Konnie Huq from Blue Peter - visited school - 01/12/06
On
Friday 1st December Konnie Huq an ex Montpelier Primary School pupil
will be visiting our school as part of the BLUE PETER 'Shoe Biz" Appeal
Children are encouraged to wear wellies to school (but bring your school
shoes). Each Child should pay One Pound to the Shoe Biz Appeal fund
at the school
The BBC will be filming at the school on the day for a short film which will
apear on BLUE PETER on Monday 4th December.
Make sure you fill out the consent form which
should have come home.
All the money you and your friends raise by taking part in Wear Your Wellies
Day will help to buy blankets, food and care for children in Malawi.
March 4th was a great success - thanks to all concerned for turning up and making it a worthwhile event. Big thank you to Diane and Yolanda.
Ian Stephen was quizmaster and our warmest thanks go to him for an entertaining list of questions. In the end there was very little between the top teams and yet again the Marathon round proved to be the deciding factor.
International
Food Fayre was a great success -
The food fayre was very successful in raising funds. The committee expressed
their thanks to DT and Yolanda Pitarch. There was a lively discussion about
making the event less intimidating and safer for younger children, particularly
between 3.15-3.30pm. Suggestions included bringing the date forward and
selling cakes in a different room. The committee agreed that the arrangements
for the food fayre need to be reviewed before next year.
Net Profit for
the Food Fayre: £1015.46
Annual Christmas Disco - again a great success
A fun time was had - due to the meticulous organisation and planning for this event. Parents gave their time to provide an enjoyable evening for the infant and junior children. With Santa, the food, snacks, drinks, music and body painting.
OVER £700 profit was raised
A great night was had by all - thanks to all who came along and those who organised the event (see below). With the auction of tickets to see Rod Stewart, Foo Fighters and Coldplay (well done Shirley) the proceeds from the evening ARE WELL OVER £700
Team winners got to collect their prizes of DVDs and CDs at the end of the night. Losing team got a bumper box of Crisps with a dubious sell by date!
Quizmaster was Jon Sellins. Nathan Graves sorted the quiz itself, Audrey Sellins organised, Richard Piercy set up the sound and Sarah Burbidge, Julie Berry and Janine helped with the bar, scoring and food.
Also the concert tickets for the auction were organised by Jon & Audrey Sellins
Fifty volunteers from broadcaster BSkyB swapped their offices for our school for a day during the summer holidays to help pupils and parents with the project to make-over the school grounds.
Accountants and other finance staff from the west-London based firm
came in on August 18th. Ground-force style, they worked in teams to help
on the long-term project parents are running to improve the grounds with
the help of children and the school's new gardening club.
On a baking
hot day, the volunteers cleared rough ground to help parents to begin
creating what will be a 'Fairy Tale Garden' by the Montpelier Park entance.
They put in two child-size benches, stepping stones and painted a Snakes
and Ladders mural on the sloped paving stones outside what was 2C.
They also cleared the banks in the junior
playground of weeds and brambles and tidied up the area before putting
down bark chips, which should reduce the mud in the area.
They also cleared the mud bank above teachers' car park and put down grass turf. The finance staff also helped level and prepare a triangle of the junior banks where we started planting last term, meaning that children will be able to plant more shrubs there this autumn term.
As well as their hard work, the BSkyB also invested £2,500 in funding the day's project. Team leaders from the firm had spent several hours at the school previously talking to Mr Rai and parent Angela Martin from the PTA's school grounds team, finding out what the school's aims were. They then went away to add some ideas of their own.
The 2005 Annual School Fete was held on Saturday 25th June , the weather stayed dry - though everyone got soaked by water pistols in the end!
Hundreds of people came to enjoy a wide range of activities. Early estimates put the sum raised at well over £11,000 before costs.
There are still some late raffle returns/refunds of sale or return goods.
The final figure will announced soon.
The PTA wishes to thank all sponsors who contributed to the Fete
and also the parents and carers (and children) who helped out -
whether for the whole day or just half an hour.
BUILDING PLANS FOR SCHOOL
Our
School is to receive £3.5 million for building programme
In a surprise announcement, Head Mr Rai has announced the exciting news
that "Ealing Council has approved a substantial level of financial
investment
into rebuilding part of Montpelier School. Parents and children will be
kept informed of key areas of progress and the children's education is
always central to any decision making"
Details of the scheme are still being planned but
they will include the removal of most 'temporary buildings' around the
school (classrooms etc) and the building of a new classroom block and
other facilities.
The PTA take this opportunity of thanking Mr
Rai and all those involved in the negotiations and will keep an eye out
for any developments.
