Thanks for showing interest in Friends of Holy Family! Please do reach out to us at friendsofhfacton@gmail.com or via the class groups. Below is some information about our charity and purpose.

Friends of Holy Family- West Action is a registered charity with charity number 1171149 regulated by the Charities Commission.

What we do

In summary we raise funds to benefit the school and its students and while doing this we aim to bring together parents, carers, children, and staff to get to know each other better. We believe that our events enrich the school life as well as providing valuable fundraising efforts.

Every parent, carer and member of staff of Holy Family is automatically a member of the charity and we invite any of you to come forward at any time to share any ideas, suggestions and your time by volunteering yourself to organise an event and help out as you can.

Purpose of Friends of Holy Family

Our constitution states our purposes are to advance the education of pupils at the school by developing effective relationships between the staff, parents and others associated with the school and engaging in activities or providing facilities or equipment which support the school and advance the education of pupils.

Examples of our continued efforts to deliver these purposes include providing funds to the school for projects such as playground equipment, books, and the school stage, and providing activities in school including a Christmas pantomime and visit from Father Christmas. Social events include the Summer and Winter Fairs, school discos and various others. 

Our governing document is our Constitution, a copy of which can be shared upon request.

Structure of the Charity

The Charity does not form part of the school. It is separate from the staff, headteacher, Council and Governing Body. We aim to work closely with staff, children and parents to best fulfil our purpose.

The Committee

The Charity is run by the Committee who is elected by the charity members. All members of the Charity are eligible and warmly invited to join the Committee! The Committee are volunteers and are not paid any sum for the work they carry out on behalf of or for the Charity.

The Committee organise fundraising events, coordinate activities, manage the accounts and legal obligations of the Charity as well as reviewing and approving funding requests from the school.

The Committee and defined roles of the Committee are elected by vote from members. Voting and elections are held at the Annual General Meeting, notice of which given in the school newsletter and via the class Whatsapp groups.

The defined roles are:

Chair

The Chair provides leadership for the Committee, sets the agenda for the meetings and manages meetings in line with the agenda. The Chair needs to work closely with the Treasurer and Secretary to ensure that the Committee is run effectively.

The Chair should remain impartial, call the meeting to order without upsetting the parties involved and make sure that the Committee’s decisions are not hindered in any way.

Key responsibilities:

• Provide leadership
• Set the agenda for meetings liaising with the Secretary
• Follow the agenda and manage meetings
• Welcome and involve new members
• Write the annual report in cooperation with the Secretary

Vice Chair

The role of the Vice Chair is to deputise for the Chair. This is a good role to get to know the workings of the Committee and perhaps to prepare for being the Chair in the future.

Secretary

The Secretary takes minutes at meetings and ensures that they are circulated amongst the Committee. The Secretary deals with all the correspondence that the Committee receives and helps the Chair ensure that the Committee meetings run smoothly. As well as dealing with correspondence following a Committee meeting, the Secretary will need to make some bookings and other arrangements for forthcoming events, confirming arrangements made by telephone in writing. The Secretary will make arrangements for the Annual General Meeting and help the Chair prepare the annual report. The Secretary will also ensure all memberships and licences are kept up to date.

Key responsibilities:

• Deal with correspondence
• Write up the agenda and minutes of meetings/taking notes during meetings
• Keep a record of attendance at meetings and distribute minutes to all the Committee
• Call meetings-giving plenty of notice
• Make meetings and event arrangements

Vice Secretary

The role of Vice Secretary is to deputise for the Secretary. This is a good role to get to know the workings of the Committee and perhaps to prepare for being the Secretary in the future.

Treasurer

A key role for all Committee members is to manage and control the funds Friends of Holy Family raises. Although all the Committee members have equal responsibility for control and management of the funds, the Treasurer plays an important part in helping the Committee carry out these duties properly.

Key responsibilities:

• Maintain the financial records and report income and expenditure at meetings, using a spreadsheet or easily accessible accounting software.
• Control & oversee movement of funds including: bank account transfers, cheques, online platforms such as e-ticketing, counting fundraising cash from events and depositing to the bank, organising cash floats for events, reimbursing expenses, and so on.
• Together with the Secretary, maintain up-to-date registration with the Charities Commission by preparing the Annual Return.

Vice Treasurer

The role of Vice Treasurer is to deputise for the Treasurer. This is a good way to get to know the workings of the committee and perhaps to prepare for being Treasurer in the future. The Vice Treasurer can provide valuable assistance for any of the Treasurer’s responsibilities and a nominated individual in this role provides additional flexibility to the organisation and management of events.

Friends of Holy Family Friends

The Committee cannot deliver our efforts without the support of the parent & carer body, and this support is central to ensure events are run effectively and delivered safely.

If jumping into the Committee sounds a bit daunting, please put up your hand to help out at events or behind the scenes. All help is welcome!

Also, we all know that there is natural turnover with families at the school as the children grow up and move on. Getting involved in the early years really helps keep continuity of knowledge of organising events and delivering fundraising efforts. Good continuity means the Charity and the School won’t suffer from gaps in volunteering and fundraising, which unfortunately can happen to easily unless momentum is maintained.  

The role includes:

• Getting a team together to organise, set up and run an event or activity
• Provide help to other parents who are organising an event or activity. Donate food and cakes to events
• Give time to running a stall or activity
• Give time to help with various collections for school
• Take on a role to promote fundraising

Class Representatives Role

Class reps play an important role by being the contact point between the Committee and the parents and carers in each class. Ideally there would be two class reps in each class. The exact details of the role would depend on how involved parents in your class want to be. Here are some of the jobs that the class reps do:

• Make sure that all parents of the class are made to feel welcome
• Arrange social events for your class’s parents and/or carers to meet up in a social setting and get to know each other better
• Promote Friends of Holy Family events to class parents
• Organise helpers to assist at events such as bake sales, School Christmas Fair stalls and Summer Fair stalls and pass information back to the event organiser and the Committee
• Encourage donations of goods for events such as the contribution of cakes for bake sales
• Collate ideas and any feedback from parents and pass these to Friends of Holy Family Committee
• Organise Christmas and end of year cards and collections for class teachers.

Past Events

Over the course of the past years the Committee has arranged many fundraising events and activities for the children including:

• Summer and Christmas fairs
• Gingerbread house and build a polar bear workshops
• School Discos
• A school pantomime and a living nativity
• And the visit from Father Christmas