At the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, the Peace Garden located at the back of the school was in a sad state and had been closed off to students for safety reasons. An area of decking had become rotten and had to be removed, and the whole area was in desperate need of some renovation:
The PTA were asked to restore the garden in time for this summer. We organised a number of volunteer work sessions throughout the year, mostly on a number of rather wet weekends, where around a dozen parents helped us dig, level, paint and plant.
We were also assisted by a number of parents with particular expertise: Ben Hardy helped with groundwork, Sam Fathi with carpentry for the new planters, Will Porter helped us with re-roofing and Cristiano Brand with construction of a new access ramp:
New equipment installed in the garden included eight large wooden planters, four new benches, a water capture system, a tool shed and tools for children to use.
The storytelling chair placed in the garden in memory of Ms Gill Gallagher in 2016 was taken to the Ringway Centre woodworking shop, where Clare, Nicola and Julie worked to restore and refinish it.
Finally, PTA trustee Sam, who had spent months cultivating plants from seed at home, assisted the school’s own Green Team with planting the first new plants and flowers of the garden. As of June, the garden has been transformed and is ready for the children to enjoy again.
£1,000 of funding for the garden was provided by Tesco as part of its Stronger Starts grant programme. The remaining costs were fundraised by the PTA throughout the year.
This has been a huge project, but the results are fantastic and we’re so happy that the garden is once again open for the children to enjoy. A huge thank – you to everyone who has helped make it happen: we couldn’t have done it without you.
Thank you to everyone who bought our Hoopa Loompa bars yesterday. With your help we raised a fantastic £534 to support the school – thank you! And thanks also to our volunteers who designed, bought, re-wrapped, and sold them.
We want to offer our apologies to those who were unable to buy a Hoopa bar. The demand was far greater than at any previous after-school sale, and far exceeded our expectations and ability to supply this time around.
We also understand that holding sales after school only made it impossible for some kids to buy one – and we hope to be able to work around this by offering more ways to buy in advance, as well as more stock, in future. This will require us to acquire a specific lottery licence, which wasn’t possible at short notice this time.
But we will need your help. We are all volunteers, and to supply many hundreds of bars, to handle licensing, pre-ordering, wrapping and distribution will require more people to pitch in – so can you help us make our next sale even bigger and better? You can reach us via email, or join our WhatsApp volunteer group – all the details are here.
This Thursday, at school pickup, the PTA will be holding a sale of pre-loved costumes for World Book Day. We will also be holding our first ever Hoopa Loompa bar fundraiser.
This is a chance to support the rebuilding of the school’s peace garden, while also getting some chocolate – and a chance to win prizes.
We will have around 250 (updated: 270) unique Hoopa-branded bars for sale. Hidden within 10 of them are Golden Tickets – each of which wins a special prize for the finder and extra Golden Time for their entire class.
Each bar will cost £2.50.
As we have fewer bars than children in the school, we’re asking the community to buy thoughtfully – and very strictly no more than one per child. We want as many families as possible to be able to take part.
If this first sale is a success, we hope to run a larger sale – with opportunities for children and families to buy at different times, and perhaps with ordering in advance – in future years.
Allergy Information
The Hoopa bars are Galaxy milk chocolate. Ingredients are listed below. We will have a limited number of dairy-free bars available – please ask us for a swap after buying.
We hope that you have had a restful festive break and are ready for the Spring term at our amazing school. We are looking forward to getting stuck into the biggest and most exciting project to date! More about that in a moment.
Last term, thanks to your support and generosity, we raised over £4,200! This is an incredible amount, particularly given the current climate, and we are so very grateful for your continued support. Your donations, no matter how big or small, have enabled us to purchase new laptops, class games & books, microphones and Forest School resources, items that the school’s limited budget could not cover.
So, your support really does make a difference to our kids day to day school experience – thank you.
Uniform, New T-Shirts and More
We plan to re-open our Pre-loved Uniform Shop on Monday 15th January at 3.15pm, and to be open at least once a week.
We can’t do this, though, without help from parent volunteers. Lending a hand at the shop is a great way to help the school community by committing to just one or two hours per month – the shop opens from 2.45pm to 3.45, one or two days each week.
Without volunteers, we can’t open. If you might be able to help, please check out our calendar and rota here.
New PE T-shirts now available!
As promised, we now have a limited stock of BRAND NEW Coopers Lane PE t-shirts in all sizes and colours. T-shirts will be available once the shop re-opens and will cost £6.50 each.
Varsity jackets – still available!
We still have Year 6 varsity jackets in stock, so if you would like a spare or haven’t had the chance to purchase one yet, please pop by the shop. Jackets cost £18, are available in three sizes, and we accept cash or card.
