Beaconsfield High SchoolThe Friends of Beaconsfield High
Beaconsfield High School has an active Parents' Association in the form of the Friends of Beaconsfield High School (FoBHS). All parents and guardians are automatically members of this community and are invited to get involved in any way that suits you. We work closely with the Head and her Senior Leadership Team to ensure that our priorities are aligned with their needs and to make sure our activities also focus on what is important to the student population.
What is the FoBHS and what has it achieved to date?
The Friends of Beaconsfield High School (FoBHS) is our PTA and is an association made up of parents and carers to provide links between school and families in the BHS community. We do this through organising social events and activities connecting parents/ carers and school which give us the opportunity to raise much needed funds to enrich and enhance the learning within school and the school environment.
Since 2014 FoBHS has raised over £220K! Funds raised in the past have been used to refurbish the toilets, purchase whiteboards and create the Allotment and Mindfulness Gardening Club. We are currently focused on raising money towards creating new outdoor covered seating for the students.
What we do
We are responsible for hosting the sell-out Quiz nights, Year 7/8 Discos and the very popular Christmas Fair along with ongoing fundraising activities such as the Beaconsfield High School Lottery and Becky High Hundreds.
The Second-Hand Uniform Shop (open on Friday lunchtimes) is always popular and is a useful service for parents whilst generating income.
You will also find us manning the bar and serving refreshments at school events throughout the year, such as the Summer BBQ and assisting the school whenever we can.
Through Classlist (a connection tool for BHS parents) we work with the Class Reps for each school year to ensure communication reaches everyone in the school community about events and FoBHS activities.
Why the FoBHS committee needs you!
As fellow parents and carers, FoBHS invites you to contribute to the School community, whether it is through attending the array of events on offer or supporting where you can by helping at an event or working more closely with the committee to support ongoing activities and specific events. Everyone is welcome and every offer of help is gratefully received. In a school community with over 900 families, even an hour or two of your time across the school year is significant and your support is what enables us to be able to put on events and raise funds.
We all lead busy lives but by donating your time or money to support Friends of BHS, you are really making a difference. We also manage to make it fun and it’s a great way of getting closer to school and finding out more about how things work and what makes a difference to your children.
Thank you. Paula Harrison, Chair of FoBHS
What support looks like
It can be as much or as little as you want or have to offer. And to suit what your interests are or where your skills or experience lie! We have a great team spirit and it’s fantastic to be part of a team that makes a difference to the school. We have no expectations of people giving up loads of their time – lots of people giving a little time is what we need!
- An hour (or even 30 mins!) helping out on the bar at an event or helping manage a stall at the Christmas Fair or helping at a Year 7/8 Disco.
- A couple of hours a month running one of our specific fund raising activities in the background such as the Becky High Hundreds or the Second-Hand Uniform Shop.
- Coming to FoBHS Committee meetings (held once a term and only an hour long) to hear updates and help plan future events.
- Joining the committee and bringing your own experience of PTAs or from the workplace to support our activities (this could be a few hours a month or a term).
- Joining a dedicated team to organise a specific event, e.g. the Christmas Fair.
- Helping organise regular termly/ bi-annual events (e.g. discos, quiz nights).
- Helping organise one off events (e.g. webinars, expert speakers).
For big events such as the Christmas Fair we reach out to the school community and organise a schedule of volunteers to share the load! Click this link to sign-up to help and the first Christmas Fair meeting is 8pm on Wednesday 13th September in the New Drama Studio - JOIN US!
If you would like further information, have a question or would like to get more involved please contact us at FoBHS@outlook.com. We’ve got a list and details for all roles on the team so you can see exactly what to expect!
Meet the team
Chair - Paula Harrison (Mum to Lola)
Paula has a daughter in Year 9 at the school and works full time for a global IT company delivering training for all new hires across EMEA. Family time, walking the dogs and a love of cooking for friends fills the time left.
I would love to see more parents get involved, have their say and shape the events that we plan, raising money is not the only goal but having a social community for all parents as well.
Treasurer - Gabby Smith (Mum to Elodie and Daisy)
I have daughters in Year 8 and Year 9 at Becky High so this is the perfect time for me to get more involved. By volunteering as Treasurer, I hope to not only help the school raise much-needed funds, but also stay connected with the school as my daughters continue their Becky High journey.
