Birch Copse School has a friendly, hard-working, enthusiastic group of volunteers on the Parent Teacher and Friends Association (PTFA) Committee who organise many activities to bring the school community together, as well as the opportunity to raise vital additional funds to enhance the Children’s school experience by funding equipment and/or activities across the school.
The committee meets once each half term and, as a 'Friends' association, anyone can attend - parent/guardian, staff, grandparents etc. Committee meeting dates are published in the school bulletin.
News on upcoming activities are shared via the schools weekly parent bulletin and the PTA’s‘ Birch Copse Parents/carers’ Facebook page that is monitored and regularly updated by the PTA volunteers. The Facebook page can be found here:
Fund Raising Events
The PTFA organises many annual events and fun one-offs – any new ideas, offers to assist at any of the events or to run your own event are gratefully received (ptainfo@birchcopse.w-berks.sch.uk).
Annual events often include Christmas Activities/Fair, Easter Raffle, Summer Fair, School Discos, Quizzes and Production DVDs to name just a few.
There are other regular, low cost (or even no extra cost) ways to help the school, where online shopping will generate free cash donations to Birch Copse School with every purchase, or used batteries can be brought in to the office to then be exchanged for books for the school. Further details on current active schemes are below & via our ‘quick reference guide’.
A huge bonus and an easy win…we’d be thankful if you could check with your HR or ‘Corporate & Social Responsibility’ teams for charitable policies such as ‘Company Matching/Matched Funding’ schemes. Many employers allow time off work to volunteer and/or will match amounts raised at a event. The PTFA is a registered charity so such policies will double your impact and it’s often simple to claim. We’ve had anywhere from £500 to £1,000 additional matched funds in the past at no extra cost to the employee! So please do check and let us know what you need to proceed.
PTFA Funded Items & Activities
In light of the current funding crisis (affecting all schools locally and nationally) the PTFA is raising funds to help with day-to-day activities rather than the extras. Many schools ask children to bring their own pens/pencils and many don’t have Teaching Assistants in every class! Our wonderful Birch Copse community & PTFA Committee actively work to fund such gaps for the benefit of all our children.
Each year the PTFA provide money for the teachers to spend on classroom resources and cover the cost of the Year 6 Leavers' Books and party food. In previous years the PTFA has funded Reception play equipment, new classroom smart TV sets, an outdoor classroom, library books, library computer and software, the wireless network, interactive white board, drum kits, PA system, outdoor play equipment, hall tables & benches, projectors, a cash contribution to the new school hall and many other items.
Uniform Shop
The PTFA also runs its own school uniform shop online where you can buy all branded items. If you haven’t already, please visit the Birch Copse PTFA website where you can register to access all available services, including ordering uniform.
Once registered, click the three lines at top right to access the menu and then under ‘Uniform and Merchandise’ you'll see the link to the uniform shop to find the item you need. Payment is taken at the time of ordering via ‘Stripe’, a secure payment platform. Your order will then be processed by our PTA volunteers and sent home with your child once it’s ready.
Please note that at times we can experience supply chain issues, which means some items may be low in stock resulting in a delay in processing your order. If this happens, we will put a notice on the PTA website uniform page notifying you as such and will endeavour to get your order processed as soon as possible.
You can also check stock levels on the Uniform shop, these are displayed under each item we sell.
If you have any questions, please contact the Birch Copse Uniform Team at:
ptauniformshop@birchcopse.w-berks.sch.uk.
For further information regarding our exchange/return policy or if you qualify for uniform via Pupil Premium, please refer to the ‘Further information’ section on the PTA website uniform page.
School Lottery
We have a weekly online lottery in place with Your School Lottery! Please join via the link below. All funds raised go to improving our school. There's a guaranteed prize every week for one of our supporters AND there's a chance to win £25,000!
How the lottery works ... Only £1per ticket, that's right, unlike many other lotteries, our lottery tickets are only £1 per week. For every ticket you play, 76% goes to our school and prizes. Match all 6 numbers and you win the national JACKPOT of a £25,000 grand prize! A chance to win every week, play as many lines as you wish
Easy Fundraising
You can find Birch Copse Primary School on Easy Fundraising ; this is a great fundraising site that lets you raise donations for Birch Copse Primary School whenever you shop online. It is easy to use and don’t cost you a penny!
Weekly grocery shopping, holidays and insurances are easy wins with worthwhile lump sum donation amounts! The reminder function will even let you know if you’re using a partnered website so you don’t miss the free donation!
By signing up and shopping online via EasyFundraising you will generate free cash donations for us. With 1000s of your favourite retailers between these platforms such as: Sainsburys, Compare the Market, Ebay, M&S, Tui, John Lewis & Partners, Uswitch, Just Eat and Now TV etc, you are bound to find what you need and generate a donation. To start raising free donations go to:
MyNameTags & easy2name
There is always a surprising amount of lost property each term so we would strongly encourage you to have personalised name labels on your children coats, clothing, shoes, water bottles etc.
You can choose pictures, colours, font style and even put a mobile number on (handy if your child is lost but cannot remember your number but knows it is on their t-shirt!)
Both MyNameTags and Easy2Name offer free charitable donations at no extra cost to you! When placing your order please quote the following to earn a charitable donation:
My Name Tags School ID: 21538
Easy2Name School ID: FR-BIRCHCOPSEPRIMARYRG31-10
CLOTHES RECYCLING
you can donate a bag/s of used re-wearable condition clothes and accessories each term. We let you know when the drop off day is and you simply bring in your bag/s of any unwanted clothes to the drop off point in the morning. We then arrange for a clothes recycler to collect from us for a cash donation to our school. As a real bonus, it reduces waste and benefits the environment and people in various developing world countries.
Thank you for taking the time to visit our page and checking out the things we get up to, we would absolutely love to hear from you if you would like to know more, have a fundraising idea or simply would like to offer a helping hand. You can email us here at ptainfo@birchcopse.w-berks.sch.uk
