July 2016

Friends
of Ambler
AGM Report 2015/16

Friends of Ambler AGM Report 2015/16, Page 1

July 2016

Friends of Ambler
AGM Report 2015/16
About us
Friends of Ambler (FoA) was established in 2013/2014 to
support Ambler Primary School and Children's Centre in raising funds
for facilities, equipment and activities, help school families and carers
get to know each other better by arranging social events as well as
forging and maintaining links between the school and the local
community and businesses.
The events arranged since 2014 have ranged in focus from
fundraising, fun for the Ambler children, building relationships, and
providing opportunities to learn about the school and our community.
FoA wishes to be inclusive of all our wonderfully diverse Ambler
Families.
Structure and governance

Every parent and carer with a child attending Ambler Childrens

Centre and Primary School is automatically a member of FoA.
Additionally, the main Committee members are required to be
Trustees, registered with the Charities Commission, with the associated
legal responsibilities. The current main Committee members are: Lizzi
Watson, Clare Thode, Maxine Davis and Angela Kelway (parents of
children in Childrens Centre, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2). The wider
Committee involved in event planning, organisation and many other
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valuable tasks are Eliya Arman, Jo Whitehouse, Clare Potter, Kitty Finer,
Nadine Mellor, Tanya Datta and Vicky Thompson.
FoA has a Charities Aid Foundation bank account and is a
Charity registered with the Charities Commission and HM Revenue &
Customs (HMRC) to which it files the necessary documents required by
law.
Highlights 2015/16

We have had another hugely successful year building on the

experiences of our first years and expanding with new events and
collaborations with the help of our increasing membership. The
calendar of events run by FoA now stretches throughout the School
year and helped us to be able to contribute 2,500 towards the
Science Lab renovations, 150 per room for the Children's Centre and
Reception classes (used for their choices of sensory and role play
equipment) and 2,000 towards the Art Hoppers project run with
Ambler Arts. We were also able to facilitate obtaining a new Ambler
football team kit thanks to our links with the London Football Academy
(LFA). On trialling a book sale we were pleased to be able to provide
the school with 247 worth of books of their choice. We have helped
secure a grant to improve the football cage from Arsenal in the
Community and obtained a nomination for a further grant from One
Family Foundation to improve the back playground and collaborate
with Art Hoppers again.
We are proud to see our first contribution, the fantastic Trim Trail
(adventure playground equipment installed in Autumn 2015) being
used by all of the pupils, amongst the great work achieved by Grow
Ambler.

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Looking back over the year we are pleased to see that we kept a
balance between events to generate money, for all the children to
have fun and to provide opportunities for parents and carers to meet.
Our year has included running the Greetings Card Project, Fancy
Dress Disco, Winter Fair, Quiz Night, the Penny Challenge, One World
Day/International Evening, Book Sale, Movie Night and the Summer
Fair. We have also raised money via collaborations with
EasyFundraising, Stamptastic, Hoop, Arts Projects for Schools,
Winkworth, Travelling Books and MyHome Islington.
The second annual Quiz Night raised more than in the first year
and celebrated an outstanding win for the Teachers!
In April 2016 we held our first ever Ambler Movie Night at which
the children enjoyed a special showing of Hotel Transylvania 2 in their
pyjamas munching on popcorn.
The Summer Fair was bigger and better than before with some
wonderful new additions - a truly fun day for all involved!
We congratulate Grow Ambler for their continued outstanding
achievement in improving the playground, obtaining external grants
for equipment, holding the popular family gardening days, winning
some amazing National awards and running the gardening club.
Thanks to Sarah Coxhead, Vicky Thompson, Maxine Davis, Cassie
Dummett, Nadine Mellor, Jon Simmons and everyone who has
contributed to improving the space at Ambler, for their imagination,
hard work and dedication!
We look forward to the revealing of the artworks made by the
children in their sessions with Art Hoppers which form part of the
Bottom Hall renovations. We are pleased to have been able to

