Friends of Sandon School (FOSS)

What is FOSS?

Friends of Sandon School is a group of parents, carers, teachers and other interested people who work together to raise money to support Sandon School. We have a small committee, but every other parent is welcome along to meetings to share their ideas and have their say. We come from all walks of life, with a huge range of skills and abilities between us. We have meetings once or twice a term, usually on a weekday evening, to plan events and our AGM once a year, where we vote in committee members.

What do we do?

Friends of Sandon School (FOSS) raises money through a variety of events to support our children’s education.

Previous events include:

School Discos – always very popular
Mums, Dads & Carers’ Christmas stall (the children get to buy their parents/carers a present)
Christmas Hamper Raffle
Family Camping Nights
Summer Fair & Sports Day – games, refreshments, Bar & BBQ and The Grand Draw
End of year Summer Party
Termly Village Market – FOSS have a produce & cake stall, sell bacon rolls & refreshments and run a craft table for children
Parents’ Quiz Nights
Family Bingo Evenings
Running bars at plays & events – beer, wine, cocktails & ice-creams

The money raised pays for everyday things, such as the reading scheme used by the whole school, and big one-off items, including the interactive screens, IT equipment and the tyre park. Every child will benefit from the money we raise.

How can you help?

FOSS need to raise around £4000 each year just to pay for the annual basic commitments to school. Anything raised over that will allow us to support additional activities and provide further resources to enrich our children’s education. We always welcome new faces and new ideas. If you have any ideas for fundraising or any skills like poster design, marketing, carpentry, accountancy or anything else useful, we would love to hear from you.

Whilst everyone involved with the school is automatically a member of FOSS we appreciate for some people being a full committee member may be too much of a commitment, but we are always on the lookout for people who can help with individual events such as the Village Market, Summer Fair, making (or just providing) cakes (always a necessity), manning the BBQ or serving drinks at events. School Grounds Days are always a lot of fun, and require just your time and energy. If you feel you may be able to spare a few hours per year to meet other parents and lend a hand, please let us know.

If you’d like to make a small, but regular, donation, with the chance of winning some money back then join our 100 club! Numbers cost £1 each per draw, and half of the proceeds go to enriching our children’s education, and the other half go into the prize pot! All the rules and an entry form can be found in the Useful Documents section at the bottom of the page.

You can also make one-off donations directly to FOSS. We are a registered charity, which means we can claim gift aid for any donations you might make. If you are a UK tax payer, and are making a donation, please fill in the gift aid form found at the bottom of this page and return it to FOSS.

How you can help without it costing you a penny!

There are a number of different ways you can help raise money, without it costing you an extra penny.

If you need stick-on name labels (and who doesn’t? All school uniform should be clearly labelled!) then buy them from Stickins using our affiliate link https://www.stikins.co.uk/?NAME-LABELS=17469.

Each order placed quoting the school reference number (17469) will provide the school with?30% commission.

You can raise donations for FOSS every time you shop online, and at no extra cost to you whatsoever with easyfundraising.org.uk. With nearly 3,000 retailers to choose from you can raise money on everything from your weekly shop to your annual holiday! All the big-name brands are on there like John Lewis, Aviva, thetrainline and Sainsbury’s, as well as thousands of others.

It’s so easy and doesn’t cost you anything.

Simply go to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/fossbuntingford, sign up for free, get shopping and start raising!

Contact us!

If you are interested in finding out more about FOSS please speak to the Chair via email: foss.sandon@gmail.com

You can join the FOSS Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Friendsofsandonschool/

Or like and follow the FOSS Facebook page for news and events: https://www.facebook.com/FOSS-Friends-of-Sandon-School-1791172371190268/

Who are we?

The current committee is:

Chair – Samantha Riley

Vice-Chair – Amanda Ledster

Treasurer – Matthew Phillips

Secretary – Holly Darton