In 2018 we made just over £400 around Halloween as our only event was a Halloween Disco. This year at our AGM we decided we could fit more things in to the first half term so set about looking at easy events to do – we know we need everyone refreshed for the Xmas Fair in November – so we didn’t want to do anything too big.
Non Uniform Day
We firstly added in a non-uniform day. We don’t normally have one at this half term as we have previously done the Christmas Jumper ones and then ones in Spring for our summer fair things. We thought we could request the usually £1 or unwanted gifts we could use at our “secret room”. Any money could then go towards buying other gifts we would need. This is obviously an easy fundraising activity and we made £334.
Halloween Disco
Our 2nd event was our Halloween Disco. We hold a disco at this time of year every year and a few years ago we decided to make it themed to give the chance for the kids to dress up if they want to. We do not make it compulsory though as we know some children do not want to. With the costumes in mind we did not invite the reception children to join. In the years up to 2017 we did invite them but each year more parents kept staying and the kids were upset and not enjoying it so we took this on board and realised that they had only been in school for two month, so a disco this early was just too much for them. (we do invite them to the ones from February).
We had also decided to do a few changes to the usual disco so we were not 100% sure how it was going to go. Our discos are usually on a Thursday in school, I am not sure why, but as this was actual Halloween the decision was made to move it to the Wednesday night so the children could still go trick or treating or family parties. Our old price was £1.50 but we increased it to £2 as we found out that is what all the other schools were charging in our area, so we wanted to try it on the basis if it affected sales, we could reduce it back.
We also split our discos to year 1-3 and 4-6 to split the discos evenly. In our meeting the time was moved forward to 5pm – 5:45pm and 6pm – 7pm, an hour earlier than previous as it was easier for our teachers to help and we could finish earlier. Another new thing we trialled this year was doing glitter tattoos, Halloween tattoos and selling Halloween light up rings. So, on the letter for the children we added a tick box if the parents did not want the children to purchase them. We gave the slips of those who couldn’t at the station and also had a teaching assistant (who is the pta secretary) on the stall to make sure this was adhered too.
We send the letter invites out the week before half term with the hope of getting most of the money before half term but we allow kids to pay on the door. We use the entry money to buy stock for the disco. We sell water and flavoured water drinks, crisps, candy floss, sweets (50p bagged up in the 1stone and pick their own in 2ndone), and popcorn on our tuck shop. Nothing over 50p. We also sold glow sticks at the 2nddisco for 20p and at both the tattoos for 30p with the rings. It went great and we ended up making £661. We are looking to leave the times as they are as we had more teacher/Teaching Assistant helpers and the price didn’t affect sales at all. The tattoos went down a storm so we are now looking at Christmas ones for a stall at our fair.
Design A Pumpkin Competition
Our 3rd event was a design a pumpkin competition. We got the picture from Twinkl and added the final date of the 31stOctober and each entry was 50p. This was sent out in the final week before half-term so they had plenty of time. The prizes were a Halloween craft box that we get from Hobbycraft for £5 each. We have one prize for KS1 and one for KS2 and all the entries get looked at by our school council and they decide the winner from each. We made £25.50 from this from 71 entries. Our school does have over 400 pupils but made a profit for no effort so we will do the same at christmas for a jumper design.
You can buy Halloween Pumpkin Carving Knives here
Donuts and Chocolate Apples
The final event was Halloween Donuts and chocolate apples selling after school on 31st October. We have never done this before and we looked at the Krispy Kreme deal but with the disco the night before and our nearest collection point being 45 minutes’ drive away we decided to look at the Asda donuts that are 12 for £2.50 instead. We bought plastic teeth and mini smarties to decorate. We spoke to Asda and they actually get them in frozen so we picked them up frozen on the Tuesday 29thand left them in school to defrost on the 30th.
As we had a lot of helpers at the disco a few people went while it was on to decorate them, we were going to do it after but this helped. We left them there overnight and then a few of us set tables up at 2:30pm on the day ready for pick up, one by the infants and one by the juniors. One of the PTA also got some apples donated by Aldi for us on the Tuesday and another volunteer spend the 31st adding sticks and dipping them in chocolate and sprinkles to sell. The total cost was about £50 and we had 240 donuts and about 30 apples so we knew we just had to sell 50 to make a profit. It did start to rain, which didn’t help but we covered the donuts with some covers we had and, in the end, we made a profit of £145 by selling everything for £1 each. We were all packed up by 4pm and the few we had left we put in the staff room for a donation. It was very easy and the kids loved it. Again looking to do it on the last day of Christmas term but making them into reindeers and snowmen! The apples and white sprinkles were definitely the favourites!
So in total this October we have made just over £1,150 profit and no massive event which is nearly 3 times what we made last year so we are made it. Bring on Christmas events.
Nicola Halsall RL Hughes Primary PTFA
RL Hughes Primary PTFA is an affiliate in The PTA Rewards Scheme! Have you heard about The Stamptastic PTA Rewards Scheme) In 2018, Stamptastic paid out over £16,000 in commission and handed out over £20,000 in fundraising vouchers! If you would like to find out more please click here If you would like to write a blog post for us in return for a £30 fundraising voucher for your PTA please join our Stamptastic PTA and Schools Facebook Group to find out more!)
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