Friends of Clavering School

Registered charity number 1069704

Friends of Clavering is a very active organisation which enables parents to become involved in another aspect of school life.  Every parent is automatically a member of the Association.  The Friends of Clavering School, through its committee, organises many events such as Summer and Christmas fetes, dances and quiz nights and raises funds for a variety of projects for the school.

Spring 2025

Newsletter Jan 2025

Autumn 2024

Committee Update

We’ve had a few changes to the Friends of Clavering Committee for the new term, starting
with a sad goodbye to Anna Gawthorpe after seven years on the Committee, including 4 as
Chair. Anna did a wonderful job leading the Committee and whilst we’re sad to see her go,
we’re so grateful for everything she has done.

The Committee changes are therefore as follows, per the latest AGM held in September:
Chair: Jenny Hemsley
Treasurer: Jackie Thomerson
Secretary: Niamh Butler
Committee: Jen Middleton, Kate French, Lex Sellwood, Anna Green, Sarah Bicknell,
Anneline Ashby & Holli Thomas and welcome to our newest recruit, Ann Marie MacDonald.

Autumn Newsletter 2024 v2 (1)

 

Summer 2024

Newsletter May 24

Spring 2024

FoC Fundraising update Feb 24 (1)

Summer 2023

FOC Newsletter Summer 2023

Fun Run Parent Mail 05-07-2023 (1)

Summer Fayre

Spring 2023

FOC Easter Newsletter

Summer 2022

Friends of Clavering Newsletter Summer 2022

Spring 2022

FOC Newsletter Spring 2022

Pancake Flip Parentmail Template

Just Giving Parentmail Template (1)

Autumn 2021

Second Hand Uniform

Smile Amazon EasyFundraising

Pumpkin Parent Mail 2021 (1)

Summer 2021

Sunflower Parentmail Competition (1)

Spring 2021

FOC Newsletter March2021 2 (1)

Friends of Clavering Break5RulesDay Parentmail (1)

Autumn 2020

Dear All

A big welcome back to school after a very long summer!

Despite the restrictions due to COVID-19 the Friends of Clavering Committee has already been hard at work, although there have been a few changes over the summer.  We say a sad goodbye to our Chair for the last two years, Andrea Vaughan – thanks for all your hard work and dedication to the Committee.  Taking over the role as Co-Chairs are Tracy Pemberton and Anna Gawthorpe who are very pleased to be taking on the challenge of this year’s fundraising.

Despite the short school year, we managed to raise over £11,000 last year, purchasing the last remining interactive classroom white boards, assisting with the costs of the Reception and Year 1 playground improvements, and providing forest school leadership training.

Thank you so much for your contributions, as always it’s the parents that support our activities and we are very grateful.

This year is going to be challenging with regards to fundraising activities, but the Committee have come up with some great ideas already and we are positive that we can hold some fun events for the children and raise money to support his years projects, which are to purchase iPads and laptops to support the schools IT program.

Dates for your Diary

Fun Run – the children will be running in classroom bubbles around the school playing field, between the 12-22 October – donations collected on line using the following link:

www.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/ClaveringFunRun

Bag2School – 20^th October  – please bring your bags of clothes, bedding towels etc at school drop off and leave them on the grassed area opposite the school office.

Pumpkin Carving Competition  – 20^th October– carve your best pumpkin, take a photo and upload it to your team’s page – the teachers will award the best in each class.

With our online donations working well on the Virgin Money Giving page, if you would like to donate in addition to our regular events or even set up a monthly donation this can now be completed using the following link: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/finalCharityHomepage.action?charityId=1010732

All donations will be added to the Friends of Clavering Fundraising efforts.

If you would like to contact the committee, with any ideas, queries, or would like to help or join us, please don’t hesitate to contact Tracy and Anna using the FOC email address:

As always, thanks so much for supporting the Friends of Clavering, and we hope you enjoy the first term back.

