Friends of St. Margaret’s

Meet the Friends

We are fortunate at our school to have a Friends PTA that’s an integral part of the school community. We are a registered charity run by volunteer parents and staff from our school with the aim to raise money to enhance and enrich the children’s school lives and education. Over the years we have raised thousands of pounds, which has been spent on equipment and resources to enhance our children’s educational experience and the school’s facilities.

Our association is about much more than simply fundraising. Friends of St Margaret’s Durham exists to provide closer links between home and school and it is an excellent way to bring staff, parents and friends together socially in support of the school, working towards a common goal.

All parents and members of the school community are encouraged to get involved, even if they only have a small amount of time available. All families are automatically members of the Friends of St Margaret’s Durham when their child joins our school.

Our Committee consists of Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, Engagement Officer, Communications Officer and the Head Teacher as our Patron.

The Committee meets on a regular basis with smaller working groups meeting as necessary when we are planning larger events.

The Committee also holds open PTA members meetings, all parents, carers and grandparents are automatically members and any member can come along, find out what the association are planning, share ideas and get involved.

Victoria Cawkwell – Chair

Having been involved in supporting the school via the Friends since my youngest joined Reception in September 2013, I accepted the role of Vice Chair in autumn 2018. I enjoy working as part of a team to provide enhanced facilities, equipment and events for all of our children to enjoy and benefit from.

My eldest has now left St Margaret’s and my youngest is in the Juniors so I can offer support and an insight from the older child’s perspective; particularly when planning events etc. I am responsible for overseeing the twice-yearly book fair, which raises funds spent solely on books for both the infant and junior libraries and other literacy initiatives.

Vice Chair – Lisa Willis

Lisa Willis – Vice Chair

I am Mummy to two little wild ones, Isobel who is currently in Year 1 and Hugo who is due to join Reception in September 2022. My background is firmly rooted in education, with a passion for the enrichment of children’s experiences both in and out of the classroom. I am a qualified Drama and English teacher, having taught in the UK and Internationally. Although now, I spend my time running my own ethical handmade children’s wear business. I have a strong desire to support my children, the school and the wider school community, I felt that I have a number of skills which would lend themselves to growing and developing the existing Friends of St Margaret’s. In doing so, I hope we all can strive to raise those much needed extra funds for student enrichment and resources whilst also having fun along the way. Should you have any ideas, or want to help within the Friends community, please do stop me to say hello and chat.

Hannah Brown – Treasurer

I had wanted to get more involved with the Friends and the school community for a while and first volunteered to help at the Summer Fair. I really enjoyed it and getting to know other parents of children from other year groups. I attended the next Friends meeting which was the AGM and they were looking for a new Treasurer. I felt I had the skills to offer and I took on the role in September 2019. My eldest daughter is in Year 4 and my youngest daughter will start school in 2022. I really enjoy working with the other members of the Committee and find it very rewarding seeing the huge difference our fundraising makes to the school’s resources and experiences for the children.

Secretary – Lynda McIvor

Lynda McIvor – Secretary

It was at a pre-arrival ‘welcome to the school’ meeting in 2019 that I first became aware of the Friends and the work they do. Timing aligned well with the school Summer Fair just before my daughter was due to start in Reception, so I volunteered to help out and went straight in at the deep end helping out on one of the stalls. I was so impressed by the willingness of all to get involved, and this spurred me on to really engage with the Friends to help make a difference. Now that my daughter is in Year 2, I’ve been fortunate enough to be recently appointed as Secretary and am excited to be working with the Committee and Friends volunteers on the fundraising opportunities for the year ahead.

Communications Officer – Lorna Winship

Lorna Winship – Communications Officer

I have been involved in the work of the Friends on and off for 8 years since my daughter started Reception in 2013. Over the years I have seen how much the children directly benefit from the funds raised by the Friends. I accepted the role as Communications Officer in September 2021 as I strongly believe in good communication being key to success (that and hard work) for most things. We all lead busy lives and I hope to support the Friends in establishing effective channels of communication to make it easy for parents to engage and maintain awareness for our cause. My daughter left St Margaret’s in 2020 and my son is in the Juniors now, so I have experienced the whole ‘primary school life cycle’ and seen the changing needs and expectations of the children and parents first-hand.

Meixuan Chen – Engagement Officer

It was while I was a governor at my daughter’s former school in Hull that I realised how important it is to support your child’s school. I went to one of the online meetings of the Friends of St Margaret’s before the summer break and since the Committee was looking for someone to help, I was more than happy to volunteer. I’m keen to support and improve the school environment in big or small ways. I am happy to help with fund-raising activities and it is really rewarding to see some positive impact it can have on children. My daughter is in Year 3 and we will be around for a few more years.

Current Fundraising Project

We are currently raising funds to refurbish our three library spaces. We will update you with progress very soon! Many thanks for your continued support.

Constitution, Policy & Information Documents

Minutes of meetings

Friends Newsletters

Accounts

Partners

Fed up of ironing-on/sewing name labels onto school stuff?

The Friends of St Margaret’s are pleased to recommend Stamptastic Limited, which supplies personalised name stamps for use on fabric, wood, metal and some plastics.

A lot of our parents use and recommend their products and now Stamptastic will give our school 15% cashback on all orders made using the code DH1 4QB at the checkout.

Please visit the Stamptastic website for more information.

Did you know that we’re registered with easyfundraising and you could help us to raise funds for school at no extra cost to yourself?

This is a great opportunity to keep raising much needed funds for the school. When you shop online, with over 4,100 of your favourite retailers, including John Lewis & Partners, Amazon, eBay, notonthehighstreet, you will raise FREE donations for the Friends of St Margaret’s School, Durham.

If you’re not already signed up, it only takes a few minutes, then you can begin using the easyfundraising website or app straightaway – simply shop online as normal. This will be an enormous help to the school, at no extra cost to yourself.

Visit our easyfundraising page to get started:

http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/stmargaretsdurham/?utm_campaign=raise-more&utm_content=s-e2

Thank you!

AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support the Friends of St Margaret’s C E School Durham every time you shop, at no cost to you. AmazonSmile is available at www.smile.amazon.co.uk on your web browser and can be activated in the Amazon Shopping App for iOS and Android phones.

When you shop with AmazonSmile, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as amazon.co.uk, with the added bonus that AmazonSmile will donate a portion of the purchase price to your selected charity – Friends of St Margaret’s C E School Durham.

You can use the same account on amazon.co.uk and AmazonSmile. Your shopping cart, Wish List, Wedding or Baby Registry, and other account settings are also the same.

Contact Us

If you have access to Facebook, please join our Friends of Durham St Margaret’s C of E Primary School page.

For security and safety this is a private forum so if you would like to join please send a private message to the page’s admin team.

Or email us at fosmdurham@outlook.com

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St Margaret’s Logo

Friends of St. Margaret’s

Meet the Friends

Current Fundraising Project

Constitution, Policy & Information Documents

Minutes of meetings

Friends Newsletters

Accounts

Partners

Contact Us

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