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contribute 2,000 towards (along with the school and Ambler Arts
fundraising) this wonderful project to make it happen within a tight
time schedule! Thanks to Ambler Arts for running the project and
congratulations on raising so much via the Sponsored Bounce! Well
done to Ellie Jacobs, Rachel Millward, Iliana Ortega-Alcazar, Natalia
Yaez-Steil, Miss Highfield, Art Hoppers and everyone involved in the
project!
Special thanks

Thanks go to Ms Benis and all the school staff for their support
since 2014. In particular, the office staff, Marina, Alison and Rhoda, the
language support workers, Class Reps and Maira, Paul and John and
the premises staff for all their help and cooperation. We have had
incredible support from both local and national businesses with
generous offers of refreshments and prizes. We would like to also
thank Jon Lee, for so often producing brilliantly designed publicity for
us, alongside Tanya Datta this year. Thanks go to Vicky Thompson for
tireless work making our successful grant applications. Also, thanks to
Nadine Mellor for documenting many of our events for the school
website., and Helen Frankish for working incredibly hard to secure
many donations for the Summer Fair.
Clare Potter and Suad Ahmed have been instrumental in
arranging Bengali New Year and Eid Party events outside of FoA,
exploring and celebrating Ambler's amazing diversity.
Of course, we also thank every parent, carer and child who has
volunteered, donated to, attended and supported our events
throughout the year. Without so many volunteers now lending their
skills, baking, face-painting, selling tickets, creating new and exciting

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stalls, contacting local businesses, passing on ideas and so much more

we could not have had such a successful and fun year!
Finances
It has been agreed that FoA accounts will be drawn to coincide
with the Schools annual year end. It has also been agreed that the
School Auditors can on request audit the FoA bank account and
records, giving assurance to the stakeholders of FoA. FoA are guided
by the School's requests and needs for fundraising and expenditure,
regularly liaising with the Headteacher to establish where the funds
can make the most valuable difference.
Plans

The coming year will continue our focus both on fun and
fundraising. Looking ahead, we hope to be able to run a similar
calendar of events to last year, but with some improvements and of
course we welcome new ideas and suggestions, and hope to have
many new volunteers getting involved.
As the school expands we now feel able to achieve even more
and look to engage more of the Ambler community and all their skills!
We are therefore expanding to establish a Fundraising sub-committee
who will focus on the financial side of FoA, with the main FoA
continuing to oversee engagement, plan events and encourage the
involvement of Ambler families. They will discuss the fundraising
priorities for the year ahead and of course consult the school heads
and children via the school council.
We have now successfully registered with HM Revenue &
Customs to obtain recognised Charity status. This means that we can
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claim gift aid on donations, to boost our fundraising. To make this even
more effective we have registered with MyDonate to provide us with a
platform for both dealing with online ticket sales and donations,
enabling more donors to contribute, without increasing the
administrative burden on FoA.
We will continue to work alongside Grow Ambler to generate
much needed funds by selling their produce, promote their work and
provide them with links to suitable sponsors. Grow Ambler do not
currently receive direct funding from FoA to run their ongoing projects
and gardening club. Their collaboration with Capital Growth will
hopefully help them to continue to run their projects. In line with this
look out for their new initiatives in the 2016/17 academic year!
Getting involved

We are looking to broaden and develop the FoA Committee, to

make every event in the School calendar bigger and better in the
coming year. We welcome all volunteers and suggestions. We need
your skills, enthusiasm and ideas to help support Ambler.
Get in touch at any time by speaking to a Committee Member,
leaving a note with the School Office, emailing
friendsofambler@gmail.com or contacting us via our Facebook or
Twitter (@FoAmbler) pages. Join our mailing list to keep up to date
with our plans, by emailing your contact details to
friendsofambler@gmail.com. Meetings are held throughout the year at
varying times and days, look out for publicity in book bags, on posters
around school, text messages, via email and on our social media
pages. We hope everyone will find an opportunity to be involved!

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Thank you to all the Ambler pupils, staff, teachers, carers and
families for a wonderfully busy and exciting year! Thank you to Lizzi as
a Founding Member of Friends of Ambler who is stepping down as
Chair, but we are sure will continue to be involved in FoA!
Have a wonderful summer break - we look forward to 2016/17!

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