Dear Parents and Carers
I hope this email finds you and your families well and that everyone has been settling in well since the start of the term, and with September almost drawing to an end, we have another update for you on what’s been happening in the Parent Forum recently.
Annual General Meeting
Last week we held our Annual General Meeting, where our new Parent Council was voted in. The Parent Council is the business committee of the Forum which organises and coordinates the activities of the Parent Forum, and is made up of elected and co-opted office bearers, and a number of ordinary members. You can find an overview of our new Parent Council members on our website and minutes of the meeting will also be made available on the website once they are ready.
Community Engagement & Fundraising
The spotlight of this month’s update is on our Community Engagement & Fundraising team, which includes our community engagement and fundraising officers, our events treasurer, as well as our class rep co-ordinator. With all of our in-person event having been cancelled since March and until further notice, we have been focusing on developing fundraising ideas that can work within the social distancing measures and other restrictions we are currently faced with. This has meant ruling out some ideas that have worked in the past, and finding compromises and alternatives as unfortunately it’s not business as usual this year.
Greetings Cards Art Competition
We currently have two fundraisers in progress. Firstly, our Greetings Cards Art Competition. Children from across all year groups at school are invited to draw and enter a design in response to the theme of Community, with the winning design being printed on greetings cards which will then be for sale. The team at The Edinburgh Bookshop will act as our independent judging panel. All information on how to enter can be found on our website. All entries need to submitted by Monday 28 September, as they will be passed on to our judging panel on Tuesday morning – so you only have Sunday and Monday left to get creative!
Self-Portrait Tea Towels
Secondly, we are also producing tea towels for each year group with self-portraits of the children, which will then also be for sale. Details on how to take part were sent out last week via our mailing list and via class reps. If you have not received any information about this yet, then please let us know by replying to this email. Since there seem to have been technical issues with some emails being delivered, we are extending the deadline to submit self-portraits for the tea towels until Friday 2 October at 12 noon.
Orders are due to open on the 1st October, via our website, and we anticipate both the cards and tea towels being delivered by mid to late November. We will send out more information nearer the time on when and how to pick them up.
Looking Ahead
Looking ahead to the rest of the term, we are planning a fun pumpkin carving contest in late October, in lieu of the P5/P6 Halloween Party which is sadly like so many other things is cancelled this year. The pumpkin carving is always a popular part of this, and this year all year groups will be able to take part from home. And for November/December we are busy working on a Winter Windows trail around our community – think rainbows in windows, but more wintery. It will be a fun and easy fundraiser to get involved in, and will offer something fun for the children and others in our community to look out for when our for our winter walks.
Best wishes, Jenni
Community Engagement
Bruntsfield Parent Council
