Thank you for visiting us at our Friend’s of St Michael’s Page. 

Forthcoming Events:

8th March Ceilidh at Norton Cricket Club 7 – 10.30 p.m. Pie and Peas included. Tickets £5 adults. £3 children and £15 family ticket(2 Adults/2 children). A ceilidh is a wonderful family event, be prepared to wear a smile and those of you with 2 left feet will find they fit right in! Seriously, a brilliant evening of fun and laughter, you're sure to make new friends so please do join us at this fundraiser. Tickets available from School. 

Easter Egg Raffle 26th and 27th March (held during school across the dinner period). We need your donations please, any size of Easter Egg or bars of chocolate. If you can help on either day by volunteering to cover one the days please do let us know, your help will be greatly received.

Forward Planner

Summer Fayre Thursday 27 June at 6p.m

This is one of our biggest fundraisers throughout the school year, we rely heavily on your support for donations of raffle prizes, ideas for stands - the candy floss idea from last year was a huge hit but if you are a budding entrepreneur with a new idea, please let us know as we would love to see you at this event. Most importantly, we need you and your family to attend and help us raise those vital funds for school. Please remember that all funds raised are ploughed back into school so every child will benefit.

Next FOSM Meetings

The next meeting is in school on the 25th March at 6.30 p.m. September 2013/14 is the Golden Anniversary for St Michael's - 50 years teaching here in Billingham. We want to do our part to share in the celebrations, use this time to reinforce our community and the generations who have been educated in our school. Your thoughts and ideas of how we can maximise this year, collate stories and memories, contact pupils and teachers past and present, perhaps our own book or celebration - or a 'where are they now' special. Please do come along, share your ideas and be a part of planning the celebrations for this special 50th year for St Michael's.

FOSM will then meet on Thursday 2nd May at 6.30 to organise and plan the School Fayre, if you can't attend a meeting (and that's Ok we understand everyone has busy lives) but have ideas you can share, please contact us, we'll read out your ideas at the meeting, just email school and mark for the attention of FOSM.

BAGS2SCHOOL

It will be time for the spring clean before you know it! The next bags2school will be issued on 11 March and you need to return them to school on the morning of 25 April. This scheme is a really good fundraiser for us so please do your bit to help out, if you need to use extra bags please do, all donations greatly received.

Why do the Friends of St Michael’s Exist (FOSM) 

Whether you are a parent, a carer, a pupil past, present or still to join us at St Michael’s you may not be aware that as a faith school, St Michael’s is classified as being a ‘Voluntary Aided’ school.  This means that the school has more autonomy than other state schools in a number of areas including admissions and that the Diocese owns the building.  However, this greater autonomy comes at a cost, the government only provides 90% of state funding to the school for building projects, with the school expected to raise the additional 10% from donations, voluntary contributions and fundraising – in essence topping up the governments funding allocation from you our parents and supporters.  Without this valuable support the school simply would not exist in its present form.  FOSM works to support the Head and his management team to help them achieve the mutual goals that will see every pupil reach their full potential during their time at St Michael’s. This also includes FOSM financially contributing towards the purchase of the school minibus, school trips regionally, nationally & internationally and much more besides. In essence our fundraising provides essential support. 

New members welcome – and we do mean you! 

We always welcome new members to join FOSM, the more the merrier – that said the last few years have seen fewer parents take the time to engage with us and we need your valuable input to help us with Innovative and creative ideas for fundraising to ensure we contribute towards the revenue needed to sustain the school. We have regular meetings; dates will be here on our web link, also included in letters from the Head as a reminder and via the Homelinks newsletter.  We would love you to join us at a FOSM meeting but if meetings are not for you (don’t let the word ‘committee’ put you off – we’re really nice people!), please do help us in other ways, attend our organised events, donation of raffle prizes, purchase of raffle tickets, send us your ‘ideas’ or via a straightforward donation – you may have a generous employer with a proactive corporate social responsibility programme, perhaps they can offer a match funding, or donate a prize, or sponsor an event – seriously, every single contribution helps us achieve our fundraising goals. 

Due to data protection, you need to contact us initially, the school does not have permission to share your details, so if you would like more information, please do contact school, who, with your permission, will pass on your details to Janet Nevatt FOSM Chair who will establish contact to discuss options of how you can help.