heady mix of celebrations 🥳thank yous 🤩 and goodbyes 😘
We’re going to start by saying a HUGE thank you to everyone who has baked, lugged, decorated, sorted, designed, messaged, cleaned, donated, counted, organised, joined in this year… whatever you’ve contributed and however you’ve supported our school and our PA this year we appreciate it more than we can say!
We also send grateful thanks to our amazing group of Community Partners and Friends of Bolingbroke PA, businesses who share our vision of community and provide generous support to the PA.
Some of our longest-standing and most committed volunteers are leaving us this year as their children move on to the next stage of life 😥
They’ll be hard to replace so please look out for volunteer shout-outs on your year group WhatsApp chats
The great news is that all of this brilliant teamwork, creativity and good old-fashioned hard work has resulted in our biggest ever fundraising total of over £60,000! Find out more in our End of Year Fundraising Round-up. There’s also an update in this section on the garden project we were aiming to fund this year which has unfortunately and unavoidably been delayed.
We’re not done with fun or fundraising for this year yet. We’ve got the Summer Social and Staff thank you collection as well as the distribution of prizes from our great Summer Raffle to go. Dates for next term’s PA events are already up on the Events section of the website too so you can update your diaries over the holidays. And house t-shirts are available to pre-order for September too.
It’s hard to capture all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into running the PA but believe it there is a BIG LOT! Naomi, the PA Treasurer for the past year and Co-Chair before that, has been a quiet powerhouse making things run smoothly and contributing way above and beyond the normal Treasurer brief. She will be very much missed as she leaves us at the end of her term. We thank her for her contribution, dedication and cool-headedness in the past 3 years.
We do not have a replacement for the brilliant Naomi and will face significant challenges continuing all we do without a Treasurer, so we’d love to hear of anyone who might take on this role. There’s more on what’s involved and other volunteer opportunities in the Committee Update section.
For more event photos check out the Gallery page on our website
We’re delighted that Tanya will take over as Chair from September as Vic Davies also steps down after 3 years on the Committee. We’re so lucky to have Tanya at the helm with her many years of school fundraising experience and great organisational skills!
As always, please don’t hesitate to get in touch about anything and everything. We’d love to hear from you.
Wishing all of our families a very happy holiday and for those leaving Bolingbroke we wish you well for whatever the future holds. For everyone else, we’ll see you in September!
With very best wishes from the PA Committee
p1
Don't miss out! 😃 PA activities to the end of term 🎉
Don't miss out! 😃 PA activities to the end of term 🎉
-
Summer Social - no need to book in just turn up!
Enjoy drinks and chat with friends to celebrate the end of another school year. We’ll be serving delicious tacos alongside our usual very fine bar.
This event runs alongside the Bolingbroke Academy Summer Showcase of music, poetry and art.
-
Staff thank you collection
We are collecting donations to thank our brilliant school staff for all they do to educate, look after and create opportunities for our children. The money raised goes to fund staff celebrations throughout the year. We thank you for every penny that you can give!
-
House T-shirts available to pre-order for the new school year
Select your house and buy in our online shop. T-shirts will be available to collect from school in time for Sports Day on 19th September.
-
Are you a winner in our sizzling Summer Raffle?
The Raffle will be drawn at the Summer Social on 12th July. If you’ve won one of the gorgeous prizes you’ll receive an email to let you know. Please get in touch wth any questions.
p2
Could you be our next Treasurer?
Treasurer is a vital and well-defined role and can be quite contained - a great way for a working person to get involved in the PA. You need to be comfortable with financial matters, organised and able to commit a few hours a month.
We currently don’t have anyone for the Treasurer role from September and will struggle to function without one so this is our highest priority role to fill as a Committee right now.
To find out what’s involved please email us for a chat.
Out-going Chair, Vic (left), and out-going Treasurer, Naomi, were chuffed to receive thank you flowers from the PA committee!
Farewell from Chair Vic Davies
I have been proud and humbled to be the Chair of Bolingbroke PA for the past year. Proud of what we have achieved as a community of parents and carers in support of our school. And humbled by the enormous commitment of time, energy and enthusiasm that is shown time and again by the PA Committee and all of our amazing helpers in the parent and carer community.
I have learned a huge amount personally and developed valuable new skills - skills I had not learned in 30 years professional work. It has been a lot of fun to be part of such a great team and to meet so many good people. Most importantly it has been a privilege to help our school to be even better than it otherwise would be by connecting this great community of parents and carers and funding extras to enhance school life and opportunities.
Thank you to everyone who has helped me and the PA team to do all this. After 9 years, I will no longer have children at the school in September. I’m sorry to leave, but you have a great new Chair in Tanya and I’m excited to see what the PA will achieve in the future.
