Hello,
After a year of cancelled events and plans put on hold, all of us at FROGS are feeling a bit more positive now with a lot of projects lined up for the school. As ever, our role as a charity is to support the teaching staff, making up for the council’s severely limited resources by helping in any way we can, from transforming the school indoors and outdoors, to organising fun events for the community and helping set up activities and enrichment clubs for the children.
And it’s fair to say we have our work cut out on all fronts: FROGS has big plans for the school, and we need everyone to join forces to continue to transform Grasmere into a fun and colourful space for the whole community. Today, we would like to share our ideas with you and ask for your suggestions, as well as list all the ways you can support our charity (of which as a staff or parent or carer you are automatically a member).
A SPLASH OF COLOUR
Grasmere is already a fantastic school, but it could be even better! Please take some time to read through our master plan for the school, which outlines all the different jobs and projects still left to do around the school grounds, and how you can help us achieve this.
The first project we’re going to focus our energy on is a new Church Walk mural by our neighbours, the acclaimed Rude Studio, to define the new school entrance. This is a first draft of what it might look like, with the words “Grasmere” and “School” on either side of the gate, and illustrations on the gate itself:
We’ll need 10 skilled volunteers to help paint this, please give us a shout if you can help, or know someone who could. We’re aiming to do this before the end of the school year; we’re still working on the design but look out for the finished visual in the next few weeks.
Also in the pipeline is an outdoor classroom for the garden, Remi Rough’s library wall mural and greening up the KS1 and KS2 playgrounds. Longer-term projects include a new library staircase/terrace and Makerspace to help foster science, engineering and technology learning. Full details for all these projects can be found on the Our Plans page of our website.
FUN AND GAMES
We’re also planning a few events for the end of the school year, Covid-guidelines allowing. These include the return of the traditional cake/ice lolly sale and a sport-themed event, to accompany our Grasmere sport challenge in June; and a garden party in July.
We would also love to extend the offer in terms of enrichment/after-school clubs starting in September. These could be combined with the extended club offered by Fit for Sport. (The school's current offering consists of Fit for Sport, plus a cricket club for Y5&6 and a Girls football club for Y5&6 on Fridays, and a Kids With Brain Science club for Y3&4 on Wednesdays.)
New options could include chess, coding, art, skateboarding, creative writing, a science club for younger years… It all depends on how many children are interested in each activity. We need 10 children per activity minimum and the average price will be between £6 to £10 per class per child. Any family in receipt of free school meals will get a free place on any enrichment club (but not Fit For Sport as it is classed as childcare and not as enrichment); in addition, FROGS can support any other children who need it with half-price concessions.
Please answer this survey to let us know what your child(ren) would be interested in, and we’ll do our best to set new clubs up for the next school year. (You can take it twice if you have more than one child in the same age group).
NEW MEMBERS NEEDED
FROGS is always looking for some new members. The charity is run by parents and carers, and wouldn’t be able to function without volunteers to organise its various events and projects. Everyone can get involved and contribute as much or as little as they feel able to. It’s a cliché but it’s true: even 1 hour of your time could make a difference.
We know that the past year has been difficult for everyone, but volunteering and giving back to the community in these uncertain times has such a positive impact and uplifting feeling that it is worth a try! By helping FROGS you could improve not your children’s experience of primary school, but all those children who will come after them.
Invaluable Y6 parents, who have been running the jumble sales and the Christmas tree sales, are leaving at the end of the year. Please let us know if you would like to help run these events next year. We are also keen for FROGS to better represent our wonderfully diverse community. Please get in touch with your class rep or email us on frogs.grasmere@gmail.com. FROGS don’t bite!
OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP
If you do not have much time, perhaps you can help us in terms of funding? There are many ways to help, from taking part in the school lottery, or shopping on Amazon Smile – see Get Involved. If you work for a big company, please have a look at the payroll/matched giving option on that page – “Join a WORKPLACE GIVING scheme” – this applies to very few people but it is very impactful and is our main source of regular revenue at the moment.
But perhaps the easiest way is to make a one-off donation for something specific that you would like to support (just leave a note in the comment – “Add Message” – so we know on which project you want us to use your donation), or set up a small monthly donation to our Kindlink account (thank you so much to parents who have already done so). Knowing that we have a small amount coming in each month would really help us to plan our budget and future projects.
You can donate (choosing the amount, and whether your donation is monthly, quarterly or yearly) by following this link.
You could also take part in our latest fundraiser: buy a Local Buyer’s Club card for £11.50 and £10 will go to FROGS. (Code: GRASMERELOCAL).
Thank you to all who have donated clothes, we collected 320kg of clothes, of which 250kg was good quality, raising £100 in the process. The next jumble sale will take place in October .
FROGS MEETING
You will find the minutes of our last meeting here. The next FROGS meeting will be at the end of June, hopefully in real life rather than on Zoom.
Last but not least, thank you for reading this very long newsletter!
Take care,
FROGS