Secretary - Sarah Smith (Mum to Katie)
Sarah’s younger daughter is in Year 8 at BHS and she wanted to contribute to and support the school. Sarah works as an Executive Coach and Learning and Development Consultant, following an early career marketing chocolate for Cadbury! Outside working and parenting you will find Sarah enjoying good food – cooking and eating it! – staying fit running and doing yoga/ HIT classes, reading in the sun, hanging out with friends and making espresso martinis.
Becoming the FoBHS secretary has enabled me to feel more involved in and connected to BHS and to get to know the school. It’s great to be part of a really positive team who value what I bring and I can use my experience from work and other schools (I have a daughter in yr 10 at a different school) to make a difference. It can feel quite daunting getting involved and I haven’t been a PTA secretary before but it’s been easy, rewarding and fun.
Form Reps
FoBHS and school use the Form Reps group as one of the ways of communicating with parents/ carers. As a school/ PTA we find it hard to consistently get info to reach all parents. When we asked parents/ carers about how they want to hear from FoBHS, WhatsApp groups were the most popular way of finding out what you need to know. Our aim is to have an active group of Form Reps so all forms in every year get the same information – this can be about events, fund raising, meetings, activities. The Form Rep group is updated each year with the nominated Form Reps for that academic year.
What is a Form Rep?
A parent/ carer who is responsible for passing on information to the other parents and carers of students in their form group and representing their form group liaising with school. Often the role is shared between 2-4 parents in a form.
Each form agrees a Rep/ a couple of Reps for the form. Often these individuals are happy to remain the class rep through the school, but you may also want to change Reps every school year. You decide! All school asks is that you have one Rep as a minimum per class and keep us informed of any changes so we have an up to date list and know that all forms are receiving communication. FoBHS will communicate with the Form Reps via WhatsApp to ensure all form groups are kept up to date.
Why do it?
It’s a great way of getting connected to other parents/ carers in your Form Group and getting to know other parents in other form groups (if you want to!) as part of the Form Rep group. It doesn’t take much time but makes a huge difference to FoBHS in terms of communicating with a large parent population efficiently. You get to hear about things early so you can be organised around for example buying tickets for discos!
What is actually involved, and how much time does it take?
As much or as little time as you want! At a minimum the only expectation is passing on communication to your form group. This takes very little time and is on average around one communication/ week in the school term. The communication is circulated to the Form Rep group, usually by WhatsApp (as this is the most popular and simple way) and sometimes via Classlist, from school and FoBHS ready to forward on.
In addition, Form Reps may choose to take responsibility for organising gifts for teachers at the end of the Academic Year and/ or parent/ student get togethers outside school, e.g. before you start year 7 and at the end of the Autumn term pre-Christmas. This is completely up to you/your Form group.
Form Reps will be invited to meet with Ms Bond, our Headteacher and the Chair of FoBHS at the start of the academic year to hear more about activities and the school. And Year 7 parents are asked to support the organisation of the Christmas Fair in December, guided by the previous year’s team, so Form Reps may choose to volunteer for this themselves or help galvanise support from their forms! Of course, there are many other opportunities to get more involved if you want to – but there is no obligation. Please follow this link and let us know if you would like to get more involved with FoBHS.
Becky High Hundreds Club
Becky High Hundreds is a numbers club which raises much-needed funds for our school, whilst also giving you the chance of winning the £150 prize fund. You can join for £15/ year which includes six draws (two per term). Click here to sign-up!
Becky High Lottery
The Beaconsfield High School Lottery is part of the Your School Lottery. Tickets are £1 each and you can buy as little or as many as you like, you can even set up a monthly Direct Debit or recurring card payment to buy them. 40p of every ticket goes to Friends, 30p goes to the BHS prize fund and 6p goes to the jackpot. Every week, a draw for the BHS prize fund takes place (like a raffle) and a BHS ticket holder will win. The £25000 jackpot is an odds-based lottery where six numbers need to be matched in a row. You can buy your tickets by clicking the image above and the more tickets sold, the greater the amount of money raised for FoBHS (for example, 100 people/tickets for a year = £2080).
Upcoming social events
All Friends' event tickets can be purchased here!