INTER-SCHOOL QUIZ
The
first ever Inter School PTA quiz, organised by Montpelier PTA took place
on Saturday 21st May. The prize money of £300 was kindly donated
by Scott McCabe Associates of Ealing. The evening was a great success
and was well attended. Each PTA was allowed 50 seats and the lower hall
was packed for a fun-filled evening. There were five tables for each
PTA and it was a rowdy affair at times (those St Gregory's lot of course!
As each
round passed it was clear it was going to be a close run thing, (see the
scores). Quizmaster Rob Fenton and his team kept up posted on the scores
but no-one was expecting the final result. It was so close there had to
be a re-count. Eventually St Gregory's team were crowned the winners and
gained the trophy.
The final score totals of each schools
tables added together were :
Montpelier 394.5
North Ealing School 396
St Gregory's 398.5
when asked if everyone wanted a re-match next year there were huge cheers, so it seems we have created a new annual event - we will get the cup back next year won't we?
Thanks to all those who helped in any way. Through selling tickets to running the bar on the night and helping set up. The event would not have taken place and been such a success if it wasn't for the hard work of all of you.
for Legoland for MONDAY 6TH JUNE 2005 Our children will be off school that day because
Montpelier Primary School has an “occasional day” on Monday 6th June, although most other schoolchildren will already be back. Why not spend the day at Legoland with your family and friends
at the fabulous price of just £10 per ticket
(adult or child aged 3 - 15 yrs)?
a family of four could go for £40 instead of £92Full price tickets are normally £24 for adults and £22 for children.
Please complete the booking form (download it here) and return it
to the PTA Tray in the School Office
by Friday 29th April AT THE LATEST.
Late requests unfortunately cannot be accepted.
Tickets will be sent via your child in plenty of time before the school
breaks up for half term on Friday 27th May.
Jamie Oliver's FOOD FOR LIFE The Soil Association
are doing a schools meal campaign that parents / carers found interesting.
On Wednesday 23 February a major Channel
4 TV series about school meals featuring Jamie Oliver started.
The Soil Association and school meals policy advisor, Jeanette Orrey, are working
with Jamie Oliver and schools in Greenwich to improve the food served to their
pupils.
visit Feedmebetter.com
read Jamie Oliver's Manifesto for
change.
Non Uniform Day - this poular event raised £468.86 (what happened to the other 14p we wonder!)
Quiz
night was held on 5th February
to raise money for the PTA. The quizmaster was local man Rob Fenton,
with his wife and team of helpers. Over 90 people attended and a good
time was had by all. there were 7 rounds and a 'Marathon' round, (printed
questions which could be answered during the break for supper. Supper
was Fish and Chips, and a Vegetarian Burger. During the evening varioous
'Heads and Tails rounds were held, with people donating £1 each for a chance to win £20, by
guessing which side up a coin would land. The remainder of the collected
money going into the 'takings'. There was a bar with Beer, Wine and Soft
Drinks which was manned by PTA volunteers. There was a teachers table
and Mr Rai attended on a rival table. By the end of the evening, it looked
like we had raised over a thousand pounds and once costs were taken into
consideration the final net total after all costs, was £1073.70
Congratulations to the winning team . Look out for the next quiz night which
will be a music quiz.
See report
New forum set up for chats and discussions - a discussion board where we can share fundraising ideas and anything else in a password protected area. the web address for the forum can be found here
Fallen Trees -
around the school - trees are removed by the winds and safety concerns
COMPUTERS
During the recent PTA meeting (minutes available here) it was brought to
everyones attention that Mr Rai has purchased 30 new computers for the
School.
It was felt that a decent computer suite is needed to attract children to school.
Also that having a suite which enables every child to have access to a computer
to use which may not have in home environment is worthwhile.
After being put to the vote it has been decided to give £16,500 from PTA funds to fund the computer purchases, on the condition that there is adequate support in place to ensure the maintenance of the equipment.
So the new IT suite may well become know as the "PTA - I.T. Suite"
ARTS WEEK
Also at the same meeting, Mr Maccadum discussed the forthcoming 'Arts Week',
which was considered a great success last year. It is to be repeated this
year, 28th Feb to 4th March 2005.
This time the school is looking for more outside help to widen the event, and to help fund this the PTA agreed to give £1100 of funds towards Arts Week 2005
Santa
raises £273
this is the total raised from the £1 donations during Santa's school
visit
Food for thought - the International Food Fair was a great success - raising £1000. Many thanks to all who contributed - and special thanks to Diane and Yolanda.
new Disco record -
we raised £1600 at the xmas disco 2004 - well done to all who came and
helped out and a special thanks to Janine