Parents & Friends of Kington St Michael CE School
(Registered Charity No. 1109716)
Our charity is run by an enthusiastic group of parents and friends and supported by teachers from the school. Our aim is to enhance the children’s education by providing activities and equipment to supplement those provided within normal resources. Without the help and dedication of the team these extras would not be available. We hope, therefore, that you will support us in our fundraising efforts to ensure that KSM remains a great place to learn and a school of choice for its children. Many wonderful resources have been funded by money raised by the Friends including school trips, staging, outside tables, sports and playground equipment, class Christmas presents and play area resurfacing.
Members of the Friends have also been involved in securing IT equipment and making funding applications including a bid to the National Lottery which helped us secure our fabulous new Play Pod.
In 2015/16, we fundraised over £8,800 through film nights, cycling events, carol singing, grants and of course our school fete which itself raised over £5,000 – an astonishing figure for such a small school. However, we have a lot of support from our village whether it is raffle prize donations from KSM village shop, Folly Row Café or The Jolly Huntsman, volunteers at school helping the children with reading or supporting our fete by coming along and spending a few hours with us.
With this money, we have helped the school by funding a new music room, the Play Pod for the children to use during playtime, the school Christmas Disco and class Christmas presents and of course donated £5,000 towards the new classroom which has allowed the school to redevelop other areas.
In 2016/17, the school's ambitious plans were to create not only a new library but also
redevelop the outside of the school to include a pond, sensory garden and use the
leftover mound of dirt from the new classroom into a fabulous fun raised snake-like area for the children to run up and down and enjoy. To do this, the school asked us to help them with grants and fundraising.
In 2016/17, we raised a little over £4,500 for the school to develop the new library. There were some amazing donations from parents and local business as well as our usual fundraising efforts. Further details of our fundraising efforts can be seen below.
If you would be interested in joining the Friends of KSM in any capacity however small or large, then please contact the school office and they will get you in touch with the right people.
For up to date information on Friends' events and news please visit the Friends' Facebook page (this is an open page - you don't need to be signed up to Facebook).
Friends Events:
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FRIENDS' NEWS:
2024
September: The Friends of the School are looking for volunteers to help them run a Christmas wreath making event, which is provisionally planned for the end of November. They are also looking for donations of foliage and materials.
If you can help with either, please email Jo at friendsksmschool@gmail.com.
2023
October
We hope all the people who got involved with the litter picking this year enjoyed themselves. Some of the more unusual finds included a car bumper, big gas lighter and plenty of URO's (Unidentifiable Rubbish Objects). Well done to all those who got involved we have raised over £120 from sponsorship, collected over 12kg of rubbish from our community and turned over 3kg into recycling (aluminium cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles etc). Showing the value events like this can bring for the planet, the local area, funds for the school and the smiles on the children's faces. Several children found it quite eye opening upon realising how many sweet wrappers fail to make it into the bin, concluding that everyone should aim to do better. A thank you goes out to Wiltshire council who helped provide the litter picking kits and to all those who got involved to make our community and school an even better place. The children will be receiving their certificates shortly from Mrs Cavey and are entered into a prize draw to win a Family swim ticket to the Olympiad - as a Thank you for all their efforts.
2021
November
The Friends of KSM school would like to share some of their recent initiatives with the local community as your support is invaluable to us at the school.
In September you may have spotted a number of families out in your local area, collecting litter. The children were really keen to be sponsored to help improve the local environment and we were astonished to hear of the quantities of litter they managed to collect. This will be an annual event so please keep your eyes peeled next September.
The Friends of KSM School have signed up to the big PTA Christmas draw. For every ticket purchased you will have 12 chances to win £5,000! At the same time KSM school will raise 50% from every ticket sold to support the PTA. If you would like to get some tickets to support your local school, please do so before 13th December. The tickets are available online, for further details go to www.bigptaraffle.co.uk.
The Friends have also teamed up with Chippenham Draycot Stores at the Pit Stop and if you have been wondering how your Christmas tree can be more sustainable this year then please think about a potted tree that can continue to grow after the festive season. If you mention KSM school as you hire a tree from the Pit Stop, they will donate money to the school for every hirer we have sent their way.
If you are in and around Sainsbury’s on the morning of Sunday 12th December, please listen out for Friends of the School carol singers who will be helping to raise the spirits of the Christmas shoppers.
2020
February - The Friends' quiz night raised a fantastic £485.80 for funds. Thanks go to all who supported this event.