WHAT IS FOBS?
Our guiding principles are the same as the school's - Respect, Kindness and Collaboration.
We are a registered charity (Registered Charity Number 1038934) made up of trustees, exec committee, class representatives and individual parent volunteers. We are always looking for support in various forms such as volunteers for events, new ideas, financial donations and parents with skills from all walks of life.
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We want parents to feel empowered to do what they can to help the school. We are here to help build relationships between parents with shared interests, and to promote any idea you might have.
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We can help you by utilising our network to promote your event or project, set up payment links and gift aid and arrange match funding with other parents in the school (if appropriate). We are grateful to anyone who puts a hand up to help and always open to proposals.
Unfortunately we cannot do every event
due to the school's full diary. At times, we will need to consider whether there have been other events or what else is in the calendar. Some people like to start their projects months ahead.
YOU CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
We know how busy life is, but if you are a parent/carer we assume you are also a Friend. We respect the fact you may not have the capacity to help all the time, however we always need help with something.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO RAISE SOME MONEY OR ORGANISE AN EVENT FOR THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY?
Please do! Talk to us as early as possible and we will do whatever we can to help with the advance planning to enable the event or project to become a reality. We need a bit of time to discuss the project with the school and make sure we can get the best support.
"EXEC" GROUP
The exec group are a collection of parents that are regularly involved, who we know won’t mind being asked to do things; and will generally take on huge chunks of work to keep the FOBS going throughout the year, every year.
Some will also play a role in advising us on how we can be doing things better, particularly around areas of inclusion. Typically, those on this group are voted in during the AGM and we would welcome anyone who would like to put themselves forward for a role as part of this process. Our AGM usually takes place in December or January, but feel free to get in touch with us outside of that if you have specific expertise you feel would be beneficial to the exec committee.
Decisions around allocation of funds are made by this group.
THE "REPS"
The reps – are an essential part of our association, particularly around communications. They are volunteer parents who pass on messages between FOBS and class groups. The reps at times may be asked from the school to pass on messages between themselves and parents as well. Each teacher will use the rep differently, and it is down to the class rep and the teacher to decide how this is done.
The reps do not have a role in school governance or the complaints process. Most reps have put themselves forward to do the role, and there are usually 1-2 per class.
HOW DO WE DECIDE TO ALLOCATE FUNDS
Our guiding principles driving these decisions are based in our constitution.
Does it help/contribute to
a) developing an effective relationship between the staff, parents and others associated with the school (ie develop the school community or it members) and/or
B) engage in activities, or provide facilities or equipment, which supports the school and enhance the education of the pupils?
Our next question will be, is it the best use of the funds at this current time?
This is discussed with the school's senior leadership team.
As there are lots of competing needs with respect to funds, we are constantly working to increase collaboration with the school to ensure that your donation goes to the most appropriate allocation that will meet the above principles.
The decision to approve the funds is done via the exec group by vote. If there is a difficult decision to be made regarding the allocation the trustees will ultimately have the final vote.
What we don't do
We will very happily discuss complaints/concerns with parents about the events we run or the expenditure we approved expenditure. Please contact us via fobeecroftgarden@gmail.com
We do not however, have the remit to manage issues which involve the running of the school. We ask that issues or concerns regarding the school are kept off the Whats App groups, as there is no one on the class group who will be able to resolve the issue for you. If however you do have a concern but aren’t sure if it’s worth raising, it probably is. We suggest you discuss this with your class teacher, or a member of staff you trust who can sign post you in the right direction.
Parent Governors are also available to sign post you in the right direction, however they will not be able to listen to direct complaints about the school or staff as they are involved in the complaints process.
The school’s complaints procedure can be found on the school's website