New year... new events!

Happy New Year! Last term was a great success in terms of fund-raising. The Christmas Fayre raised £463 and the Pupil Enterprise Scheme raised a massive £494.19 profit. The saying that from little acorns grow giant oak trees is definitely apt! We gave 24 pupils £2 each and they went out with a vast array of schemes... baking and selling buns and foods, washing cars, counting the number of sweets in a jar, helping at farmers' markets and car boot sales, devising quizzes and games... and the net result is almost £500 to spend on projects to be decided by the school's Pupil Council. Megan Withers raised over £100 and so received a prize for her great efforts, but we are truly grateful to all the pupils and their family and friends who worked so hard.

The next FHHS Planning Meeting is on Monday 19th January at 7:30 p.m. in school and all are welcome to attend this. We have two events already booked in for the spring term:

1. Dr Tom's No Mean Feat ceilidh band will be hosting a ceilidh for us at Kexborough Social Club (Churchfield Lane, Darton, Barnsley, S75 5DU) on Saturday 7th February at 7 p.m. Adult tickets cost £4 and tickets for children under 16 are £3. Tickets are available from the school office.
2. The next Bake 'n' Take will be on Monday 9th February at 3 p.m. at school.
   

Christmas Fayre

Many thanks to all who helped at and supported the Christmas Fayre held in school yesterday afternoon! The event was another resounding success, with just over £463 profit raised.

Prize winners from the competitions and games are listed below:

• ·         Body Shop hamper         Hannah Wagstaff
• ·         Beauty hamper                 Mugge family
• ·         Food hamper 1                 Joanne Armitage
• ·         Food hamper 2                 Mr Hoyle
• ·         Treasure Hunt                   Miriam Mugge

Photos will be on the blog next week, I hope, but in the meantime, our thanks go to all who contributed to making this such a successful fund-raising event:

•  The Primary pupils and staff who opened the event with their beautiful carol singing
• Jo Huddleston & her cafe volunteers who provided drinks and amazing hot turkey sandwiches all afternoon
• All the stall holders who had such lovely gifts on offer (Heather, Sam, Angie, Jane, Pam and Emily)
• Amber Roberts (former pupil) who worked so hard painting nails 
• Julie Stead & Emma Methven who kept pupils entranced with decorating baubles (and me slightly less than entranced with hoovering all that glitter up...!)
• all the pupils who helped with face-painting and serving at stalls
• Su Wood for organising the 'Lucky Dip' for children and Santa's Grotto
• all the FHHS committee who worked so hard behind the scenes organising the event and contributing to it
• all the parents and friends who donated items for the home baking and many other gifts and whose presence at the event made it so successful

We hope you enjoyed the fayre and look forward to seeing you in the New Year for more events!

Coming soon...

• Next FHHS planning meeting is on Monday 19th January at 7:30 p.m. at school
• Next FHHS event is the ceilidh with Dr Tom & No Mean Feet at 7 p.m. at Kexborough Social Club

Coming soon...

The Christmas Fayre is only just over a week away! It will be on Friday 28th November, starting at 3 p.m. with the Primary children singing carols and will go on until 5 p.m. Refreshments will be served in the cafe area.

We have a variety of stalls and activities on offer:

• Hampers to be won
• Craft & card stalls
• Home baking
• Nail painting
• Treasure Map
• Connect 4 & roll-a-penny games
• Lucky Dip bottle stall
• Decorate a Christmas bauble
• Santa's Grotto

We are grateful for all the people who will be selling their wares at the fayre and to all the children who are getting involved. Do come along if you can!

November events

Quite a few things are happening in November!

Bag2School Recycling
This is on Tuesday 11th November and bags have been distributed this week. We are collecting clothes, bags, paired shoes (tied together) and jewellery. No towels or bedding, please. All items need to be brought into school on Tuesday morning.

Christmas Pudding Orders
Order forms for Christmas puddings need to be returned (along with payments) by Friday 14th November. We get more discount if we send in a block order and so it won't be possible to process late orders. Please make sure you send these back to me via the school office. Cheques should be made payable to 'Friends of Hope House School.'

FHHS Planning Meeting
This will now be on Monday 17th November at 7.30 p.m. (changed from 10th November). Come along and be involved in sorting out arrangements for the Christmas Fayre.

