Cashmere Primary Te Pae Kererū PTA

We are a group of volunteer parents who help out where we can to connect our fantastic school with our local and wider community. We organise many great events throughout the school year, as well as fundraise to contribute to a number of great additions for our school environment.

PTA Highlights

  • Twilight Fair

    The name says it all. A highly anticipated social event on the school calendar, and whatever the weather, it always proves to be a great night! From previous years we have raised funds to support the school in many ways, including more recently the building of a new junior playground, installation of new lighting and sound facilities in the school hall, and the purchase of a portable stage. The PTA love putting on such a great fundraiser, and we are always looking for ways to make this bigger and better each year.

  • Lunch Break

    The Friday bought lunches programme run by the PTA has proved a great success. Every Friday we're in the kitchen making yummy, healthy food options for tamariki to order for lunch. We continue to make this offering bigger and better, and love that it is so popular, both with the kids and with parents. With funds raised from this the PTA have been able to purchase new ovens, a new microwave and a new fridge/freezer for the school kitchen. Thanks to Katie Martin the Lunch Break volunteers for all their great work on this programme.

  • Morning Teas

    The PTA supports the school/whanau connections by putting on regular group morning teas. These are a lovely chance to connect with other parents throughout the school. The PTA provide tea and coffee and yummy home-baked treats made by our lovely "Friends of the PTA". We also support the "Starting School" programme run by the Maunu team, and provide morning tea on those mornings that children who are about to start school come and look around.

  • School Disco

    Always popular with the tamariki, the annual school disco is a great night! The kids always look fabulous in their stylish outfits, and they have lots of fun dancing to the DJ’s great sounds. Money raised from this event helps the PTA continue to contribute to the school and the wider community.

  • Sports Shed Equipment

    This year the PTA funded the purchase of new equipment for the sports shed. The kids love having this gear available to use at play times, so we're chuffed we could contribute to this.

  • Netball Hoops

    Through funds raised, the PTA have been able to purchase some mobile netball hoops. These are fantastic given their mobility, and provide for so many more options for moving round the various spaces at school for practices.

  • Celebration of Volunteers

    There are so many ways for parents and whanau to support the school, including volunteering for one of the many events that happen in the school week. These include Road Patrol, reading mileage, helping in the kitchen for our Friday bought-lunch programme, putting reading books away in classrooms, helping with Garden to Table, going as parent help on field trips, and going on school camp, just to name a few. The PTA think all this support deserves recognition, so we organise an afternoon tea for all these superstars. Ka pai to mahi, great work volunteers!

  • Cards and Calendars

    Always popular, Cards and Calendars involves kids contributing their artwork to be printed on cards, calendars, diaries, and other products then available to purchase. Money raised gets donated to each school team to use in their learning space. We’ve also been able to fund new equipment for the sports shed. Thanks to the teachers for their efforts with the tamariki in producing their amazing artworks, and to Amy Harrison for her work coordinating this.

  • Leavers Dinner and Supper

    As part of the final celebrations of the year for our Year 8 tamariki, the PTA fund a dinner out for the children at a restaurant in town - what a great memory to take with them on their next adventure in life! We also put on supper following the final assembly of the year for all our Year 8 leavers and their families and whanau.

  • Treat the Team

    A programme facilitated by the PTA, which gives families a chance to say thanks to our amazing school staff by buying coffees vouchers for them to redeem at the local cafes. Sometimes it's just the little things that brighten our day! Go to Kindo and say thank you today,

  • Hardship and Empathy Support

    The PTA always have an ear out for anyone in the school community who needs some extra help and support. We have a number of ways we can provide assistance, and we hope that every little bit that we do can make a difference for someone in their life.

  • Garden to Table Quiz Night

    Each year the PTA help the Garden to Table programme with their fundraising by putting on a Quiz Night. This is always a great night with lots of laughs, and the opportunity to connect within the school community. The Garden to Table programme provide some yummy good, and we love that we can help out such a great cause.

2023 PTA Chairperson's Report

With pleasure I present the Chairperson’s Report for the CPTPK PTA for the year ending March 2023.

COVID-19 had some ongoing consequences during the past year, however we managed to undertake the majority of our calendar of events, and my thanks go to all members who gave time, energy and enthusiasm to our various projects.

During the year we said goodbye to Emily Grieg, and welcomed Lou Neville and Shane Langman. Our school representatives  Gavin Burn, Michelle Smith, and Barbara Turner continued with their contribution of time and support for what we do which is very much appreciated, and I thank them for this.

So the past year …

Events and Fundraisers

  • The Twilight Fair – I was chuffed to have this event go ahead again, even though the weather wasn’t great on the night. It is always a popular evening, and we had a great turnout with wonderful community support. Marquees on the field for both food stalls and Katua games worked well, along with some food trucks. The new branding looked awesome, and thanks go to all those who were involved in organising and running this.

  • Matariki Celebration – we were proud to be able to support the inaugural Matariki celebration. This was a fantastic evening, and it was wonderful to see so many school whanau attend. The PTA organised food trucks and lighting, and we look forward to expanding on this contribution going forward.

