News Archive
Here you'll find our PTA news articles from the 2022/2023 academic year
Sunflower competition: we have a winner! July 2023
Web version And the winner is....mp4The final business of the academic year is the big reveal of the winner of the sunflower competition - and it really is BIG!
A huge well done to all those who kept their sunflowers watered and healthy in the slightly adverse weather conditions, you've done better than a lot of us!
Enjoy this short reel of the entries and well done to the winner - a Year 4 pupil whose sunflower reached an amazing 241cm!
Review of 2022/23 July 2023
It's been quite a year. We've organised bake sales and craft activities, a Fun Run and a Coronation Tea, Frozen Fridays and the Summer Fair, all in the name of raising funds for Mayfield Primary School. We thought we'd give you a run-down of what we've achieved and what we've funded.
Our fundraising
Christmas Craft Day
Bake Sales for all year groups (raising £1,695 over the course of the year!)
Coronation Tea Party (raising £500)
School Fun Run (raising £500)
Frozen Fridays (£240 raised so far)
The Summer Fair (a huge £4,391 generated for our school)
Taking into account our events and our additional fundraising through Easy Fundraising, Bag2School, Just Giving and ParentPay, the PTA have raised over £7,500 this year for the school. Definitely something to celebrate!
What we've funded
Fence repairs by the quiet area and 1MC
Play sand and bark for the Reception play area
Paint for the school swimming pool
Replaced the fridge in the children's kitchen, and funded the new school BBQ and school outdoor PA system
Supported the book awards for Most Improved Readers
Funded leavers t-shirts and books for Y6
Bought Christmas presents for all classes
Bake sale class allocations - see below for details on how teachers have used your generous bake sale donations
And a couple of things that are in progress:
Improving the furniture for Reception
Supporting the clearance and improvement of the Y5&6 raised bed area
From cakes to ...?
We asked the teachers to provide us with a list of all the things purchased with the money raised from the year group bake sales. Here's what they told us:
History timeline displays
Caterpillars
Classroom storage and organisation
Souvenir pencils for each child from a school trip
A lightbox
Movies and snacks for marble treats
Compost and seeds
Art supplies
A teaching clock
And most popular of all, glue sticks
It's been quite a year. We've organised bake sales and craft activities, a Fun Run and a Coronation Tea, Frozen Fridays and the Summer Fair, all in the name of raising funds for Mayfield Primary School. We thought we'd give you a run-down of what we've achieved and what we've funded.
Other achievements
We've also been busy behind the scenes:
Launched the new fundmayfield.com website to help share whats on and how you can help
Set up the Mayfield PTA Just Giving page to enable easy donations and ability to Gift Aid - donations are welcome any time!
Improved our visibility across school with new posters and banners and become more transparent with meeting notes and annual accounts shared on our website
Set up the annual sunflower growing competition, gifting each child a packet of seeds before the Easter holidays
Helped to re-energise the Mayfield Gardening Club and donated £250 towards their projects
Organised Bag2School collection, which raised £225
Investigated funds and grants that could benefit the school
So, yes a busy year!
It's been loads of fun and we're excitedly making plans for 2023/24. If you'd like to help us realise those plans, or have thoughts and feedback on what we've done so far, please do get in touch - we'd love to hear from you.
Thank you!
The PTA is much more than just the committee - the school teachers and staff, all the volunteers that come and help out and all the families that attend our events or donate to us - you all help the PTA thrive, ultimately helping our wonderful school.
Thank you all for a great year, and we'll see you in September!
Summer Fair round-up July 2023
The PTA donned our new tabards and felt pretty much ready to go. Then the heavens opened at the same time as the school gates and it was a bit worrying for a moment or two - would it be a wash out?
Well the weather calmed a little, as did our nerves, and the festivities began: the BBQ was going all afternoon with tasty burgers from Art of Meat (plus a vegan option too of course); the bouncy castles were up and being jumped (and splashed) on; faces were painted; arrows were drawn; miniature gardens were made; and giant inflatable dice were rolled for the Teddy Tombola.
We had special guest activities with Decathlon leading the archery, ((Bounce)) having a dance-off on the mini trampolines, there were tennis nets set up with rallies on the go with Love Tennis Academy and rugby tackles and throws courtesy of Cambridge Rugby Club.
