Hiring a bouncy castle for a pupils’ sponsored bounce raised £2,500 for Walker Primary School in north London
Like many PTAs, the Friends of Walker (FOW) runs a portfolio of fundraising events over the year, but our Bounceathon is easily one of the most popular – and lucrative. Every summer we hire a bouncy castle and each class gets to go on it in small groups. The children are sponsored per bounce, the challenge being to complete as many as they can within one minute. In 2022, we raised an incredible £2,500 from the event.
The money we raise goes into a PTA pot. The school may then make a request – and we will take a vote to see if funds should go to a particular area. Walker Primary School, which is two-form entry, was completely rebuilt during the pandemic, focusing the FOW’s attention on fundraising for accompanying new facilities. During lockdown we ran ‘donate what you can’ crowdfunding campaigns on the InvestMyCommunity platform to get funding in place for a new playground.
The school has been part of UNICEF’s Rights Respecting Charter scheme encouraging pupil voice since 2016 (and was recently awarded gold accreditation), so the request for playground improvements came from the children. FOW raised funds towards the provision of new climbing frames, an allotment project, Forest School, plus a shaded outdoor classroom.
Our current priorities are the next phase of playground improvements and the allotment project (which aims to build a sense of belonging between our students and the community that will be helping with it). We held a Let’s Get Wild event in February (where children got to hold snakes and interact with a variety of other creatures) and our next events are a dance party for Key Stage One and a disco for Years 3, 4, 5 and 6. We’ve also run movie nights with a pizza slice, a silent auction and a Christmas fair with Santa’s grotto (created by Year 2 class reps and parents).
- Cheryl Kerrick, chair of Friends of Walker, Walker Primary School, Ivy Learning Trust, Southgate, north London