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Hoylandswaine School Alliance September Newsletter 2023

Welcome back

We hope you have all had a fabulous summer and are settling back into the daily school routine. We would like to say a big welcome to all of our new parents and children too - we look forward to meeting some of you soon. For those of you who aren’t aware who we are or what we do, we are Hoylandswaine School Alliance (HSA), our school’s PTA. We work with staff, pupils, parents and the local community in enhancing the children’s experience whilst at school. We operate as a registered charity separate to the school through a volunteer committee. At the moment there are only a few of us on the committee and we would love to have some new members join us. You are welcome to join as a committee member or if you don't feel like you can commit that much time you could sign up to be part of our 'HSA Army'. This is a team of amazing parents who volunteer their time or help as and when they can. This could be by helping out at events, shopping for fundraisers or simply promoting what we have going on. If you feel like you could help in any way, please speak to us in the playground or drop us an email at hoylandswaineschoolalliance@gmail.com. Our next meeting will be our AGM to be held on Thursday 12th October at 8.00pm at The Rose and Crown. If you are free, please come along, we would love to meet some new faces. Thank you!

HSA Committee - left to right - Leah Gibson (Chair), Katy Macfarlane (Secretary and Treasurer), Annabel Thornton (Communications and Social Media)

FUNDRAISING from last year

We were blown away by the support from 2022/2023 and were able to raise an amazing £8014.62. We hope you enjoyed the variety of events and activities throughout the school year and we hope that we can make this year even better. We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who helped to make this happen. If you bought a cake, a raffle ticket, attended an event, shared a post on social media, donated a prize for the tombola...you contributed towards the amazing experiences and fantastic resources for the children at Hoylandswaine Primary School. Thank you!

Your fantastic fundraising enabled us to:

  • Refurbish the school library with a new, comfy seating area, organised book shelves and a calming environment for the children to enjoy a book or two (£1320.92);
  • Spruce up the cabin in the playground to be more welcoming for the children at break times and lunch time (£140.00);
  • Purchase 10 brand new keyboards and 15 sparkly lap tops for use during lessons (£3264.89);
  • Surprise the staff and children with items on their Christmas wish lists including wet play games, art resources, books and toys and give each child a Christmas gift to enjoy (£1800.69);
  • Buy hoodies for the Y6 leavers (£373.50);
  • Take the whole school to Penistone Paramount Cinema to watch Matilda (£997.25);
  • Hold our very popular Inflatables Day which the children absolutely LOVED!!! (£985.14)

HUGE THANKS TO EVERONE!

This years Fundraising Projects

After speaking with Miss Redfearn at the start of term, there are a few projects that we would like to start fundraising for this year. Firstly, we will be focussing on the EYFS outdoor classroom. It's probably been some time since many of you have seen this space but it is in desperate need of a bit of TLC! To help us along with this project, we have been entered into the TESCO blue token scheme from October this year until January 2024. We have the chance of securing £1500 from Tesco Stronger Starts and we need you to help make this happen. Please shop at Tesco Penistone during this time and vote for our project using the blue tokens. We can hopefully put this towards making the Class 1 outdoor classroom a fabulous space to learn in.

We also discussed the sports and play equipment being used by the children at playtime and lunch times and decided that this was something that HSA could help to replenish. Miss Redfearn met with the school council and Miss Utley who fed back ideas from their classmates about what equipment they would like to be able to use outside. Fortunately we had enough in the bank to be able to purchase some equipment straight away and we made a big order that was received in school last week. This included football nets, basketball hoops, cricket bats, tennis rackets, netballs, beanbags, skipping ropes, large outdoor games, frisbees, skittles and loads more. The children have already been playing together with some of this new equipment and are having a great time exploring their new goodies!

Last year we were able to take the children to Penistone Paramount to watch Matilda and have another great day on the inflatables. We would love to host more days like this and we are keen to get the children's ideas on projects that we can raise money for and we will be working with school on this later in the term.