Huge thanks to all our "stage area" performers - Mrs Taylor led with her school Ukelele and Samba bands, who were swiftly followed with Capoeira from Groupo Senzala Capoeira. Next up was Year 2 parent Sonali Shukla who had the crowd joining in with Bharatanatyam - an Indian classical dance. Aspire Dancesport then drew the performances to a close, and it was great to see lots of current and alumni Mayfield pupils amongst the dancers!
There were great activities all round. The Year Group stalls were as popular as ever, with Egyptian Pong, a Coconut Shy, Odds & Evens, Pin the Head on the Alien, a Witch Hunt, and Treasure Map and a slightly more calm but just as enjoyable storytelling area from Reception with The Puppetry Club.
The raffle and silent auction stall was busy throughout the day and all the winners have now been notified. We hope all winners enjoy their prizes!
Huge thanks to everyone involved. None of this would have taken off if it weren't for the support of the staff (not least the office team and Bob Taylor who were amazing in their support throughout), the Year 5s for being so helpful during set-up, the Year 6s who painted faces, all the people who ran activities or baked cakes for us, our fabulous volunteers, and the Mayfield parents, families and children who enjoyed the activities on the day.
Thank you all so much for coming along and supporting the PTA and our school.
The real winners on the day were of course the PTA, who soundly beat the staff and teachers in a Tug of War! PTA 2 - 1 Staff. Thanks to Ben from Playtime After-School club for presiding over the battle.
Sorry, of course what we mean is:
The real winners on the day were of course the whole school.
We made an amazing £4,391!
We will keep you up to date with where this money is being spent, ensuring it is used to benefit pupils across the school.
We want to make sure our events are enjoyable for everyone and would really value any feedback you have. If you'd like to tell us anything (good or bad!) about the Summer Fair or any of our other events, please do drop us a line at contact@fundmayfield.com
Bag2School - the results are in June 2023
How much money do you think you can earn from a few (...ok, quite a lot) of bags of unwanted clothes and fabric?
We were amazed at your response to our call out for Bag2School back in May - thank you so much to everyone who filled a bag and brought it along. You raised an amazing £225 - the most we've ever raised in one collection!
We've used some of these funds to buy a much needed Bluetooth PA system for the school - no more will Mrs Ayliffe nearly lose her voice at Sports Day, no more will we struggle to hear what's on next on the stage at the school fair!
Huge thanks again to everyone who donated.
Frozen fridays - smashing it! June 2023
Frozen Fridays are back! Orla has been leading the charge and has had a crack support team in the guise of some of the Year 6 students.
The students have been fabulous, listening carefully to the instructions on how to look after the stall and being really kind and polite to all the children who came to buy. To quote Orla "They smashed it!"
And speaking of smashing it, so far we have raised about £250 from just two Frozen Fridays - an amazing result! So thank you everyone involved, especially Orla and all the Year 6 helpers.
Fun run in the sun June 2023
There were great scenes at Castle School sports ground on Sunday 11th June when over 70 children from across all year groups ran to raise money for Mayfield!
We were warm to start with but a great run-ready warm-up was led by local running group Let's Run Girls. The running then commenced with a fabulous (and very cute) toddler race, a sweltering 1k and a super fast (and very hot) 3k. The runners all did amazingly well and there were smiles all round as Mrs Ayliffe and Mrs Redman awarded the medals as they crossed the line.
After the serious runs were over it was time to kick back, enjoy hot dogs and drinks, and laugh as the parents humiliated themselves in their race. Blow up a balloon and run with it between your knees? Balance a beanbag on your head? A Back to The Future inspired running backwards whilst shouting "Great Scott"? It's a good job it's for a good cause :-)
The Fun Run made an amazing £504!
As ever, these events could not happen without our extended Mayfield community. A huge thank you to everyone who supported the event:
Chesterton Sports Leaders who were excellent stewards and helpers throughout the morning
Art of Meat for supplying the sausages
Histon Road Co-op for gifting the bananas
Let's Run Girls for the warm-up
Mrs Barnes - who did loads of work behind the scenes (not least spending her Saturday morning laying out the routes)
All the parents and teachers who volunteered their Sunday morning to help out
And of course all the runners!
More fences fixed June 2023
We've continued to support small improvements around the school grounds by funding the repair of the fences around 1MC.
The new fences mean the children have a bit more space and freedom to play in their 'outdoor classroom'! A great result I'm sure you'll agree!