Christmas Fayre
This is on Friday 28th November from 3-5 p.m. Many thanks to all who have responded so magnificently to our appeal for hamper items. Now all we need are bottles for the Lucky Dip stall!

Senior pupils are always invited to help out with the Christmas Fayre, but because they will need to stay until 5 p.m., parental consent is required. Letters went out yesterday, so please return these as soon as possible.

Looking forward to your ongoing support.

Pupil Enterprise Scheme

Why should fund-raising be left to the adults?!

We believe that young people have loads of great ideas for fund-raising and so we have launched the Hope House School Pupil Enterprise Scheme. Based on the Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14-30), the idea is that we give pupils who wish to be involved in this scheme £2 to invest in their own fund-raising ideas. They might use the money to buy flour, butter and eggs and bake buns to sell to their friends and family. Or they may use the money to buy a bucket and sponge and offer to wash cars for their relatives as a way of earning money. The sky is the limit as far as ideas are concerned!

Pupils who want to be involved in this scheme just need to bring the parent permission slip back to school by this Thursday (23rd October) and they will be given the £2 to invest. They need to bring the funds raised into school (along with a brief note saying what they did to raise this money) by 5th December. All we ask is that the methods used are both ethical and legal!

Pupils will have a direct say in how these funds are spent. Through the Pupil Council, suggestions will be submitted and the Pupil Council will choose the ideas they think are best and all the monies raised will go towards these ideas. FHHS promises to give every participant a certificate and there will be prizes for the most raised and the most innovative fund-raising idea.

So don't forget to return the permission slips and let's find some new ways to raise funds!

Updates

Thanks to all who baked and attended the Bake 'n' Take today. We raised £71.97 at that event.

Don't forget that if you want your child to take part in the Pupil Enterprise Scheme, you must return the permission slips by Thursday 23rd October. We hope many of the pupils will use the £2 given to them to invest in schemes to fund raise for the school. Money will be given to the pupils on Friday before half-term (hence the need for permission slips to be in by Thursday!) and their amounts raised (along with details of how they raised them) should be handed in by 5th December.

All parents should now have had their order forms for Christmas Puddings. These need to be handed in by Friday 14th November at the latest.

Other dates for the diary include the Bag2School Recycling Day on Tuesday 11th November and the Christmas Fayre on Friday 28th November. We now have enough items for the Beauty Hamper, but we still need items for the luxury food hamper. Items needed for this include:

• luxury chocolates and biscuits
• cheese biscuits
• cranberry sauce, horseradish sauce, mint sauce etc.
• turkey gravy
• mince pies
• Christmas pudding
• Christmas cake
• brandy butter
• tea
• coffee
• preserves
• chutneys & pickles
• pickled onions
• nuts
• crisps
• Christmas crackers
• champagne
• brandy
• chestnuts
• stuffing

We also need bottles bringing in to school for the Lucky Dip stall.

Dates for the diary...

Many thanks to those who attended the AGM on Monday. It's always good to welcome new faces and we are grateful to those parents who regularly attend and support our planning.

Dates for this term are:

• Bake 'n' Take on Monday 20th October at 3 p.m. (home baking gratefully received for this!)
• FHHS Planning Meeting on Monday 10th November at 7.30 p.m.
• Bag2School Recycling Day on Tuesday 11th November at 9 a.m. (all items need to be brought to school that morning... bags will be supplied shortly.)
• Christmas Fayre on Friday 28th November at 3 p.m. (We need food and drink for the hamper, beauty items for the beauty hamper and bottles for the Lucky Dip stall. Donations can be brought into the school office from now on - the sooner, the better!)

We are also hoping to be able to offer taster samples of a variety of puddings (including Christmas puddings) from the Ultimate Plum Pudding Company, which we intend to sell this term. For all parents attending the Harvest Festival on Monday 13th October, there will be an opportunity to taste these after the Harvest Festival and order forms will be supplied later this term, with school receiving a percentage of the profits from these sales.The photos below will hopefully whet your appetites! (Brandy butter, chocolate pudding, plum pudding, sticky toffee pudding, ginger pudding, zingy lemon pudding...)