Friends of Clavering

Newsletter Oct 2020 Final (1)

 

 

Spring 2019

FRIENDS OF CLAVERING SPRING NEWS LETTER

Dear All,

Happy New Year & welcome back to the spring term! The Friends of Clavering fund-raising team had a busy winter term, with huge support from our parent community and from the children! We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas  gifts chosen by the children at their own shopping morning experience! The Christmas Fayre was well-attended & raised approximately £1000, which is fabulous! And we were able to invite Calamity Clown to host  our annual entertainment event for the children, whilst the staff enjoyed a well-earned Christmas lunch!

**did you know? FOC has given over £75,000 to school projects in the last 7 years??!!**

As you know, our aim this year is to raise enough money to fund 5 brand new interactive white boards for each classroom and with your support and donations, we have already been able to put in an order for 3!! So well done and thank you, your help is appreciated.

Forthcoming dates for your diary:

The ever-popular Band Night is  9^th feb, doors open at 7.30pm, tickets only £10 (no sales on the door due to restrictions). Get your tickets from Rachel Betts, Charlie Balaam, Bev Bailey  or Andrea Vaughan, see you there! 💃

Valentines disco – 14^th feb, ks1, 5-6pm, ks2 6-7pm, ticket form will be in book bags.

QUIZ NIGHT- 2^nd March. Pit your wits against the teachers! Get a table of 8 together for a fun night out – chilli supper & cheese board included. £12.50 pp

EASTER CRAFT FAYRE – 3^rd April; lots of lovely Easter crafts for the kids in the hall! Games, egg hunt and café too!

Should you, or anyone you know, ever want to donate to our fund-raising campaign privately, we now have a Virgin Moneygiving page. This can be found on the website https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/giving/ and searching ‘friends of clavering school’ – quiz night tickets can also be bought on this site!! All donations go directly to school fund-raising.

You may be aware that there have been changes to the committee as older members stand down & new members step up; your co-chairs are now Rachel Betts & Andrea Vaughan (see photo if you don’t know us!!) Rachel has run FOC for 5 years now, and is ready to hand over the reins to a new team, headed up by Andrea, from Sept 2019. We are always in need of new committee members, now more than ever, so if you would like to help raise funds for the school, join a fun team & get to know lots of people, please let either of us know.

Wishing you all a happy & healthy 2019!!

Friends of Clavering

 

 

Autumn 2018

We had a great fundraising year in 2017/2018! Thanks to all your support the PTA managed to raise just over £10,000 which is an incredible amount. Major events in the fundraising year since Christmas have included the Valentines disco, the Clavering Ramble, the school summer fete, and of course the well-attended Prosecco Bar at the village fete!

Happily, the new outdoor play equipment is now in situ and has been a huge hit, and the train was renovated in the summer term by volunteer families and their paintbrushes!!! The computing provision across the school has been added to with the extra laptops paid for by funds raised last year.

This year, our focus is raising enough to replace the interactive white boards in most classrooms; the ones we have at the moment are dated and many not fit for purpose. These are such an important, interactive teaching tool nowadays, that the PTA feels strongly that we need the best we can afford.

So well done all of you parents! I cannot stress how grateful we are that you continuously support our events! With that in mind, some upcoming dates for you diaries:

1st November           Halloween Disco

22nd November      Bag2School

29th November      Film Night

7th December         Christmas Fayre

17th December       Christmas Shopping Morning

18th December      Christmas Entertainment

 

Thankyou all, let’s have another great fund-raising year!!!

Friends of Clavering

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Term Newsletter 2018

Dear all, welcome back and happy 2018!

Thank you for all your support last year!! As a fundraising team, we are well aware how lucky we are that we have parents who care so much about their school and get involved with all the events; we could not raise these funds without you! And with recent changes to school funding, it’s more vital than ever that we try to maintain our school’s high educational standards through fundraising.

Highlights from last years events included the lovely Christmas Fayre & shopping morning, we hope you were delighted with your surprise gifts; the children had so much fun choosing! We had a fun-packed Halloween disco, with a new DJ on the decks! Some great outfits & dance moves – look out for our next disco on 7th feb. The fun run was a huge success, thank-you for all sponsorship, we managed to raise about £1500. We also sold a lot of Apple juice, and still have some available, either from Rachel Betts, or Rickling Restored; stock up for Easter!