Record Breaking bake sale! may 2023
Wow, wow, wow! It might have been their first bake sale, but the Reception families absolutely stormed it with loads of brilliant volunteers joining the PTA team on the stall, and huge amounts of goodies to sell. Well done everyone!
And with so many gorgeous homemade and shop-bought goodies on offer, it's no surprise that they raised a new record for a Mayfield bake sale - a grand total of over £300!
Huge thanks to everyone involved.
Alongside the bake sale we also ran a second hand uniform sale - many a bargain was grabbed and we raised a fabulous £160! Thank you for all the donations.
reception outdoor play area may 2023
A couple of months ago at a PTA meeting Mrs Ayliffe flagged that the Reception outdoor play area needed a bit of a lift - new bark for under the tree and new sand for the sandpit. The PTA was happy to help and deliveries of both were taken by Miss Joyce, Mrs Barbouris and Mrs King last week.
The children enjoyed watching the bark arrive as it was lifted over the fence, and they were ready to help out with spades, mini wheelbarrows and rakes. The children also helped fill the sandpit, while parents helped unload the bark. A great team effort - thank you so much to everyone who helped!
We hope you all enjoy the updated space!
Local residents raise for Mayfield may 2023
Huge thank you to residents of the 'Square' (Eachard, Woodlark, Sherlock and Hoadly Roads) who held a big Coronation street party on Sunday 7th May. Alongside the cakes, fun and music the residents generously raised money for our PTA - we are so grateful that they considered fundraising for us.
The event raised an amazing £172. Thank you so much to the residents of the Square and everyone involved!
If you are running a community event, please consider raising money for us - it's a great way to boost our funds so we can help support the school.
Swimming pool ready for action may 2023
The money we raised at the Coronation Tea was used, in part, to fund the repainting of the school swimming pool. Quite a transformation I think you'll agree!
Huge thanks to everyone who donated at the event - without you we wouldn't have been able to fund this project. And kudos to Josh Jones who did all the hard work!
School swimming lessons will restart after half term.
Coronation Tea may 2023
A bit of rain they said. Thunder at 4pm they said. Well they were right, but did that stop the Coronation Tea? No way!
We had envisaged a bright sunny day, everyone sitting around on picnic blankets under trees drinking Pimms. But the weather had other ideas so we moved the party inside. It might not have been what we planned, but it was still a great afternoon with loads of families, teachers and staff joining in!
There were scones and refreshments served in the small hall and everyone made their way into the large hall to sit together to eat and enjoy. When the rain stopped there was lots of playing to be had in the mud and on the playgrounds - we spotted hide and seek, den building, football matches and climbing competitions.
Mrs Ayliffe then led the charge for the crown parade which took place on the Junior Playground. Huge congratulations to all those who took part, there really were some great designs and it was great to see so many parents, teachers and families cheer on all the children who had worked so hard on their crowns.
We had a board up celebrating the Design a Stamp competition - well done to all those who entered. Mrs Ayliffe found it so hard to choose a winner she decided everyone was highly commended :-)
A huge thank you to everyone who made the event so special - we couldn't have done it without you:
Every scone sold at the event was baked or donated by a Mayfield family
All the jam was kindly donated by Year 4 parent Paul Bateson
We had a crack team of volunteers who helped us get set up (and cleaned up) on the day
Everyone who came along helped to make the event a hit
We hope you all enjoyed it as much as us!
And, the icing on the scone, we raised over £600 for the school - this money will be used to repaint the swimming pool ready for the second half of the summer term when school swimming lessons restart.
New fences up! April 2023
It might not sound like much, but we recently funded the repair of the KS2 quiet area fencing.
The restoration of the fencing means teachers can once again safely use the space as an outdoor learning zone and children gain access to a quiet area during breaks.
A small, but significant, win!
Bake sale successes March and April 2023
We run bake sales about once a month to help raise funds for each individual year group. The money raised gets distributed back to each class for the teachers to use - they might save it up for a particular project or spend it on additional resources like paint or gluesticks.
The last two events (with bakes from Years 1 and 2) have raised over £400, meaning each class gets about £100 to spend on whatever they need!
The bake sales are a success because of your help - your generously baked or bought goodies directly benefit your kids' classes.
And we couldn't do it without the help of volunteers from each year group - huge thanks to you all!