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 2015-16

Another exciting year, full of fun and happy events, with Friends of Pinewood. We have been lucky enough to see many new faces and volunteers and were sad to say goodbye to some of our wonderful FOP staff supporters, who have contributed to the success and running of the yearly programme.

Through the success of the year’s events FOP, was able to support the following charities: Smash (Youth Monitoring), Prospect House, Swindon’s Women’s Aid and Seesaw, as well as continuing to sponsor animals at Cotswold Wildlife Park and Rachida, a girl in Niger, through World Vision.

The total figure raised this year was: £16,984.97 and funds have been distributed across the school in a whole host of ways. The main thrust of the monies raised this year went towards the establishment of the Pre-Prep garden, which opened on July 1st. This is well worth a visit to see all the fantastic planting, sculptures and the poly tunnel, which the Pre-Prep children and staff have created. It’s a wonderful space which the children adore. Across the departments, FOP paid for extra LED microscopes and a wonderful camera for the bird box, to enable live viewing of the nesting birds on the TV screens in the school. The Library acquired some new counter top display units and the boarding staff were able to purchase wireless speakers for dance offs!

Bonfire night was another sparkling night with a huge bonfire, which grew during the preceding terms, thanks in particular to Gary and his estates team! It was the last firework display that the maestro team of Mr A-G and Mr Caird would perform – huge thanks to them for many years of hard work.

The Christmas Fair hit a record high, under the creative guardianship of Kate Fraser. An array of tempting stalls and happy vendors continued to make this event a unique shopping experience, as well as setting the festive mood. Pre-Prep set up a variety of new incentives, including the creative workshop, which gave families more shopping time and entertained the children for hours, as well as the bountiful Christmas presents they created or procured!

Mr Bisch produced another challenging and entertaining Quiz Night in the Spring Term. This Quiz Night had a Mexican flavour, complete with tequila to oil the creative thinking! We are so grateful to Jim Bischoff for the huge amount of time and hard work he has put into taxing our brains at the Quiz Nights over the years, and we hope we will see him again soon.

As the Summer Term drew to a close, the Inter-House Athletics, Summer Afternoon and party for Mr Bischoff, Janey and Mr Field ended the year on a high – literally – as the helicopter swooped around the Vale on a bright, sunny evening. The new layout of the Summer Afternoon worked well to tie the three events together, with vintage teas, Pimms and bouncy castles as always, to celebrate the end of the year.

Many thanks to all the committee, staff and parents alike. A big thank you to Chris Field for many years of help on FOP and to Nicola Hartley, a fantastic treasurer for several years and Catherine Scudamore. We welcome Jo Barrett, Leila Moseley, Alpana Bose and Janey Nelson, who will return to join the committee!

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 Amanda Barber or Henrietta Hoyland.

2016 Committee