Our application for funds for an all-weather pitch has sadly been turned down, but this is ongoing and may well be able to be amended and re-submitted, and In the meantime we have some exciting news; we have raised enough to allow us to start work on the children’s outdoor play area! Miss Allsop has paid attention to the wish lists from all the year groups, and we hope the new equipment will be thoroughly enjoyed, and hopefully in time for the start of the summer term, hooray!

Also this year, the school needed to replace old and worn out laptops; the school funds provided for only 5, so your funds enabled us to buy another 5 so a whole class can work together on IT and computer science.

So well done all of you parents! I cannot stress how grateful we are that you continuously support our events! With that in mind, some upcoming dates for you diaries:
Weds 7th Feb – valentines fancy dress disco
Sat 10th March- Quiz night! Book a table with Rachel Betts or let the office know
Thurs 15th March – film night, film TBC
Weds 28th March – easter craft fayre
We will also be putting on the much-loved Easter egg hunt for all years on the last day of term.

Thankyou all, let’s have another great fund-raising year!!!

Friends of Clavering

 

 

Autumn Term Newsletter 2017

Welcome Back

Hello everyone & welcome back to another new year at Clavering school! Welcome especially to our new pupils and their parents!

Friends of Clavering School is the school fund-raising team, and we work hard, with your support, to raise money each year for much-needed extra school resources, keeping academic and sporting standards as high as possible.

Last year was a great fund-raising year! We made just over £11,300, from fetes, quiz nights, film nights, parties for the grown-ups, Apple-pressing, and much more.

As a result, last year we could give the school over £9,000 much of which was invested in an advanced maths programme & to upgrade class and personal IT resources. When your child tells you about the fun iPad learning they did, remember your money allowed us to provide that opportunity!

This Years Fundraising Objectives

This year, we are feeling super-focussed and will be aiming high, we will be raising funds for two exciting projects to improve the outside play areas.

 All weather pitch

As you may remember, the dads cycling team started us off raising a huge £16,000 for an ambitious all-weather pitch on the often water-logged, therefore unusable, sports field. The all-weather pitch will cost much more than this. However, we have spent a considerable amount of time working on a grant application with Sport England. If successful, this will fund half of what we need, we would need to raise the funds for the balance, so your support here will be invaluable.

 New playground equipment

Also at the top of this year’s list is replacing the play-equipment. The school has sourced some fantastic new and very fun equipment, and the hugely successful Tipi Party last March has provided a great starting fund-pot; however, to get the best we can, we are still fund-raising for this project, but hope to see something in place very soon.

Ongoing resources support

Let’s not forget the on-going resources requirements that the school needs to ensure your child has the best academic opportunities we can provide, and our efforts will continue to support this

How can you help?

We have many exciting events coming up, many of which are loved by the kids, (fetes, Christmas shopping morning, Christmas cards, film nights); many of which provide social interaction opportunities with other parents, (quiz nights, parties, Christmas drinks); and some which invite the local community to support the school, (Apple drop, Tesco fundraising, bag2school, Clavering Ramble).

We need your support ladies and gents in any way you can; fill those jam jars with joy, buy those beautiful hand-drawn Christmas cards, get a table together for Quiz night and have a giggle or simply turn up to events and enjoy.

If you’d like to join the committee, we’re a friendly bunch, and you would need to bring your ideas to the pub once a half term! Our first meeting and AGM is on Wednesday 20th September, 8pm, Fox & Hounds pub. Or if the committee seems daunting, just let Rachel know that you can be relied upon for taking a stall, or selling tickets or any other general help (rachelrhodes2005@yahoo..co.uk). We are always grateful for any help offered.

