Uplands Fundraising Community

Welcome to the Uplands Fundraising Community (UFC), which is our version of a Parent-Teacher Association (PTA). We are a registered charity, and are a community for all members of the school: families, staff and governors, as well as local businesses. We feel this was the best way to support our fundamental aim of fundraising. However, we can only do this with everyone’s support!

The UFC works best when working under the motto of ‘many hands make light work’. We do need people to lead certain events, but we also need helpers who can offer different amounts of time, expertise and support!

Our sole aim is to raise money for the school and nursery, in order to support the learning and development of our pupils and give them the best experience possible.

Our current UFC members are:

Chair – VACANT

Vice Chair – Heather Powell (Y5 Parent)

Treasurer – Sam McCann (Teaching Assistant and Governor)

Secretary – VACANT

Below are the Class reps for 2020/2021:

What is the UFC?

The UFC is an organised charity of the school run by the parents, guardians and staff of the children attending Uplands Primary School and Nursery. The UFC organise a variety of events with the aim of raising money to help advance of the education of the children within the school. The UFC have been instrumental in raising funds to provide enhanced provisions for the children of Uplands Primary School and Nursery, including outside resources, electronic devices and experience events for the children.

All parents and staff are involved in the UFC in some way, ranging from donating cupcakes for a cake sale to being a committee member, and both ends of the spectrum are as important as each other.

The committee consists of: the Headteacher (or a designated staff representative), Chairperson/s, Vice Chair/s, Treasurer, Secretary and the members of the UFC who attend the meetings and run events.

The meetings are arranged at the end of the previous meeting and noted in the minutes. This is so we can be flexible with dates depending on the time of year. Times of meeting are varied to allow a range of parents to be able to attend. Meetings have, in the past, been held at the beginning of the school day, end of the school day and in the evening.

All family members within our community are invited to contribute in whatever way they can. Time is one of the biggest commitments that a member can give, but we are aware that not everyone can give the same amount of time. You may not be able to give a lot of time to the UFC, but we would love any ideas, donations, skills and support that you could offer. We are always looking for volunteers to help run/man an event, and without the support of our family community we simply cannot run the events. We also need people to take ownership of and lead events. It is not a requirement to attend all meetings, and many UFC members communicate with other members to organise events or contribute via email, phone or our UFC Facebook page.

Our main committee comprises a Chairperson, Vice-Chair, Treasurer and Secretary, and this committee is supported by the Head Teacher and Deputy Headteacher, alongside a group of other dedicated parents and carers in the school. At present, we only have a Vice-Chair and a Treasurer, and are looking to fill the positions of Chairperson and Secretary. We will be hosting an AGM in January and invite all parents/carers to attend, and to consider whether they would like to put themselves forward for one of the roles. The date of the meeting will be published in next week’s newsletter.

The main duties of both positions are outlined below:

Chairperson

• The Chairperson provides leadership for the committee, sets the agenda for meetings and manages meetings in line with the agenda.
• The Chairperson should ensure that issues are properly debated and an agreement is reached.
• Some committee members will be better at expressing themselves than others; it is important that the Chairperson welcomes contributions from all members of the committee so that everyone feels involved.
• The Chairperson will ensure that all new members feel welcome and their contributions valued.
• The Chairperson will introduce them to the other members and encourage them to play an active part in the discussions at committee meetings.
• To ensure the smooth running of meetings, the Chairperson must remain impartial and make sure that all parties have a voice and the opportunity to participate in decision making.
• The Chairperson will work closely with the Treasurer and Secretary to ensure that the UFC is run effectively.
• As an Officer of the committee, the Chairperson will be one of designated signatories and will sign cheques on behalf of the UFC along with other designated signatories.
• The role of the Chairperson is to ensure that the business of the UFC is conducted in accordance with the wishes of the representatives of the UFC, to uphold the constitution of the UFC, and prepare and submit statutory reports to Regulatory Bodies.

Main duties:

• Provide leadership.
• Sign the approved minutes of the last meeting.
• Set the agenda for meetings.
• Get to know members of the committee.
• Run meetings in an efficient and timely manner ensuring that everyone is able to contribute.
• Agree a date for the next meeting.
• Welcome and involve new members.
• Write the annual report in cooperation with the Secretary.
• Sign cheques for the UFC with one other committee member.

Secretary

• The Secretary ensures that the UFC runs smoothly and provides a link between Committee Members and the UFC, and between the UFC and the school. This requires good organisational and communication skills and being able to stick to deadlines.
• The Secretary is a key committee member as they are responsible for ensuring effective communication links between committee members and between the UFC and the school.
• The Secretary deals with all the correspondence that the UFC receives and helps the Chairperson ensure that committee meetings run smoothly.
• As well as dealing with correspondence, following a committee meeting, the Secretary makes bookings and other arrangements for events. The Secretary will also make arrangements for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and help the Chairperson prepare the annual report. The Secretary may also be involved in co-signing cheques on behalf of the UFC.

Main duties:

• Deal with correspondence.
• Arrange meetings.
• Prepare and distribute agendas.
• Take the minutes of meetings, type them up and distribute them.
• Ensure that enough committee members are present to make the meeting quorate.
• Sign cheques as required.
• Write the annual report with the Chair.
• Preparation and distribution of newsletters and other communications to parents.
• Preparation of publicity flyers, posters, tickets, etc. for events.

If you would like to discuss either of these roles in more detail, or the continued fundraising efforts of the UFC, please contact Mrs Deacon via the school office at office@uplandsberkshire.org.

These will be updated after our AGM in January 2022.

Here are some useful links to help the school while you are shopping without spending an extra penny!

• Micro scooters
  For every purchase you make on  www.micro-scooters.co.uk , 10% automatically goes towards a school fund to buy scooters etc. You will need the school url no. which is 109847 when you get to the payment page.
• Easy Fundraising
  Once you create an account with Easyfundraisng you can activate a link so when you order online with certain companies you can raise funds for the school too. Alot of companies offer this in different industries including insurance, travel, electrical and mobile firms including big names like Amazon, Argos, Late rooms, Expedia, Axa,Thomas cook, vodafone etc The list is huge.When you set up an account and search on google you can install a prompt that will divert you via easyfunding then once you make your purchase a donation will be made to the school account. It is very easy and a great way to raise funds. There is also a mobile app too!
• Co-op Link to the Uplands page