I felt the 3% charge was very reasonable. Our school has a very active Facebook page, so we publicised the appeal through that and by email.
It was clear we’d got our timing right when we hit the initial of £3,000 within a week! I decided to keep the campaign going so that we could get a few extras. Our final total of £3,740 enabled us to buy tables for the marquees, as well as a trolley to transport them. We also bought a third marquee from the school budget to give Year 1 a covered outside area.
We received a lot of donations from grandparents, some of whom live quite a way off and follow our concerts and events on Facebook. We did, however, miss out on some income by not being registered for Gift Aid in time so I recommend that every PTA signs up for this. When the marquees arrived, we pitched them ourselves. Each one took at least four hours to erect.
They were officially opened by our school pupil prime minister before the summer and the children were very excited to try them out. In the summer it was lovely being outside with the sides up and the grass under our feet. We plan to continue using them through the winter, and a parent has volunteered to install lighting and electrics.
Once we no longer need to socially distance, the marquees will be put to good use for events such as our arts festival, summer fayre and sports day.”