Last Year’s Fundraising Highlights

Last year we raised a total of £11,300 including:

Halloween Disco – £476

Christmas Cards – £789

Christmas Shopping Morning – £431

Christmas Fair – £739

Film Night – £200

Apple Drop – £189

Lucky Lotto – £255

Valentines Disco – £603

Quiz Night – £700

Clavering Ramble – £615

Summer Fair – £904

Monkey Bar & Auction of Promises – £3,800

Stanstead Airport Passenger Fund Donation – £1,170

Matched Giving Credit-Suisse – £500

IMPORTANT DATES FOR THIS TERM

Friends Of Clavering AGM – 20th September

Apple Drop – 30th September

Bag To School – 13^th October

Halloween Disco – 19th October

 

Thank you all & see you very soon

Friends of Clavering Team

Spring Newsletter January 2017

Autumn Term – Thanks to everyone’s support last term we raised just over £3,000 from a variety of events. New to our fundraising was the Apple Drop, using donated apples from the village, we pressed 350 bottles of delicious apple juice all of which were sold before Christmas raising almost £200.

Fundraising Highlights

Halloween Disco	£475
Christmas Cards	£788
Christmas Fair	£739
Shopping Morning	£431
Film Night	£200
Easy fundraising	£107
Bag to School	£168

Events for This Term

We have already had two Saturday events partnering with Tescos to raise money for a new outdoor table tennis table, key dates for the rest of the term are:

• Valentines Disco – Thursday 9^th Feb
• School Quiz – Saturday 4^th March – Clavering Village Hall
• Easter Fair – Thursday 30^th March
• Egg Hunt – Friday 31^st March

Clavering School Lucky Lotto

The 2017 Lucky Lotto is here, last year we raised £400 for the school. There are 100 numbers and 10 times a year at Friday assembly 3 numbers are drawn. First Prize £20 Second Prize £10 Third Prize £5.

The cost is £10 per number, you can buy multiple numbers for a greater chance of winning. Once you have paid you will be given your allocated numbers

Last year £350 was won by parents and pupils! Numbers still available for 2017, the winning numbers are drawn on the last Friday of each month.

If you wish to enter the draw please contact Katherine Elphick []

SAVE THE DATE 2017 CLAVERING RAMBLE SUNDAY 23rd APRIL

Funding Update

• Multisport play area: This is an ongoing project, the School and Governors are applying for a number of grants to supplement the money raised by the 2015 cycle ride to meet the cost of the project. This process can be time-consuming and further fundraising will be required to meet the full costs.
• This year: We have been asked to help the school with further improvements in the schools IT (interactive whiteboards and laptops), Wider Ops, renovating the Reception play area, and replacements to playground equipment including the Monkey Bars.

And special thanks to:

• Councillor Oliver who delivered a donation of £1,000 from his ward members initiatives pot – £500 now and £500 in April to complete the outdoor pond area!
• Donation for new playground equipment from Sharon Dyster, on behalf of Clavering ladies from Xmas night out !
• Tracy Pemberton for her fantastic label design for the Clavering Apple Juice and all her lovely posters for FOC in 2016 x

 

Friends of Clavering Minutes –

agm-friends-of-clavering-school-14-9-16

Summer Newsletter May 2016

The term got off to a fine start with the Clavering Ramble on 17th April, joint fundraiser with the Preschool. Thanks to our sponsors and supporters we raised £1,300. We hope to organise another Ramble in the Autumn as there has been so much positive feedback about this event.

Garden opening – Friday 29th April

Children, staff, parents, along with key people that helped to create the area, gathered to open the new outdoor learning area, incorporating a stunning new allotment garden complete with reading circle/outside learning space, orchard, wild area and pond.

After speeches from Mrs Allsop, Julian Hall (Chair of Governors) and Sonja Phipps, a child from each class, together with Sonja, cut the ribbon to open the new learning space.

The school and visitors then took part in a tour of the area followed by refreshments provided by the kitchen. The children are very excited about the new area and are keen to start working on their new allotment beds.

