What is the PTA?

It stands for Parent Teacher Association and is a group of school parents, including the Principal, a Board representative, and a staff member.  The chief goal of a PTA is to raise funds for the school to assist in its running; however an important secondary goal is to promote interaction between families, and between parents and teachers.

Why do we have it?

We need it for two reasons – one being the need for money, and the other because teachers don’t have time to organize social events such as discos for children.  These days most schools can’t do without the money raised by their PTAs.  The funds raised are given to the school Board for inclusion in their budget.  At Crofton Downs Primary, the funds don’t go on “luxuries” – they go towards the basics of running the school including necessities such as staff salaries and photocopying. This is because as a decile 10 school, the direct funding from the Government is limited.

What do we do and how?

All of the above sounds pretty serious stuff but at Crofton Downs Primary we have a great PTA, which has not only achieved significant fundraising goals but has fun doing it.  It has also helped foster a strong community feeling within the school.

Our committee members’ range from new entrant parents to those with children close to leaving the school and each person brings a wide range of skills and ideas to the PTA.  While they give a lot in time and energy, parents also gain skills and enjoy themselves.


We meet monthly in the evenings at school, and get a huge amount of assistance from both staff and parents in putting our ideas into place.  The PTA is a community effort and while the bulk of funds raised help the school run efficiently, we usually manage to have a pet project for a proportion of the funds.  In recent years we have purchased a stage for the school hall, new sports equipment, built a new sandpit to be used both for fun and educational purposes and purchased interactive white boards for the classrooms.

We fundraise by a variety of means, including the usual ways such as cake stalls, movie evenings, runathons, and selling chocolate. The key fundraiser is our gala or “Matsuri”, which is known for its ethnic food stalls, raffles and second hand goods stalls.

What can you do?

Come to a meeting and find out – we always welcome new parents and it is also a good way to meet fellow parents and become involved in the life of the school. Meeting dates are noted in the school newsletter each week and in the website calendar. Or you can contact PTA member Kate Williams via the school office.