Our first meeting of 2024 will be our Annual General Meeting (AGM)
Please make a note in your diary: we will be hosting our first meeting of the year on Weds 21 February @ 7.30pm. We will be hosting the meeting at Grove Park Community Centre (previously known as Grove Park Library) and there will be drinks & snacks available.
As per our constitution, we will be disbanding the current committee and re-electing all roles. This meeting requires around 15 people present, and is vital to maintain our status as a charity so please do join us if you can.
The committee roles that will be re-elected are:
Chair
Secretary
Treasurer
Trustees (x4)
Our current secretary will be stepping down, so we are particularly looking to fill this role as well as adding another 1 or 2 trustees, so we can ensure representation across the whole school community, especially from KS1 parents.
If might be interested in joining the committee and would like to discuss what’s involved, please drop us a line and we’ll be happy to chat – info-pta@cooperslane.org.
Our Project for Spring: The Peace Garden
This year the school has asked us to help rebuild and refresh the Peace Garden (above). Created several years ago as a quiet space for pupils and staff to enjoy, this garden has become quite worn out and most of it needs significant refurbishment or replacement. The space is currently too dangerous to be used, which is such a shame.
This is a big project and as well as funding it will require a lot of time and effort from the school, the committee and our community. The project is likely to involve:
Removal of the current garden furniture – flower beds, woodchip area, and decking
Designing and planning a new garden space
Purchasing the required materials
Building and installing the new garden
Installing a new rainwater collection system and solar lightning
We are currently working on a project plan with school and the Green Team, which we will share shortly.
Can you help with any of the above? Are you, or do you know, a landscape or garden designer? Are you a builder or a carpenter? Do you run a garden shop or hardware store? Are you a whizz with plants and trees? Can you help us dig out and remove the old garden – most likely on a weekend – or build the new one?
It will take a big community effort to get this project completed – but the result should be a fantastic resource for the school. We are aiming to reopen the garden at the Summer Fair in June, so we only have a short period of time to get the project completed.
There’s more information here, or if you think you might be able to help in any way, please drop us a line here. Thank you!
The PTA will be running a sale on 19th December, selling cakes, hot chocolate and other Christmas-themed treats.
Full ingredient lists, including allergens, for every product on sale can be viewed here.
Please note that the PTA will have all ingredients on display at the event for parents to read if they wish.
Parents are advised that the hot chocolate and cream may contain milk products and other allergens. A limited amount of a dairy free option will be available.
Sweet bags may contain milk products, soya products, traces of nuts and other allergens.
Rice Crispie Squares contain Barley, Wheat, Soya, Milk and other allergens. They also contain (in marshmallows) pork gelatin.
Snowmen contain Milk and Soya, and may contain gluten and wheat and may contain traces of nuts.
Parents are responsible for their children at all times during the event.
It’s that time of year again! The PTA will be running the rainbow raffles at all eleven Christmas performances this December – this is always a really great way to raise funds for the school.
But we can only do this with your help! We need at least three volunteers per performance to sell tickets as parents & carers arrive – you’ll need to be available up to 30 mins before the performance starts.
Please note that you won’t be able to watch the performance or save any seats for family & friends unless you have a ticket for that performance, due to capacity issues.
If you’re attending a performance, and can help us out with the raffle beforehand, please click here to sign up.
Thank you once again for your support – we couldn’t do it without you!
The Coopers Lane Summer Fair will return on Saturday 24th June. One of the ways we promote the fair, and raise funds for the school, is in partnership with Waymour and Parr estate agents, who post boards around the area. Each board promotes the fair, and we receive a donation in exchange for each one.
If you can host a board outside your house for a few weeks this Spring it’s one of the easiest ways to raise funds for the school.
The boards are put up and taken away by Waymour and Parr – all you have to do is have space for one. If you can help, please complete this form and we will do everything else – thank you!
As we finish up the Autumn term and leave school for a few weeks of well-deserved holidays, we wanted to post an update on our fundraising for the year so far.
In this first term of the year, you’ve helped us raise a massive £3,500 for the school. A large proportion of this – over £1,600 – came from the raffles at the school Christmas performances, so thanks to everyone who bought a ticket – and to all those who helped us to sell them at eleven shows across three weeks.
Our other events this term were:
Christmas Jumpers and Treats – over £300 raised
Pre-loved Uniform – over £370 raised
Coats and Costumes – over £250 raised
Bingo Bonanza evening – over £680 raised
Non-Uniform Day – over £230 raised
This is a fantastic start to the year, so thanks again for all your support. We will be in touch with details of our plans for the Spring term in January.