AUTUMN TERM EVENTS

Welcome Event - BINGO

Please come and join us at our first event of the year tomorrow, Friday 29th September at 5.00pm. We thought this would be a great opportunity to meet some new faces and members of staff and catch up with friends - everyone is welcome. For £3 you will get 6 games of bingo and a hotdog at half time. We will have lots of prizes, a tuck shop and a pro BINGO caller! This year we will also have a bar so you can enjoy an alcoholic drink while you play. We will also have tea, coffee and soft drinks available. Fun for the WHOLE family!! Still time to buy tickets by following the link -www.pta-events.co.uk/hoylandswaineprimary

EYES DOWN!!

Annual General Meeting

It's that time of year again when we get to share our successes and re-establish our values and objectives for the year ahead. We will be holding our AGM on Thursday 12th October at 8pm at the Rose and Crown, Hoylandswaine. Please pop in and join us, meet new friends, hear all about our upcoming events and have your say about what you would like to fundraise for. Please let us know if you are able to make it - hoylandswaineschoolalliance@gmail.com Everyone welcome!

Halloween Disco

Our very popular Halloween Disco will be held on Thursday 19th October. We will have entertainment from DJ Dave, a tuck shop, a trick or treat shop, a ghostly photo booth and lots of prizes for games and best fancy dress! The disco will start at 5.00pm and and children can be collected at 7.00pm. To purchase tickets please follow the link - www.pta-events.co.uk/hoylandswaineprimary 

Christmas Wreath Making Workshop

Following on from the amazing success of last years wreath making workshop, we will be holding our festive event again this Christmas. For those of you that joined last year, we hope you agree that it was a great evening and we really look forward to welcoming you back again this year. For those of you who couldn't come, please join us for an evening of festive creativity and make your own fresh foliage wreath. The event (which is for grown ups only) will take place at Hoylandswaine Primary School on Friday 24th November at 7.30pm. Tickets are £30 per person however this year, we have the option to pay a £5 deposit and pay the rest a couple of weeks before the event. The ticket price will include all materials to make your wreath, a glass of prossecco or mulled wine on arrival and some sweet christmassy treats. We will also have a bar available to enjoy a little tipple whilst you create. Places sold out quickly last year so be sure to book your spot soon! Tickets can be purchased at www.pta-events.co.uk/hoylandswaineprimary

Movie Night - PJ’s, Pillows and Pizza

We are very excited to host another Movie Night this year. Holding Movie Night a little later worked really well last year and so we have decided to repeat that this year. The children will have the chance to go home, change into their pj’s or comfy clothes and come back to school with their pillows for a movie and pizza. Movie night will take place on Wednesday 29th November at 5.00pm. Further information and tickets will be available nearer to the time.

Christmas Events

Pencil in Wednesday 20th December to your diaries as this is when we will be holding our Christmas event. This year, we have made the decision to host a Christmas Cafe where we will be serving festive afternoon tea with a meet and greet Santa and much more. Watch out for more details on this as we finalise plans but we are very excited about what’s in store!

We will still be holding a Christmas raffle and it’s never too early to start organising prizes. If you or anyone you know could donate a prize for our raffle, please get in touch, we would be very grateful.

Christmas card design templates have been making their way to classes this week to be designed and completed ready to come home for ordering at the end of the week. The children love to design these so please support this fundraiser by buying a few for family and friends. Please could all order forms be returned by Friday 6th October. Thanks so much!

Don't forget that you can keep up to date with all our events on our twitter page @HswpHSA as well as our Facebook page @HoylandswaineSchoolAlliance. We will also be posting event information on ClassDojo so hopefully we won't miss anyone.

Dates for your diary

  • 29th September - Bingo Night
  • 12th October - AGM Meeting - Rose and Crown, 8.00pm
  • 19th October - Halloween Disco
  • 24th November - Wreath Making Workshop
  • 29th November - Movie Night
  • 20th December - Christmas Cafe
  • 22nd December - Last day of Autumn term

We hope you have had a great start to the term and we would like to say a huge thanks for your continued support!