Love Vic x
Help needed on other specialist tasks
There are some areas of PA activity where specialist skills are really helpful and we are always looking for people who can help out. If this looks like you and you can lend us a hand for a couple of hours a month please get in touch:
Marketing helping to communicate to parents and carers about our events
Sponsor management liaising with local businesses and crafting appealing offers
Newsletter creation creating our termly mail-out to parents
Grants identifying, prioritising and completing applications for funding
Digital skills ecommerce, website management, social media, digital desktop
Graphic design creating artwork to promote our events and liven up our website
About the PA Committee
Some of the current committee and their partners - it’s a family affair!
We currently have a truly international committee of 13 who help us to fulfil our purpose of connecting the community and raising funds to support our school. The committee work as a team to cover the planning, organising, communicating and behind-the-scenes administration and governance work for Bolingbroke PA. For major events we reach out to a veritable army of parents and carers to help bring them to life.
Our committee is friendly and inclusive and you can take part on your own terms. Dare we say… it’s a lot less intense than some local primary schools. You don’t need specialist skills, just a willingness to team up and help out and you’ll need to come along to meetings once per half term. We’re very conscious that the committee is not representative of the diversity of our school and community and would especially love to change this.
We hope to add a few new committee members each year to replace those moving on. Everyone is welcome and we’re especially keen to include parents and carers in years 7, 8 and 9. If you’d like to get involved please get in touch!
p3
We’re beyond delighted to share that 2023-4 PA fundraising has beaten all previous years raising over £60,000 to support our school by funding the extras that would not otherwise be possible
As well as our traditional events-based fundraising, we’ve increased our fundraising capacity this year by connecting to the community beyond Bolingbroke parents and carers. The Community Partner scheme, Business Directory, Matched Funding and Grants are all new sources of income for this year. None of our fundraising is possible without literally an army of helpers and we gratefully thank everyone who takes part in and supports PA activities.
In this section we’ll tell you how we raised the money this year and how it will support our school. Please get in touch with questions or ideas on fundraising.
Bolingbroke PA 2023-4 fundraising in numbers
Fundraising highlights
The much-loved Treasure Hunt and BBQ, our first event of the school year, raised £1,600
Christmas events including the Christmas Fayre, tree sales and wreath-making workshop made over £8,000 for our school
Delicious international food and drink on offer helped raise a total of £7,600 at the Spring Fair
Direct donations at the Spring Fair, house t-shirt sales, grants and a rental fee from a local primary school helped us to fund the purchase of a high jump mat
Businesses listing in our new Business Directory contributed £1,500 with Community Partners adding a further £4,500
Year 7 entrepreneurs knocked it out of the park and raised £2,400 in our first ever Enterprise Competition
Even megastar Taylor Swift helped Bolingbroke PA fundraising… our auction of donated tickets for her Eras Tour raised over £2,000!
2023-4 donations to our school
We have recently heard from school that a major essential building repair project will be starting in the next school year. This will require storage of equipment in the Butterfly Garden space and means it is not advisable to proceed with the re-build of the garden this summer. We know parents and carers will share our disappointment at this news and especially as we are on track to meet the fundraising target.
The vision Ms Edis shared for creating a well-being garden in the Butterfly Garden space was exciting and motivating for our fundraising. Despite its pretty name, this was much more than a pretty-ing up project. Bringing this area into use will increase the outdoor space available to pupils and staff by around 30% and would create an entirely new space for break times and free periods away from the exam hall and usual breaktime hubbub.
This project will only be possible with external financing as it cannot be prioritised in the school budget - and that’s exactly what PA fundraising is for. We have been assured by Ms Edis that building the garden remains a goal as the staff and pupils would benefit in many ways with so little outdoor space on our site currently.
Next steps to allocate PA funds for 2023-4
We have agreed in principle to release some of the funds we had accrued for the garden re-build so that they can be put to good use in the short-term. We propose to keep the rest in reserve until we have a clearer idea of timings for the garden re-build.
The news about the building project came late in the school year so PA Trustees are now working with Ms Edis and Acting Chair of Governors, Katharine Jackson, to identify exactly where PA funds could be best deployed. Areas so far under consideration are technology, sports, pupil celebrations (Proms) DofE and welfare.
We’ll keep you posted and if you have questions or comments in the meantime please get in touch.
In the coming year we will continue fundraising for future school “extras” including the garden. We’re hopeful that the school’s building project may result in a lower cost for the garden build. It’s less exciting not to have a clear fundraising goal but it is just as important to be able to fund a range of smaller needs.
If you’d like to get involved in decisions on how to allocate PA funds then we’d love to have you on our Committee!