Here are a few quotes from the morning:

“I liked it because we can grow lots of plants here” Freddie Class 3

“It’s a great place for learning and you can let your imagination go” Amelie Class 4

“I can’t wait to use the new Reading Circle as a stage. A wonderful place to read to the children and for them to read to us!!!” Mrs Course

Clavering School Lucky Lotto

So far our Lotto has raised £350!

If you wish to enter the draw at any point please contact . Now £8 per number for the remainder of the year till December.

Congratulations to the McNaughtons, Kochers and Liddles who won last month.

The winning numbers are drawn on the last Friday of each month.

Events for Summer Term

• Fun Football Day – Monday 23rd May – A new event for all school children, costing £2 per child, bring in your own kit, have an hour of football fun and games with Saffron Walden’s Matt Snelling and Craig Dyce during school time ! All proceeds put towards new school team kits.
• Queen’s Birthday Celebrations – tea party for all the children 2-3pm, food and drinks provided by FOC – Friday 10th June – volunteers wanted to help !
• Bag2School – unwanted clothes, jewellery, shoes and bags – Tuesday 14th June @ 9 am
• Clavering Village Fete – Saturday 25th June – FOC Toybola stall….please send in your soft toys and games
• Cricket match – Clavering parents V Chrishall parents – Saturday 9th July 2-7pm Tea, BBQ, Raffle, Games
• Summer Fair – Friday 15th July from 3.30pm
• Sports Day – Tuesday 19th July 10-12pm with second hand uniform and refreshments for sale

Please don’t forget EASYFUNDRAISING when you shop online for holidays, food, insurance, trains, flights and a host of other products.

Your shopping can help to raise money for our school effortlessly, you can find the website here www.easyfundraising.org.uk, please sign up.

So far we have raised £984.21 for the school.

Forest School

We are delighted that the ERNEST COOK TRUST has decided to support our Forest School programme again with a very generous grant. The money enabled us to train Wendy Berrett as a Forest School Leader and as a qualified First Aider. This means we can offer Forest School to years 2 to 6 again. These children and teachers have missed it and will love being back in the woods. The grant will also cover new waterproof outfits for the younger children.

For more information and to help at events email us:  

Spring Newsletter January 2016

Last Term

Friends are delighted to announce we raised £2,485 – thank you to all our helpers throughout the term and for your continued support at our events.

Fundraising goal for 2016

We will continue to support the School with the classroom resources they need and to improve the playground with new equipment, such as an outdoor table tennis table, the reading circle and creating the allotment area.
Work has already begun on this area, have a look when you are next at school. Last term we secured a grant some trees and some of the children helped to plant them out on National Tree Planting Day 4th December.

Events for Spring Term

•   14 January FOC MEETING – New members always welcome, contact Amanda and Rachel
•   29 January BURNS NIGHT SUPPER – At St Margaret’s Church, Wicken Bonhunt. Tickets £15 from the school office.Homage to Burns, drinks, dinner and dancing with a touch of tartan!
•   11 February MOVIE NIGHT – At 3.30pm for all year groups
•   12 March QUIZ NIGHT – At Clavering Village Hall from 7.30pm, tickets are £12.50 from the school office, price includessupper.
•   24 March EASTER EGG HUNT – For all children at school on the last day of term, during school hours

Clavering School Lucky Lotto

 Launching next week our own school lucky lotto. Buy a number for £10 which enters you into 10 draws in the calendar year. Details of cash prizes and how to enter will be in the Friday folders next week.

Save the date for these upcoming events

•   The Clavering Ramble – Sunday 17th April
  After the success of last year, we will having our second Ramble – join us on a circular 2 mile family walk from Clavering Village Hall with BBQ and children’s activities.
•   The Clavering May Ball – Saturday 14th May
  The social event of the year! At the Jubilee Field, this years Circus theme will have a vintage Big Top, live performers, delicious 4 course meal and much more. Contact Jo Harris and Hayley Joseph for details.
•   Cricket Match – Clavering vs Chrishall – summer term A fun event for dads and cricket playing mums! Let us know if you play cricket and want to join the team! There will be BBQ and cream teas and fun activities for the children.