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Claremont - Independent day preparatory school in East Sussex |
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WHO ARE WE? A Small Committee of parents and friends of the school who work hard with the assistance of some additional parents and staff at Claremont.
We raise funds to support the education of Claremont Children HOW DO WE DO THIS? We run the very successful second hand Uniform Shop We organise events: HERE’S HOW WE SPENT OUR FUNDS LAST YEAR: Pre-prep Pantomime Trip – we sponsored the provision of the coach Year 8 visited Arena Pursuits after their exams for a team building day of fun paid for by FOCS Pre prep enjoyed a visit from the talented Andy Bosco who will hold clowning workshops with them
We can always do with extra help at events especially the big ones: BONFIRE NIGHT IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP YOU CAN CONTACT THE CHAIR, ROS HODGES BY EMAIL, AVAILABLE IN THE SCHOOL OFFICE CHAIRMAN’S REPORT The Friends of Claremont School (F.O.C.S) are a committee of parents and friends of the school who work to raise funds by holding events throughout the year. Some parents who are not on the Committee also help us at these events. Volunteers wishing to offer their time are always welcome and can leave their contact details with us at the F.O.C.S Shop. All money raised is used by the Friends of Claremont School to fund projects which can benefit every child in the school. We are not a PTA, and cannot influence the school’s management decisions. We have looked at our image this year and decided that it needs a revamp, a new logo has now been chosen and it is we will soon have signs and a new printed logo to promote our activities with. Ash Collins has been responsible for steering us through this process. FUNDRAISING Bonfire night got off to a shaky start with winds gusting up to 40 miles per hour, the fate of the event hung in the balance. Committee members and helpers gave up much time on the previous Saturday for the building of the fire and were on site from 12.00 on the actual day to set up the stalls in the most appalling weather conditions. Due to extremely muddy and wet fields getting the fireworks to the firing site was a challenge. The ATV and Mr Beaumont stepped into the breach and ferried the fireworks across the field. During the event some members of the public who had not paid trespassed on school property to gatecrash the event. Next year we will post FOCS personnel on the footpath to ensure that nobody crosses the field during firing. The ENTIRE entrance fee is spent on the fireworks. Our profits for this event come from the refreshment and goodies stalls and I thank all the members and helpers for the extremely hard work that went into ensuring that these were up and running bearing in mind the weather conditions that we had to contend with. We should not forget the brave and intrepid Mr Brownbill without whom the fire would not be lit!. Thanks also go to those who came in next day and cleared up. The Christmas Bazaar was once again a huge success with many new and interesting stall holders. As always this is held on the first Saturday in December and is now well established as a FOCS event. The children especially love to visit Santa in his grotto and the quality of the stalls is always good. This is a very busy time of year both in school and in many peoples private lives so again many thanks to all who work so hard to make it a success The Easter Egg hunt went extremely well with cars having to be turned away towards the start time as we had simply run out of parking space. It is noticeable that few Claremont parents support this event and most of the supporters are members of the public from the surrounding areas. It would be very nice to see a greater Claremont presence at this very popular event. Over the summer F.O.C.S Committee members staffed and organised the bar for Sports Day and the each evening during the Main School play, a very small profit was made on each occasion, and we have decided that for Sports Day at least, whilst we at FOCS, are very happy to run a refreshments stall the need for a Bar is dubious as most of the parents seem to bring ample supplies with them. The bar licence is expensive and investing in alcohol which does not sell is not a good use of our funds.
The F.O.C.S. shop continues to bring in a large proportion of our funds, just under £3,000.00 this year – to do this effectively we need second hand uniform in good condition and plenty of customers to buy it! We stock a number of new sports items e.g. swimwear, cricket equipment, mouth guards studs and socks. Julie and I find ourselves spending considerable amounts of time in the shop and are grateful to Linda and Barbara for help with labelling and hanging new stock especially at the start of the September term. When uniform is sold by us F.O.C.S. receives 50% of the sale price and 50% is paid back to the parent. Alternatively clothes can be donated to F.O.C.S. The shop is OPEN from 8.00am – 8.45am and from 3.30pm – 4.30pm every Tuesday throughout the term. We were open for one day in the Easter holidays and 2 during the summer holidays, these days are always hectic and additional help would be very much appreciated. We were very grateful to Mr Beaumont for the purchase of the new FOCS Board following last year’s AGM and also the work of the maintenance department who have replaced our very dangerous steps for us, also to Andy Williams for his running repair service when whole rails of clothes fall off the wall, and to Linda for the provision of a proper heater which makes our time in the shop more bearable in the winter. Projects funded this academic year September 2008 - September 2009 Pre-prep Pantomime Trip – we sponsored the provision of the coach Claremont Logo Leotards for the Gym team to enable them to appear in competitions Books and DVD’s for the Library to enhance the children’s literary learning experience Preprep Storytelling week, we paid for an author to come in and work with the children Endangered Seas Road show, teaching children throughout the school about the endangered species in our seas – and how we can help them T shirts for Classics week – using the Classics week theme children in yrs 5,6,7,8 designed the shirts and we paid for them to be screen printed, the screens being kept by the Art Dept for future use. Year 8 visited Arena Pursuits after their exams for a team building day of fun paid for by FOCS A visit by a mobile Planetarium teaching the children all about the stars and the skies. Year 7 went to the Bowles Centre for a confidence building day of zip wires, raft building and rock climbing Pre prep will soon enjoy a visit from the talented Andy Bosco who will hold clowning workshops with them TOTAL DONATIONS THIS ACADEMIC YEAR £5,500.00 In conclusion, none of the above would be possible without the dedicated help and support of all the Committee members and those parents and staff who do help us at events. I am very much aware of the large amounts of time given by all to raise funds to benefit all the children in the school. There is much that is done behind the scenes and many hours put in that are not visible to any but those who serve. THANK YOU TEAM. To all those who have yet to come forward and offer their services please come and see us – FRIENDS OF CLAREMONT SCHOOL NEED YOU!
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