12 Oct Minutes of CF Committee Meeting – 2 October 2018
Attendees from the Committee and School:
Elizabeth Mackie (Chair), Nikki McNamara (Class Rep Coordinator), Leon Choueke (Head), Mel Solomou, Lorraine Gerrard (Chair of Governors), Challe Hudson
Not present: Kit Bhatti, Andy Day, Helene Fauquet, Sarah Wiley, Alan Midgley, Francesca Iannaccone, Peter Salerno, Morinade Akinbobola, Eva Gonzalez, Katie Colton, Lucy Davies, Susie Cottee, Claire Slater, Ana-Maria Volaric, Nora Ghanem, Claire Wright, Sam Scott, Andrea Voros, Nina Job, Suz Cocksedge
Grounds Project
The MUGA carpet replacement fund now has £8k in it. LC will find out the replacement cost so we can stop setting money aside when the total required is reached.
On the grounds projects more generally significant remedial works were required. Some smaller items were being actioned but on the larger scale works the school was waiting for confirmation from Haringey as to when they would start the necessary structural works. In the meantime, work had started on the Nursery area. It was noted that very few parents had attended the two days at the end of September set aside for that project. It was likely that contractors would be employed to finish these works.
Work was being done by the Governors on the plans for what would happen after the groundworks were complete. The committee were keen to be able to identify what was going to happen as those who contributed to the fundraising were regularly wanting to know how it was to be spent.
[To note: the new water fountains the committee had agreed to fund in the Summer Term had been purchased]
Funding and Spending
It was confirmed that the latest round of donations to the LEF (and related Gift Aid) for the 17/18 school year totalling just over £24,000 had been transferred to school (after approval at the meeting in the Summer Term). LC confirmed that Years 3 to 6 now had their whiteboards, Year 2 had materials to improve the teaching of reading, Year 1 had community blocks. The next projects would be lesson studies (as referred to in LC’s school development talk) and more materials for Reception. A letter would go out to the School from LC with more details.
There is a significant balance (less committed expenses & reserves) of nearly £80,000 – this is predominantly earmarked for the major projects of the Halls (almost complete) and Grounds.
Events and Inclusion
The Halloween had been cancelled due to the issues last year. A dress up day was proposed as a suitable alternative.
The Fireworks committee had been significantly reduced as people had left school or being otherwise engaged. Year groups had been asked to take on individual stalls. It was however still a big burden on the remaining committee members. This was a risk with pure committee based events.
There was discussion of reducing the events or perhaps doing lower impact events such as kids’ movie nights which required limited organisation and events without fundraising for eg Cultures of Coleridge /international food day. We also discussed barriers to participation by parents in activities eg particularly those with cultures which didn’t feature alcohol or the concept of “drinks”.
Sponsorship
Martyn Gerrard had offered to renew their sponsorship for a further year. The Committee agreed that the proposal looked good (see attached). The proposal was agreed (subject to any comments from other committee members) and would be put to the Sponsorship sub-committee of the Governors for final approval. The committee agreed that a thank you to MG for all their help last year which went above and beyond would go in the next circular email.
Recruitment
There was agreement that new people were needed on Committee in particular from the East Side. Many of the committee had been on it a long time and succession planning was becoming an acute issue in particular for NM and EM. We agreed that a new advertising drive was needed with roles broken down as far as possible to make them more manageable and perhaps if there was limited uptake that a potential way forward would be a part time paid admin person similar to the Clerk to the Governors.
AOB
LC mentioned that contributions to the trips funds were still low for all years and particularly low from Reception. Reps would be asked to encourage their classes to contribute to the funds. The amount raised would dictate the number and nature of the trips for each year.
Update: The next meeting is the AGM on 12 November at 7.30pm.
Elizabeth Mackie October 2018