School Summer Fetes

moo2moo

I'm of the opinion that a school summer fete should be primarily fun, with the fundraising as a secondary issue. Recently my daughters school seems to have moved the empasis towards the money and away from the fun part of the fundraising. Since opening my big mouth and being landed with the job of HSA (PTA) Chair I have the opportunity to redress the balance but in order to do this I'd like to know ...

what you enjoy when you go to school fairs.

What you hate... naff cheap plasticy prizes being a major hate of mine as well as ridiculously over inflated prices for food and stalls.

Of the various ideas I've had so far:
- Coconut Shie (I can buy one outright for £49.99 from Baker Ross)
- Human Fruit Machine (utilising enthusiastic pupils)
- Nominated Gunging - with the pupils voting to gunge a member of staff or the local vicar.... followed by an auction to pour the gunge (the vicars wife has expressed interest)
- Loo Roll Lob (using toilets as targets)
- Bouncy Castle (hired)
- Bar for the adults
- Wheelbarrow full of beer raffle
- Face Painting
- Tombola

Would awarding tokens as prizes work with the children exchanging their tokens for higher value prizes at the end of the fete ? eg. 1 token - Prize A, 2 tokens - Prize B, 3 tokens - Prize C

Your suggestions are greatly appreciated!

shimmigirl

raffles are reallyb popular at our school. We do choco;late and bottles (as well as hampers in winter and days out in the summer - with donations from local businesses)
We ask the children to wear non school uniform for a couple of fridays in the run up to fayres (which they love) and the fine/cost for wearing non school uniform is one week some thing chocolate (bar of, box of, packet choc biscuits, choc cake mix etc etc) and one week a bottle (pop, wine, spirits, bubble bath, fruit juice etc)

We also do a non school uiform day for white elephant - and always get loads of really good stuff - toys , books, homewares.

face painting is always really good fun for the children and although a slow runner still quite good fundraiser

plant stall / cake stalls also popular (ask for donations)

we charge 60p or 2 for £1 for sausage in a roll with or without onions and sauce (you don't make loads from this but it means mums/dads can afford to treat all their children)

bestpud

I like your idea of tokens instead of prizes. As long as they can get something fairly reasonable with just one token I guess.

I don't really like cheap and nasty prizes either, but saying that, my kids love them! I'm not sure what you can reasonably offer as prizes and still make money though.

DDs school always have a wear what you like day before fetes / bingo evenings and the like, and parents are asked to donate a prize/cake rather than pay for their child to wear what they like. It seems to work well so maybe worth thinking about if you don't do this already.

Soak the teacher took on a whole new theme at one fete I went to. They had the board with a hole for the persons head, and people were paying to soak each other instead of the teacher! My dd, niece and nephew had great fun soaking their grandad! It was a scorching hot day though - perhaps people would be less willing if it were cold.

Hmm, I will think some more and get back later. Well done for taking the job on - very brave of you!!

bestpud

Just had a thought about drinks. Those kids drinks in the plastic square containers (squash type) with a straw which you use to break through the top are good imo.

They can be frozen the night before, if someone has space, and are still cold by the time the fete starts, even if the day is hot. Plus you don't have to faff with cups, they are sealed from wasps etc and reasonably unspillable!

They aren't too dear to buy in so can be sold for a small fee too.

I much prefer that, or made up squash, to fizzy drinks.

V_Chic_Chick

My primary school always had a crockery smashing stall. Before the event, families were asked to donate chipped / cracked / otherwise unwanted crockery. They were then lined up on a rack with about 5 rows, and you could buy 5 wooden balls for £1. They always ran out of crockery before they ran out of customers

"Ice pops" as in the ones you buy unfrozen as bits of liquid inside plastic and then freeze, were always a great hit, with other sorts of ice cream as well. The school also sold them 2/3 times a week after school, using parent volunteers in a room by the playground with a freezer.

Something along the line of Victorian Swing Boats? Always popular, as was the "roller coaster" which was effectively a go-kart which went down a straight wooden track at high speed.

Mufti days where each child brings in £1 are always participated in everyone (not school fete related I know)

And at the Christmas fair the caretaker always dressed up as Santa in his "grotto" (a classroom) and charged £2 a pop to see him and receive a piece of plastic tat.

Jo_F

My son's school seems to do well with a chocolate tombola, with prizes ranging from a bag with a couple of Roses in, small choc bars and of course some big bars. I think they do it so that every one wins.

whitewing

Mmmmm chocolate tombola. What a fabulous idea.

moo2moo

Chocolate tombola sounds very very tempting! I'll add that to the list.

Thanks Jo_F

looby-loo_2

Here is an idea that goes down well with the younger infants and adults - read on and you'll see why

A few weeks before every infant brings in some small plastic toy/badge/any mini items. Adults send in the plastic boxes which you get Chinese takeaway in with lids

These are sorted boy/girl/either items

The boxes are filled with the items - usually about 4-6 in each box (a few sweets added if necessary)

The boxes are labeled 1 - 100

The children then pay £1 to 'win' a box. Everyone wins a box and £100 is rased.

Great recycling of all those horrid little plastic toys that we hate and children love!:D

she_grinch

Fancy dress or fancy hat competitions are a good one as you charge £1 entry fee and you can (in the case of the hats especially) theme the event to the time of year eg christmas easter and in the summer you could just have summer or holidays as a theme.
I loved making these hats with my Dad as a child, it was great fun.

Amanda65

We always found that the barbecue made lots of money and if teh fete runs over a lunchtime is very popular. Several fete's that I organised had a DJ, for backgournd music and PA announcements and also a local band played two sets. Again on a lovely day people stayed, ate, drank and danced - all made for a very convivial atmosphere.

Other stalls that were always popular were:

Win a football - we took a large packing tray (about 12 x 18") topped it with stiff card with holes in it, painted the top like a footbal pitch and stuck lollies in each hole. The children paid 20p and picked a lolly; some had plain sticks, so you just won the lolly, some had green tape on the bottom of the stick so you got another go and some had red tape on the bottom of the sticks so you won a football (everyone also kept their lollies!)

Plant stall - a local nursery came along with pot / bedding plants and sold them in exchange for either a set charge (say £15) or a percentage of the profits

Cake stall - always very popular - donations were asked for the day before the fete to allow them to be priced up

Hair / Nails / Tattoos - spraying hair with fun colours (boys loved this as well as girls), tattoo transfers (from Baker Ross) and nail painting. Again the hair was done by the Saturday girls from a local salon. They donated the hair sprays, we kept the money (50p per head) and they handed out 10% off vouchers to promote their business.

As a word of warning, we tried tokens to exhange for prizes one year and it was a nightmare :eek: We really misjudged how many tokens some of the children would collect, had several in tears who had lost / dropped tokens, and struggled to find prizes suitable for all age groups. Good luck!