RATCLIFFE COLEGE PARENTS' ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 28 June 2005

CHAIRPERSON'S Report

Hello everyone

As Chairperson I get to tell the story of a year in the life of the Parents Association Committee, and what a year it's been! Plenty of events getting parents together, lots of money raised for charity, and a lot of fun ... and hard work, in the process.

The year started off a little wobbly - no Chairperson from the last AGM. And fortunately the first thing on the agenda when I did start was to welcome some new members. Hopefully I've got them all.... Meg Fenu, Eleanor Waters, Amalia McGrath, Richard Brown, Colin Brandish, Sarah Fry. Thank you so much for coming into the Committee and contributing to our work.

At the beginning of the year we also farewelled some hard working members, Trevor and Sue Parr, who both contributed enormously while Trevor was our previous Chairperson, and Clare Quinn, another delightfully active member who sadly moved to San Francisco.

The Autumn Term was a busy one as usual. We started out with the New Parents reception and open morning, and quickly moved on to planning the Quiz night ably hosted by Graham Sharpe, with lots of help from Pat. Sam and Becky arranged a fun night that a lot of people would like us to repeat. I did love the photo round and will never again forget the shape of the door to the Ref.

Moving quickly on we had a delightful morning decorating the Church with our traditional help from Gaye Pepper and a number of other parents who came in for the day. It did look stunning for the Carol concert with our mulled wine and other festivities.

The Christmas Ball was a great success for the 140 or so participants. I can't think of many more atmospheric settings for a black tie event. Pat as usual lead the way, with help from the Subcommittee, and we were so delighted with the many committee and non committee helpers who made canapés for the event. It was the start of the volunteer list arranged by Amalia, which has proved to be very helpful to encourage more parent involvement in this, and later events.

The Spring Term brought the Spring Fair, after much planning and very hard work from the entire Committee, we were rewarded with a fine, if not quite sunny day and fabulous support from the parents and children. The craft centre was very popular and many stand holders will be happy to come back, thanks to Meg and Amalia for setting this up so that it can run efficiently in future years. Sam and Becky did a wonderful job with children's activities and I know their hands ached after cutting out so many templates. Carol, Eleanor, Sarah, Freda had the sports hall buzzing with food, refreshments, games and various innovative tomoblas. Bruce had the outdoor games all sown up and I'm sure kept lots of kids occupied. Amalia ran the very effective scheme for finding and allocating non committee volunteers to help run the event. Pat had her house filled with donations from parents and Carol in her wonderful connections kept us well supplied by businesses. Pat, Richard and I tended to float as needed. David and Kate were our bankers and by the end of the day they were able to tell us that this incredibly well oiled machine had raised something approaching £5000 for the charities... definitely worth the champagne!

The summer term did not allow for a rest time... we did plan a barn dance with all the great preparation by Kate but perhaps we tried to do too much and didn't get enough takers. Sadly we needed to cancel that one.

The rest of the summer term though has been busy with Senior Sports Day, a glorious hot day, and many thanks to the parents who brought cakes and others who helped on the day, and we still have Junior Sports Day to come. There have been a series of plays as always supported by the committee and friends, together with information evenings to welcome new parents.

Our final event for the year is coming up. Eleanor and Sam with the subcommittee have been putting all the plans together for our cocktail party which promises to be a delightful relaxing affair in these wonderful grounds.

Among this we have been able to make a number of donations. The Spring Fair proceeds went to Wishes 4 Kids and the Fragile X Society. We have made a substantial donation to allow Father Belsito to purchase some chairs for the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and we will be looking into other requests at the Committee meeting tonight.

Other activities include participation in the Ratcliffe College Advisory Group where we are able to bring up any issues with the governors in a very friendly setting.

So that's the year in review - pretty busy when you think about all that we do! Thank you to everyone, Committee members, Staff members and volunteer parents who have all contributed to a successful year.

And now we need to recognise the hard work of two members who are leaving the committee.

Carol Wright has been a member of the Committee for more years than I can remember. Carol is a larger than life character who everyone knows for her bread sales on Wednesday afternoons, where she has raised hundreds of pounds each year for various charities supported by the school. But that is far from all. Carol has attended many functions, helping out on the bar, arranging barbeque food on Sports Day, and her hard work at the Christmas Fairs and most recently the Spring Fair have been outstanding, as she has managed to acquire many donations to allow us to make tidy profits for the charities. Carol is leaving us as her daughter Georgia has now finished her time at the school. Carol we would all like to thank you for your generous contribution to the Committee over the years and we will definitely miss you! We all wish you every success with everything you do in the future.

The other member to leave our number is Bruce Allen. Again Bruce has been around for a long time and regularly helps with all our different activities. I often work with Bruce on open mornings and information evenings. He's another regular supporting the Spring Fair and did a roaring trade at the plays just last week! We're not loosing Bruce completely - his son Ollie will be going into his final year and Bruce has volunteered to continue to help at PA events, but increased work commitments mean he will withdraw from the Committee itself. Bruce, thank you so much for your wonderful support over the years, good ideas and cheery disposition. We will miss you too... but hopefully we'll still see you around occasionally!

In the next term we hope to welcome more new members to the Committee. We will discuss how to do this at our meeting tonight, and to start planning for the next school year. As a general principle we will try to make our events more regular, so parents know what is coming up... of course that doesn't mean we won't have one off interesting events. Let sll just get in and do as our constitution says .... encourage a great social life among Ratcliffe parents.

Thank you

Susan Virgilio