Connecting your fundraising initiatives with the curriculum is a great way to strengthen the bond between home and school. Try our proven, literacy-related ideas.
Sponsored spell
Sandy Middleton, PTA Chair, Swaffield Primary School, Wandsworth (516 pupils): ‘Our sponsored spell links so well with our school’s focus on literacy. It’s one of the easiest events we have organised, and the school is supportive. The literacy coordinator sets an age-appropriate list of words for each year group, which is sent home (with a sponsorship form) before the half-term break. The children are asked to practise the words and seek sponsorship (eg, 10p for every correct word). Teachers then test the children when they return from the holidays and send a note home to parents confirming how many words they spelt correctly. The children bring in their sponsorship money, and voila! This year we raised £1,700. The PTA award a prize (normally a book voucher) to the top fundraisers. It’s the only event we run where we ask children to seek sponsorship, so parents seem happy to support it.’
Word in a word
Claire Goulding, PTA Vice-Chair, Billingshurst Primary School, Horsham (630 pupils): ‘Our committee read a testimonial in PTA+ Magazine about a word-in-a-word challenge. We thought it would be a great activity to tie in with our push to encourage pupils with their literacy skills. We gave every child a sponsorship form and asked them to find as many words as they could within our school name, encouraging them to find the longest and most unusual words, and the best anagram. We asked our local village magazine to sponsor the competition. It was lovely to see parents getting into the spirit of the competition and working with their children to find new words. Our English leader, Mrs Wilson said “We are incredibly proud of the time and effort the children put into the competition, and at the diverse range and sheer volume of words discovered!” Our Key Stage 2 winner found a staggering 1,079 words, whilst the longest word discovered was “scholarships” and collectively the children raised over £400.’
Ready, steady... read
Katharine Childs, PTA Secretary, Friends of Blackwell School, Derbyshire (160 pupils): ‘We ran an Usborne Ready, Steady, Read…sponsored reading challenge to combine a fundraising event with the chance to promote literacy and a love of reading. As an incentive for taking part, pupils received half of their sponsor money back in book vouchers. Our local Usborne Books rep organised it all, preparing posters, sponsorship forms and letters to parents. We also promoted it on our PTA Facebook page. The sponsored read took part over a week, after which we collected the money and handed it to the rep. She sorted out vouchers for the children and ran a book fair. About 40 children participated, and we raised over £900 to spend on books. Some children read for over 1,000 minutes during the week, which was fantastic.’
Matchbox challenge
Laura Golding, PTA Chair, Haydonleigh Primary, Swindon (504 pupils): ‘We came up with the idea of a matchbox challenge. We purchased empty, plain white matchboxes and sent letters to parents together with the matchboxes. Pupils could win prizes – not only for collecting the most individual items in their matchbox but also for raising the most money. The buzz around the school was incredible, and all the teachers helped encourage the children. Children returned their full, labelled matchboxes with sponsorship forms and the money they had raised. We included a Gift Aid declaration on the sponsorship form to maximise our fundraising. The hardest part was verifying the contents of the boxes and working out which held the most items. We recommend not counting sand – it’s very difficult to spot. The parents were fantastic and we had an overwhelming response, raising a staggering £1,300.’
- Spotlight on World Book Day
- Why your PTA should raise funds for a school library
- Matchbox challenge guide and downloads
- Step-by-step: quiz night
Quiz time
Elaine Malcolm, PTA committee member, Wallacestone Primary School, Stirlingshire (500 pupils): ‘We sell our quiz sheets for £1 each and put all the correct returns into a draw. The lucky winner gets a cash prize, usually around £25. The quizzes have been very popular among work colleagues, family, and friends of the school. They are a bit different from the usual requests for donations and give supporters a challenge and mental workout, which they seem to enjoy! For the school quiz sheets, we issue five per child with a covering letter. Lots of people buy extra copies. It’s best if only a couple of people compile the quiz and know the answers so that as many people as possible can take part. You can find plenty of helpful websites to get ideas for quiz questions. Two good options are quiz-zone.co.uk and quizmasters.biz. Quizzes are easy to organise and make a reasonable amount. The average amount we raise is about £750.’
Bedtime Zzz
Helen McClure, PTA chair, King Furlong Infant School and Nursery, Basingstoke (260 children): ‘We invited the children to come to school in their PJs for an evening of bedtime stories. They could choose which classroom they went to first, and after 10 minutes, a bell rang to signal that the first story had finished and the children needed to move to the next room. Last year, the children had three Christmas stories before gathering back in the hall for refreshments and a visit from Santa, who distributed presents. The cost per child was £4, which included hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows, biscuits and an age-appropriate book from Santa. We invited parents to stay in our refreshment room or visit our Christmas market. We also ran a meat raffle with a top prize worth £80, which we bought from a local butcher. There was such a buzz of excitement as the children moved around the school, and we raised a fantastic £322!’
Barefoot Books
Judy Collins, PTA chair, Cholsey Primary School, Oxford (250 pupils): ‘We recently opened a new library space and were keen to get some lovely books for our new moveable bookshelves. So we invited our local Barefoot Ambassador to run a book fair at our fete. Teachers and pupils from each class drew up a wish list of books, and the Barefoot Ambassador supplied us with them along with other favourites. Visitors could buy the books to take home or donate to the school. The book fair was extremely well-attended, and we received a lot of positive feedback. Some £330 worth of books were donated to the library, and we used PTA funds to buy any remaining books on the wish list.’
Book swap
Andrea Line, PTA Chair, Bignold Primary School, Norwich, Norfolk (450 pupils): ‘We decided to organise a book swap for World Book Day in March. The week before, we asked children to bring unwanted books and hand them to their teacher in exchange for tokens. Pupils could get a maximum of three tokens, but we were happy to take more donations if people wanted to give more books away. A parent on the PTA created the tokens with each child’s name written on them. On World Book Day, we laid the books out on tables and categorised them into sections such as early readers, fiction, non-fiction and so on. Classes came in one at a time, and pupils picked the books they wished to buy with their tokens. We gave a token to children who couldn’t bring in a book so they weren’t left out. We had more books than we needed, so after school, we held a book sale and sold each remaining book for 20p each, with all funds going towards the PTA. We made a profit of £30, which may seem small, but the event was more about encouraging our pupils to enjoy reading, especially as many speak English as a second language. Last year’s event was our first, but we all loved it so much that we plan to run it each year.’
Claim Gift Aid on sponsorship
When running a sponsored event, your PTA could raise an additional 25p for every £1 donated by claiming Gift Aid.
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