How PA fundraising supports our school
Funds raised through PA activities and events are used to fund “extras” that add to school life and opportunities. We agree these annually in consultation with Ms Edis and the finance link governor. The PA currently makes a sizeable annual contribution to sports and provide a fund to help pupils and staff with equipment and ad hoc expenses. In the past we have funded the refurbishment of a science lab and food tech room which was a 2-year fundraising goal, sports equipment, sports coaching, welfare needs, pupil and staff celebrations, laptops, classroom equipment and much more.
The rules for the allocation of PA funds are consciously flexible. As we are entirely volunteer-run and our fundraising is event-driven we are careful not to over-commit and we also want to align the use of our funds to the interests of our parent and carer community. We therefore will not normally donate PA funds for retrospective, recurring or core operational expenses. Our governing document prevents us from funding statutory educational needs.
Parents who would like to support the core financing needs of our school and help address the on-going funding gap are encouraged to donate via the school’s Regular Giving Scheme (RGS).
p4
We’ve featured our biggest events and activities this term in this section. We’ve also supported the KS3 play and 2 music department concerts with refreshments, helped 6th form to run tuck shops, set up the Summer Raffle, supported feeder school transfer evenings and auctioned Taylor Swift tickets…. phew! 😅 Time for the holidays! 😎
Parent volunteers decorated and donated for proms and soirées for years 9, 11 and 13
Parent volunteers love helping out at the end of year celebrations and especially those in the big milestone years. The PA has supported year 11 and 13 pupils to fundraise for their leaving Proms throughout the year and we’ve been so impressed with how they’ve applied themselves. You may have seen these pupils running stalls at our events and the latest initiative is Year 12 running tuck shops after school to fundraise for the Year 13 Prom.
The funds raised go to making their celebrations even better than they would otherwise have been allowing them to rent photo booths, create lovely decorations, supply mocktails and other treats on the night.
We’re always looking for helpers on these occasions so get in touch with your year group rep on WhatsApp or contact us at the button below if you’d like to lend a hand.
We’ve been helping families joining in September to get ready for their new school
We’ve set up a special web page with helpful information, we’ve been advising on uniform and selling our pre-loved uniform stock, we’ve been offering Bolingbroke-approved stationery sets and we hosted welcome drinks for new year 7 parents in the school courtyard! It’s been great to meet so many lovely new families and we can’t wait for our special welcome events in September.
Pre-loved uniform and stationery sets are on offer to all Bolingbroke families so please get in touch if you’d like to buy! Online sales will open again in the new school year.
This year’s Spring Fair was a brilliant day of friendship and fun
The Spring Fair would not have been possible without the amazing support of our fantastic community of parents, carers, sixth formers, school staff and the generosity and braiding talents of our event sponsors Hari’s. We had over 90 volunteers making this event happen - what a brilliant demonstration of the community spirit at Bolingbroke Academy! No-one would deny that Marina Dempster as Spring Fair organiser in chief aced it and made this the best Spring Fair ever! Thank you so much Marina!
Re-live the day or see what you missed with the gorgeous photos generously donated by Irene Scioti.
We’ve expanded our Business Directory to over 30 entries
Many of these brilliant local and parent-run businesses are offering deals for Bolingbroke families
We hope their support will encourage you to consider their services when you shop and keep it local! Make sure to mention that you are a Bolingbroke family when using their services to access discounts and offers!
If you’d like to list a business or know someone who would, you can sign up here.
If you’d like to discuss business sponsorship opportunities or any other ideas about business partnering please contact us.
p6
As a PA our goals are getting more ambitious and we are expanding our fundraising outside of the parent community
We are delighted to announce a further 3 brilliant local businesses as Bolingbroke PA Community Partners
Azteca, Bellevue Pharmacy & Noble Estates are very different businesses but they are united in their belief that supporting Bolingbroke is a great way to give back and explain a little about why they wanted to join the scheme below
Please support these and our other Community Partner businesses by choosing them when you shop, dine and seek services and please mention the Bolingbroke connection when you do!
These new additions bring to 7 the brilliant local businesses who generously support Bolingbroke PA as Community Partners
The full list is
Al Gusto
Azteca
Bellevue Pharmacy
Four Sides
Noble Estates
Oddono’s
Rampton Baseley
We thank them very much for their support and friendship!
More about our newest Community Partners
Bellevue Pharmacy founders Hassan & Maggie write
Welcome to Bellevue Pharmacy. Meet the team…
We have been here since June 4th 2021 and since that period we have developed a bespoke pharmacy that specializes, not only in pharmacy, but also in herbal medicine and we invest in local entrepreneurs, by stocking their ethical unique ranges in the pharmacy, providing tremendous benefits that aren't fulfilled in the current market.
In addition we have our very own, first of its kind, a naturopathic nutritionist, Ali, she originates from Australia and has been with us since March 2023.