  • School Disco – held in Te Pokai where the space suits the numbers attending. This year’s disco was in November with a general “disco” theme. It was a fun night, and is a very popular fundraiser with tamariki. We decided to bring this in-house for lighting and sound which worked well. Special thanks go to Paul Marriott-Lloyd for his efforts DJing and Wilfred Walsh for his efforts with lighting and sound.

  • Cards and Calendars – Amy Harrison ran this for us again and thanks go to both her and the teachers for their efforts to support this. We made $2.8k which was a great result, where funds from this purchased new sports equipment and topped up the Hardship and Empathy funds.

  • Garden to Table Fundraiser – our usual Quiz Night was replaced this year with the Ethel & Bethel Bingo Night. After an initial postponement we held this in Term 1 2023, where the event raised $6.8k. Late 2022 we supported GTT with $2k of funds raised from sausage sizzles and a raffle, and of the money made from the bingo night we will contribute $5k to the Garden to Table programme.

  • Individual Fundraisers – we ran some individual fundraisers throughout the year, including for Fairlie Pies, Eradus Wines, and Two Thumb Brewery. These were used to top up general PTA funds.

  • Team Morning Teas – these went on hold this past year due to COVID, but we’re pleased to get these underway again in 2023. These provide a great opportunity for the school community to come together and connect.

  • Starting School Hui - the PTA are proud to provide support for the school’s programme for welcoming new students. We missed a few of these earlier in the year due to COVID, but it was great to see these get back up and running later in the year.

  • Entertainment Book – thanks to Emily and Paul for maintaining this fundraiser for the PTA.

  • 'Staff Appreciation’– celebrated in conjunction with ‘Teacher Appreciation Day’ as a way of saying thanks to all the wonderful staff at school.  This year we gave individual “coffee voucher & sweet treat” gifts due to staff not gathering together at the time, and this recognition is always very well received.

  • Year 8 Leavers - the evening of a dinner out is always greatly enjoyed by the seniors. We were also able to support the farewell assembly this year with a supper for the whanau of our year 8 leavers.

  • Lunch Break -  the Friday bought lunches programme continues to be a great success. Thanks so much to Katie Martin, Michelle Burns and Lou Neville for running this, and all the hard work put into making this programme achieve. More information is given in the separate Lunch Break report.

  • Treat the Team - facilitated by the PTA, this provides families with the chance to say thanks to the staff at school by buying coffee vouchers through Kindo to be used at the local cafe, and still proves a popular scheme.

Timing and COVID constraints during the year meant some events did not go ahead, including team morning teas, the working bee, and the volunteer shout out. For the coming year the PTA will work in conjunction with the BoT and school to produce one overall calendar of events, and also coordinate what funds are being raised for and how we can best support the school and its needs.

Administration and Communication

  • We continue to use Whanau News to communicate events and other information.

  • We aim to put out a PTA newsletter per term with updates, information and event details.

  • We print hardcopy leaflets as applicable and send these home with children.

  • We use Facebook to communicate to the wider school community; thanks to Cheryl for maintaining this on our behalf.

  • Kindo continues to be a very useful tool for selling tickets to events and for ordering school lunches through the Lunch Break programme.

  • The PTA webpage is updated as required as a useful tool to provide information in one place for families to access. It would be good to have this maintained more frequently.

  • Online banking for the PTA bank account still proves to be efficient for managing bill payments and reimbursing PTA members.

  • Supplier accounts are utilised, primarily for Lunch Break, in order to facilitate purchasing and online payments.

  • The separate email address for Lunch Break is still up and running, and has proved useful for facilitating communication with the Lunch Break team outside of the PTA comms.


Financial

Spending of prior Twilight Fair funds for enhancing the outdoor spaces $29k is underway. Some has already been spent on new football goals and basketball/netball hoops on the lower court. Subsequent spending is going on bars for the senior playground, picnic tables for the Garden to Table space by the junior playground, new basketball hoops for the middle courts, and a shade sail for the dodgeball pit.

Other funds raised have been used throughout the year for the following:

  • Fund and support a New Families gathering

  • Support the ‘Garden to Table’ programme

  • Maintain the Empathy and Hardship funds

  • Purchase of additional portable staging panels to increase the size to that of the existing stage

  • Purchase of disco lighting, a smoke machine and some sound cables

  • Purchase of new equipment for the sports shed

  • Fund a dinner for the Year 8 leavers

  • Fund a supper for the Year 8 leavers’ whanau

  • Support of school teams’ learning spaces as applicable

  • Purchase of leaving gifts for staff

  • Funding morning/afternoon teas

  • Through the Lunch Break programme we’ve supported Garden to Table with an additional $1.2k, along with providing a term of lunches as a prize for the School Gala, and providing lunches for families identified through the Hardship programme.

I’m proud of what we continue to achieve and the level of support we’re able to provide our school and wider community. Thank you to the PTA for all their hard work, effort, and enthusiasm over the past year. I feel we all have a role to play in supporting our tamariki to grow, learn and achieve, and the PTA’s ongoing commitment to this is an important part of that. I am grateful that we can do what we do, so thank you.

Susan Roy

Chairperson

March 2023