Who we are and what we do
Our PTFA (Parents, Teachers, Friends Association) is a group of volunteer parents and teachers who work together to make the school a better environment for children to learn. They raise extra funds through a wide range of fun and creative initiatives and events and much more!
For 2023/24 and 2024/25:
The role of CHAIR is Katarina (Kati) Ramsden
The role of SECRETARY is shared between Natalie Stone and Andrea Hall
The role of TREASURER is Julia Finnis
Ashford St Mary’s PTFA is a registered charity (1130945). For the school year 2024-25, our goal is to raise £12,000 to put towards playground resurfacing, new sports kit, as well as ad-hoc treats for all of the pupils.
Over the past few years we have fundraised through:
- Christmas and Summer fairs
- School discos
- Second hand uniform sales
- Santa visits
- Mother’s and Father’s day gift shops
- Easter Bingo
Often our events are to help fund further events and items to enrich the school experience for all of the children. On occasions we will ask for donations of cakes or gifts which we then sell or use as prizes at events to help fund:
- Subsidised school trips
- Reusable Christingle Candles (2023)
- Improvements to the spiritual garden
- Memorials for lost loved ones in the school community
- Year 6 leavers parties
- Playground resurfacing (2024)
- Science workshop (2024)
We run our uniform sales at least once a term. If you have any clean uniform items to donate, you can drop these off at the school office anytime. If you want to request any particular uniform items, you can contact us on the following email address:
Want to support the PTFA with minimal effort? Here are some low-effort you can do so!
We’re registered with easyfundraising, which means you can help us for FREE. Over 7,000 brands will donate to us when you use easyfundraising to shop with them – at no extra cost to yourself! All you need to do is sign up and remember to use easyfundraising whenever you shop online. It’s easy and completely FREE! These donations really mount up, so please sign up to support us
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/stmarysschoolashford
Similarly, Give As You Live allows you to collect donations for us as you shop. It doesn’t cost you anything, just sign up and click through the app or website every time you shop with your favourite retailers
https://www.giveasyoulive.com/charity/asm-ptfa
You can also sign up to take part in Ashford Community Lottery, supporting the PTFA for just £1 a week. Prizes are from £25, to £25,000, and there are extra weekly prizes too, at the moment there’s a prize for a theatre trip! Funds are taken by direct debit, and you can buy as many or as few tickets as you wish!
https://www.ashfordcommunitylottery.co.uk/support/ashford-st-marys-cofe-primary-school-ptfa
You can also make adhoc donations at https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=WETYWGJA8ZJTG
Tiger Tags
Buy personalised gift tags for your children’s uniform items and support us at the same time as this local business!
https://tigertags.co.uk/school/28
Asda Cashpots for Schools
If you shop with Asda, sign up via the Rewards app to support us every time you shop!
https://www.asda.com/cashpotforschools
Get Involved
Sceptical about joining in? You don’t have to turn up to lots of stuffy meetings, you can dip in to help when it suits, running a stall at a fair, wrapping gifts at home, or asking your employer to provide a prize for a raffle from time to time.
We have a WhatsApp group for PTFA committee and helpers, so if you would like to join to find out what kind of things you can get involved in, please send Kati a message on 07860 171902.We also have a Facebook page for sharing information and advertising our events, so if you’re a Facebook user, do like and follow the page so that you can stay up to date with events https://www.facebook.com/AshfordStMarysCofEPTFA