Ali's expertise is in sports nutrition but covers all ranges of health and has a qualified naturopathic practioner, Ali can also create herbal remedies from scratch. Ali is also the brains behind the infamous
The Bellevue Times newsletter that is distributed to 4000 homes in Wandsworth Common. Each month we develop a themed topic and on the back page we represent, as mentioned earlier, one of our local entrepreneurs to provide awareness for the locals to support and encourage.
Each month we also host 2-3 events in the pharmacy from 6pm that's organised by Hassan which we would have the Founders/CEO or qualified practioners such as Homeopathic Doctor, Naturopaths and more.
We are your all in one encompassing pharmacy that thinks and provides all avenues with a solution. Every pharmacy needs to take this personalized approach and embed themselves with their local community. This is how we thrive and continue to evolve as a society.
We are delighted to support Bolingbroke Academy and look forward to welcoming you to our pharmacy.
Hassan & Maggie
Tel: 02086722135
Address: 13 Bellevue Road, Wandsworth Common, London SW17 7EG
email Prescription: pharmacy.ffe83@nhs.net
email Enquiries: bellevuepharmacyhm@gmail.com
Noble Estates founder Nick Goble writes
Noble Estates may be a new name in “Between the Commons”, but we are certainly not the new kids on the block.
Our rebranding last year from a well-known franchise organisation has been significant. We are thrilled at how well it has been received by our existing and new clients.
After a lengthy search, we are delighted to have opened an office on Northcote Road (120) to complement our Old Town office.
Our Founder, Nick Goble, has been selling properties in this area since 1990. The first property he sold was a 4-bedroom house on Grandison Road for £174,500!
As one of the few independent agencies, we would be delighted to offer the best advice without the usual fluff if you are selling or renting your property.
In addition to the standard services, we are particularly strong in Land and New Homes and the sensitive area of probates.
We are pleased to offer the parents of Bolingbroke free advice on any property-related issues. Just call or email Nick on 07788677970. nick.goble@noble-estates.co.uk
We are delighted to partner with Bolingbroke Academy and look forward to building a longstanding mutual relationship with the school.
Azteca Partners Simon Oldham and Louis Hysa write
We are delighted to join the Bolingbroke Academy family.
The local school should always be at the heart of any community. Nurturing, guiding and educating the next generation should always be any society's number 1 priority. The local community has given us a very warm welcome and this is our way of paying back that kindness.
We are very happy to be able to help and look forward to welcoming you to our restaurant located ot 5-9 Battersea Rise.
Simon & Louis
p7
And finally... Here are some fundraisers which are no cost or very low cost to you but can make a big difference to our school!
Does your company have a matched fundraising scheme?
Bolingbroke PA is a registered charity (official name The Bolingbroke Trust) so that opens up a number of external fundraising opportunities. Does your employer have a matching scheme? Many do, especially larger companies. If you’re not sure, ask your HR department. We received £1000 in matched funding for our quiz night thanks to organiser Rob Williams and Barclays.
Companies may donate to match volunteering time given even if just an hour or two. You don’t need to be an event organiser or significant donor and you don’t need to be one of the big bosses either. The schemes are open to all employees equally.
We have collated a list of potential donors but you should check directly with your company too as schemes frequently change.
We’d be very happy to provide any necessary information to support an application.
Free donations with easyfundraising
Once you are registered, whenever you shop online 1000s of your favourite retailers will donate to Bolingbroke PA. That’s totally free money for the school!
It’s completely free and super-easy to sign up then just click through to the retailer of your choice via easyfundraising to get the free donations. The pennies soon add up and Bolingbroke PA has raised over £7k through easyfundraising to date.
Don’t forget to download the donation reminder on your device to make sure you don’t miss a penny! It all adds up to several thousand pounds of completely free money for the PA!
Did you know you can win cash every month in the PA 50:50 Club lottery?
Win cash prizes and donate to the school when you join our 50:50 club. It’s a lottery where the pot gets bigger the more people who join. Each month a winner is drawn who receives half of the pot. The other half goes to the PA. Nice!
Sign up before the 20th of the month to join the draw. Click the button to find out how, the date of the next draw and who has won this month’s prize!
Free cash for the PA when you buy STIKINS name labels
To ensure your children no longer have any lost property, please label everything!
Use the code: 36476 at checkout when you buy STIKINS name labels and they will donate 30% to Bolingbroke PA!
Taking on a challenge this year? Consider fundraising for Bolingbroke!
Up for the London Marathon, London to Brighton bike ride or another sponsored challenge?
Why not set yourself a goal and raise money for Bolingbroke in the process? We’ll provide you with all the information and support you need to channel that sponsorship into Bolingbroke PA
That’s all for this newsletter
Thank you so much for your interest and support!
Please follow us on social media #bolingbrokepa and get in touch any time