Imagine a snow globe being shaken every 5 minutes. That’s what my school looks like.
Nothing stays settled for very long because as soon as it does, something else comes along to shake us all up again and it’s not a pretty sight
The pandemic has caused pandemonium and schools might be upside down a lot of the time but my job as head teacher is to steady the ship.
For us, our core business remains unchanged – making sure that children get a quality education and can achieve their potential.
But we aren’t just thinking of ourselves. We are at the heart of our community and that means supporting each other both near and afar.
Although our remote provision for lockdown learning is solid, many parents have contacted us desperate to get their hands on some decent resources so they can further support home schooling.
That’s an easy one. As a school we use a lot of Accelerated Education (AE) Publications as they have been expertly designed for parents, tutors and schools.
Our teaching staff love using AE resources because they are ‘off-the-shelf’ and easy to use packed with intelligent and creative content.
Their English and maths titles for Key Stage 2 are very popular with our teachers and our Year 6 teachers lean heavily on the 11+ preparation revision materials for grammar entry because of its tip-top verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning content.
They are ideal for using at home too because they are clearly structured, offer crystal clear explanations and provide parents with answers at the back of the books.
AE Publications boast an impressive range of 120 classroom tested titles including workbooks, test books and test packs, with user-friendly ‘how-to’ workbooks for parents to work through with their children as part of a balanced extra-curricular programme.
Time-poor and busy parents don’t have to tear their hair out when there are quality resources like these designed to help.
Covid-proof fundraising
There is another reason why we use AE Publications though and that’s because they offer schools an easy way to fundraise in or out of lockdown through their Cash 4 Schools scheme. Don’t worry this isn’t a crowdfunding appeal either.
This is brilliant admin-less and hassle-free way for parents to support their school and the scheme complements pupils’ learning too.
Our traditional tried and tested fundraising events have come to a grinding halt because of the pandemic. Our PTA’s summer fair, cake sales and discos have all been cancelled leaving a £15,000 hole in our budget.
School costs have never been higher because we have had to foot the bill for online learning, cleaning costs have gone through the roof and we pay a fortune for more supply staff to cover those teachers self-isolating and going off sick.
But the pandemic hasn’t stopped us from getting creative and fundraising in a virtual sense.
Although fun to do, virtual fundraisers have been a challenge to organise and carry out. Our virtual sponsored walk to the South Pole, Zoom parties, virtual talent show and virtual eco balloon races were exhausting! They don’t replace the real deal, not by a long chalk.
This is why the AE Cash 4 Schools scheme has been so appealing because it is largely effortless, cost-neutral and COVID-proof. This is fast and friendly fundraising personified.
When a school signs up to the Cash 4 Schools scheme, AE offer the school 40% off their single books.
Your school chooses how much of this discount to pass on to the parents and carers of children attending school, and the school keeps the rest. So, a school passing on 20% to parents would be able to recoup 20% of the sale for itself.
The more you or your PTA promotes the AE Cash 4 Schools Scheme, the greater the chance of raising valuable funds for your school so you can continue to update your libraries and buy some new books.
As we all know when organising fundraising events it’s important to keep your expenditure to an absolute minimum. Well, with this scheme there is no expenditure!
Keeping your fundraising going during the coronavirus outbreak is essential and the 100% safe Cash 4 Schools scheme supports both your PTA and your leadership team.
We can still look forward to actual bake sales and throwing wet sponges at teachers but the Cash 4 Schools scheme means we can have a fundraiser quietly humming away in the background throughout the year without any restrictions.
The pandemic may have made fundraising even more challenging for everyone but AE Cash 4 Schools demonstrates that fundraising can still continue, it can still be safe and secure and it can help plug a gap in your school’s finances.
Broadcast loud and clear, this scheme can also galvanise your community, tighten home-school links and adds a new twist to fundraising.
It’s an easy and efficient way for schools to earn some much needed cash. Just remember, as with any fundraiser, you need to make plenty of noise about it so it gets on the radar and stays there.
Beyond fundraising for our schools for every book sold, AE Publications also makes a donation to a charity working with less-fortunate communities in India.
So there we have it, fundraising the easy way.
One thing we won’t be doing when we get back to school and that’s having a non-uniform day as every day is mufti day at the moment.
But one thing we definitely will be doing is letting everyone know that AE Cash 4 Schools is a win-win and hasn’t stopped us supporting the needs and potential of our children.
Before signing up for the AE Cash 4 Schools scheme you will want to see what the books are like so to get a free inspection copy all you need to do is set up a school account, order a workbook from their bookshop and use promo code SCHOOLINTRO to claim your sample resource.
Find out more at aepublications.co.uk and aepublications.co.uk/support/schools or get in touch at schools@aepublications.co.uk.
