PSA
The St Mary’s Parent Staff Association (PSA) are a registered charity (No. 1147165) dedicated to raising money for the school to pay for educational enhancements for the children.
Who are we?
The main committee is:
- Lucy Risorto – Co-Chair
- Tanesha Coley – Co-Chair
- Treasurer – Simone Mendez
- Secretary – Joelle Seymour
- Compliance Officer – Antonio Risorto
There are 13 Class Representatives covering Nursery to Year 6 distributing School information and helping parents with day-to-day class queries. This is communicated via WhatsApp; if you are not on your Class Group and want to be please email us at stmarys.sw4.psa@gmail.com
We also have parents and carers covering roles such as Class Rep coordination, Christmas activities, poster design, specific events and much more.
We are a diverse and welcoming group of parents who are new to our roles so open to further support and new ideas!
How we support the school
One of the most important functions of the PSA is bringing together our school community. That’s everyone from the parents and the staff to our wonderful governors and church community.
Then of course we fund equipment and experiences for the children. There are annual activities and resources we provide such as school trip coaches, infant book bags and sport rucksacks, first aid training and the much loved Pantomine, as well as a range of exciting educational activities organised for pupils during Art Week, Science Week and Book Week.
We have also sponsored bigger projects and resources such as the bike/scooter shed, instruments for the music department, a new screen and IT system for the school hall and more recently a sizeable donation to upgrade the school playgrounds.
How we raise funds
Regular features of the PSA calendar are the Summer Fair, Bake Sales, Pancake Sale, Mother’s Day Gift Sale, Male SuperHero Day, Bingo Night, Christmas Wreath Workshop, Christmas Tree Sale and the Christmas Fair.
All profits raised at these events go directly to the PSA for our children’s benefit. You can support us by helping us to raise funds at these events by volunteering and/or buying
We also sell great quality second-hand uniform at very low prices. Please help us raise funds by buying uniform or donating quality outgrown items to the office.
How you can help
All parents and carers are automatically members of the PSA whilst they have a child at the school. We encourage and welcome parents and carers to help out where possible.
If you would like to become more involved, please let us know, everyone has something to bring! Can you contribute some time on a stall? Do you have a business connection or can donate a prize? Can you face-paint, take a good photo? Bake a cake? Help sell some uniform for 10 minutes?
You’ll see many PSA helpers with their children in tow helping out and making it a fun family experience.
Even if you don’t have much time there are always small jobs to be done. We all have very busy lives but every little really does help, especially if we all pitch in together.
Other ways to help
EasyFundraising
This is a fantastic fundraising scheme that raises money whilst you do your online shopping (from groceries to holidays, takeaways, supermarkets and even insurance policies!). Every time you spend money through one of their listed shops, a percentage of your spend will be donated to our charity by the retailer, at no additional cost to you. You can support our cause by registering here.
Click on ‘support this cause’ to create your account. Once you have signed up, whenever you shop log on to EasyFundraising or use the app to select from over 7,000 shops. You will be redirected to the retailer’s normal website and shop as you normally would, only St Mary’s earns a FREE donation.
Gift Aid Donations
Parents and carers often ask how they can make donations for equipment and/or in lieu of fair spend if they cannot make the School events.
HMRC has approved the PSA charity for Gift Aid donations. This means that if you are a taxpayer and you select Gift Aid when donating* HMRC will automatically give us 25p for every £1 you spend at no cost to you. Certain taxpayers may also be entitled to an additional tax deduction depending on their income levels.
You can make donations here and remember to tick Gift Aid if you are a taxpayer!
*Conditions apply. Donations only qualify for Gift Aid if you are receiving nothing in return i.e. not buying goods, raffle tickets, school uniform etc.
Payroll Giving & Matched Funding
Donations can also be made direct to the PSA registered charity from your payroll with full tax relief given at source for taxpayers.
Many corporate companies provide matched funding for employee contributions to charities, which means they will match any donation you make to the PSA. Please find out if this is something your employer may offer.
Contact Us
Email us at stmarys.sw4.psa@gmail.com or contact us via your Class Representative on your class WhatsApp group.
Summer Fair
Thank you to everyone for all their support at the Summer Fair. It was a great day and lots of fun was had by all. Photos to follow!
We made a fantastic profit of £5,900 which funded arty party week for all children; it will go towards funding the pantomime later in the year as well as subsidising some school trips.
A big shout out to the fantastic volunteers who gave up time with their families to make it happen for everyone else. We are always short of volunteers at events so please do volunteer and share the load - it’s a lot of fun for you and your children. We only ask for 30-60 minutes of people’s time.
Here is a list of our fantastic community sponsors as well as some SPECIAL OFFERS for our St Mary’s Community so take a look!
PSA Activities and Events
Summer Fair 2023 & Miss Pluckrose Leaving
What a fantastic day we had raising over £6k - soaking teachers, bouncing and enjoying the fabulous cuisine across our community. There were 140 Raffle & Tombola prizes with numerous game prizes and teddies up for grabs. Our fantastic DJ Piotr kept us on our feet and our choir delighted us with their beautiful voices. With sadness we shared our last Fair with Miss Pluckrose toasting her contribution to the School over a glass of fizz. A huge thank you to everyone that contributed so generously to the Fair - these events just cannot happen without lots of helping hands ! You're amazing.
World Book Day Events - March 2023
The PSA was delighted to fund and arrange the World Book Day events and competitions.
Alongside the lovely costumes that the children wore, there was a Design-Your-Own-Bookmark and Review-Your-Favourite-Book competition. Children attended workshops run by Annabelle Sami and illustrator Joelle Avelino ; an unforgettable experience meeting a real life author and illustrator.
Well done to our Winners : Lea-Louka (N), Frank (RHS), Hanah (RRR), Tara (1MG), Mia-Alexia (1PB), Maria (2AT), Riley (2VB), Julie (3 EOC), Diego (3/4 AE), Aylin (4SW), Dominic (5MCD), Soloman (5/6DR), Santiago (6SL)
And our Runner’s Up: Jenny (N), Eleanor (RHS), Sapphire (RRR), Leo (1MG), Adejare (1PB), Jordan (2AT), Bietial (2VB), Michael E (3EOC), Emma (3/4 AE), Hiyabeil (4SW) Luana (5MCD), Sophia (5/6DR), Janina (6SL)
Mother's Day
The children loved selecting a beautiful gift for the special lady in their life. We raised £625 which went towards World Book Day events.
None of these events would be possible without the generous donations of gifts and the time spent preparing and handing them out. Thank you to all & we hoped you enjoyed your treats on the Sunday!
