PTFA
Welcome to the PTFA page!
We are Friends of Sea Mills Primary School, also known as Sea Mills Primary School PTFA. PTFA stands for Parents, Teachers and Friends Association.
The PTFA incorporates all parents /carers as its members, and is run by a small, but dedicated team of volunteers.
Chair: Ruth Marsh
Vice Chair: Holly Wilson
Treasurer: Isabelle Richards
Secretary: Jo Sinton-Hewitt
There are a further 5-10 volunteers who regularly help out wherever and whenever needed.
The PTFA supports the school by providing man-power at events, such as serving refreshments at evening meetings, special services or coffee mornings. An important role of the PTFA is to represent the school within the local area, and create a good community feel between the school, parents and local people.
Do get in touch by joining our facebook group ‘Sea Mills Primary PTA’, or emailing Jo on seamills.ptfa@bristol-schools.uk . We’d love to hear from you.
Help us Raise Funds…
Welcome to the Co-op Local Community Fund
Great News! Sea Mills PTFA have been selected as a fundraising cause for the Co-op Local Community Fund. It is to raise money for exciting SNUG equipment in the playground. When Co-op members shop at any Co-op store, 1% of what they spend on Co-op branded products and services can help fund the school. Members can choose which causes to support by signing into their membership account or by calling the membership helpline on 0800 023 4708. So if you are a coop member please sign up (it only costs £1 to join). Our cause will be available for members to select until November 2019.
Fundraising
The PTFA has traditionally fundraised through events held at school.
We hold two school fairs a year (Christmas and Summer Fairs), plus we regularly have cake sales, ice cream sales, family bingo, sales of Mothers and Fathers Day cards etc.
More recently we have looked towards external sources of fundraising. For example, the PTFA supported the school in successfully applying to ‘Awards for All’ (Lottery funding) specifically for the provision of out ‘Trim Trail’ (outdoor play equipment) at school.
We have also collected recycling, raised funds through the ‘easyfundraising’ website (www.easyfundraising.org.uk) and through sales of Christmas cards designed by children.
Looking ahead
The PTFA aim to apply to more external funding sources in the next 12 months, as well as continuing the fundraising events held at school.
Together we are able to achieve great things for our school. We always welcome and value input from new parents and friends of the school.
The PTFA meets 6 times a year mostly in the Meetings Room. Look out for the dates which are listed in the monthly school newsletter and on this website on the Diary page.
You can help your PTFA by either attending the meetings and contributing your ideas of how we can support your child’s school, or by coming and supporting at the events that we hold. We ask that all parents/carers support one event each year.
Success Stories
3rd July PTFA Summer Fayre
Brilliant sunshine helped make our Summer Fayre a wonderful success. Children took part in a range of the classic fayre activities: hook the duck, beat the goalie, tombola, splat the rat, hoop the frog and Mr Kinnear particularly enjoyed being soaked by enthusiastic children in ‘Splat the Teacher’. It was lovely to welcome both the Fire Brigade and the Police who answered all the children’s questions and gave guided tours of their vehicles. There was a range of tasty food on offer and both craft activities and the eco stall for children to enjoy. A massive thank you to our tireless PTFA volunteers for all the work both on the day and in the run up to the festivities – you are amazing! Also, a thank you to all staff for dressing up as ‘Sea Mills through the decades’ – you were a sight for sore eyes!
June 2018
The library author boxes are now restocked with great reads thanks to a £200 donation from the PTFA.
Library Refit 2019
The PTFA funded a fantastic library refit with a £400 donation. Our library is now much more open with new shelves, comfy bean bags, lights and decorations. An additional £200 will be used to restock the ‘Author Boxes’ so that our children have great books to get them reading!
April 2019
All classes have been given £75 by the PTFA to buy new books this term to add great new reads to their class library!
Easter Egg-stravaganza
On Wednesday, we held our Sea Mills Easter Egg-stravaganza which was ran by the PTFA! Many families attended and were treated to crafts, cakes and prizes. It was a very successful event and we look forward to running it again next year!
Cake Sale
On Thursday after school (14th March), the PTFA held an extremely successful cake sale raising £191! The sale ran alongside our Eco Week ‘eco bricks’ activity. The PTFA also sold beeswax wraps so our school community can cut down on plastic waste. Watch out for more green ideas as Sea Mills work towards it’s Bronze Eco Schools Award.
Bingo came to Sea Mills on Valentine’s Day. Competition was fierce with some high quality prizes on offer.
Christmas Fayre
Thank you so so much to all the parents, carers and teaching staff who helped prepare and run our Christmas Fayre. We had a huge raffle, a Santa’s grotto, lots of craft, games and refreshment stalls, and new to 2018 our very own school tea towels on sale. It was inspiring to receive so many generous offers of time and skill and makes us proud to be a part of this community. In total we raised just over £1500, which is brilliant. This money will provide valuable funds towards improving our outdoor play equipment for our children.
New playground markings
In May the PTFA paid for half the cost of fantastic, bright new playground markings. The kids are really enjoying the activity trail, mirror me, target throw and four-way hopscotch. Reception have bright new markings in their playground too.
Easter came to Sea Mills Primary School and Children’s Centre with a marvellous Spring Crafts Event!
In 2017
The PTFA raised over £10 000 to create a wonderful outdoor learning area with a shelter, paths, flower meadow, new tree planting, wildlife habitats and fire pit. All classes have now visited the area to use it as an outdoor learning space and the children are very excited to use this area more as the weather improves!
As always the Christmas Fair was very well attended and launched the festive season for many families. It raised a very impressive £1539 and was a really lovely occasion featuring carols from the school choir, a range of craft stalls, tasty festive food, Christmas games and of course the Grand Raffle!
In 2014
We raised £3,500 for a bespoke gazebo to be used as an outdoor classroom
In 2013
We were asked to raise money for much needed playground equipment to go in the lovely new school grounds. Within a year £13,500 had been raised and the Trim Trail was in place and being used by all the school. This is thanks to a generous Lottery grant, and dedicated fundraising by all the PTFA team.
- £13,500 spent on our Trim Trail
In 2012
- We raised £550 to provide 10 digital cameras, one for each of our classrooms.
- We funded the school Christmas pantomime
- We paid for each child to have a commemorative coin to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.