Friends of Pinewood

The Friends of Pinewood are a group of parents and staff, who organise fundraising events for pupils, parents and the extended Pinewood community. As well as raising money for the school and local charities, the events we hold bring people together in a fun, relaxed and social environment.

Review of the Year 2010/11

The past year has been another very successful one for Friends of Pinewood. We have seen record breaking takings at events and we have been really delighted with the high level of support from parents, pupils, staff and the local community, not only in attending events, but also in volunteering to help us; without your help we could not do what we do. As a result of this fantastic support we were thrilled to be able to fund, with help from donations from Trustees, the construction of “Treetops”, the Prep School’s extremely popular adventure playground.

We held five very successful events this year: Bonfire Night, the Christmas Fair, Quiz Night (which was so popular there was barely room to move in the Dining Room!), our inaugural Bring & Buy Designer Clothes Sale and the Summer Evening. We also continued to sell Northbrook gift wrap and cards in time for Christmas and benefitted from the proceeds of adverts in the Pigeon. All these fundraising efforts resulted in a total amount raised over the year of over £16,000.

This magnificent total has meant that not only could we pay for the lion’s share of the cost of “Treetops”, floodlighting for the hard courts and the purchase of an air hockey/snooker table for the Prep School, as well as a much needed re-stock of play make-up, but we were also able to donate £2,000 to Bourton Village Hall, which was in need of funds to carry out urgent repair work and which the school relies on heavily as an additional hall (as well as being used for many a Pinewood pupil’s birthday party). One of the aims of the Clothes Sale, so brilliantly organised by Jane Hawkes in her own home, was to make a donation to the Lambourn branch of Riding for the Disabled Association. This event was so successful that, beyond all expectations (ours and theirs) we were able to present them with a cheque for £500. As in the past, through the Pre-Prep, we continued to support a little girl in Niger: Fatmata has grown up, so we are now supporting Aminat, and we also maintained our sponsorship of animals at the Cotswold Wildlife Park.

We maintain close links with the village of Bourton, inviting them to attend all our events.

As a committee, we have a lot of fun and are always looking for volunteers to help at events. If you think you would be interested in helping us, please speak to Lucinda McFarlane or Henrietta Hoyland.