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 2016-17

Pinewood memories are made in so many ways, but the excitement of the FOP events have to be up there in the top ten happy moments of this unique prep school! The children’s excitement in the run up to Bonfire Night or the Summer Evening sends ripples through the whole community and each annual event continues to be extremely well attended. Through the generous support of staff, parents, friends, the kitchen and grounds staff, each fun-filled occasion continues to be a memorable success.

The FOP committee is very grateful for this continued support, without the many volunteers and hours of hard work, these events would not be possible. The total figure raised this year was in excess of £20,000 and the charities we supported throughout the year were: Meningitis Research, Women’s Aid, Smash, Prospect House and Rashida (our ongoing contribution to a little girl in Niger, through World Vision), as well as the sponsorship of animals at the Cotswold Wildlife Park. In addition to our chosen charities, we have been able to contribute to an array of added extras across the school, including the hopper cycle jumps, part of the new Pre-Prep climbing frame, gymnastics equipment, fencing equipment, a weather station, materials for the forthcoming WW1 Centenary Frieze and a new drum kit.

After an unseasonably hot bonfire night last year, the weather was kind to us and we had a monster bonfire and an all new fireworks display. The fireworks were a show stopper – a spectacular display, which left us all spell bound! As always a combination of glo sticks, hair bands, delicious barbeque and fun games provided a fantastic evening.

The Christmas Fair was a wonderful occasion, again led by Kate Fraser and Henrietta Hoyland. Vendors keen to come back to Pinewood were in attendance alongside many new and exciting stalls. For the second year running, Pre-Prep organised creative workshops, enabling parents to have a shopping window and of course Father Christmas came to visit Pinewood on his annual tour. The 2017 Christmas Fair will be under the stewardship of Leila Moseley, who has kindly agreed to take it on from Kate.

The Spring Term saw Quiz night with a new host, Mr Benbow. A Mexican themed evening with some challenging brain exercise was great fun. Ed is a natural quiz master and produced a brilliant quiz, with some innovative rounds, which seemed to become easier, or perhaps more difficult, with the help of tequila!

This year an extra event appeared in the FOP calendar – the Second Hand Clothes Sale. Huge thanks to Gemma and Simon Bird for hosting this event in their beautiful barn – the space was perfect to display the vast quantity of clothes. A big thank you to everyone involved, Kate Fraser for coordinating and collecting bag after bag of clothes and a big thank you to the very generous local boutiques for donating new clothes to add to the sale. The preview evening had a wonderful atmosphere, followed by a lovely day of shopping and cakes. We donated a whooping £2000 to Helen and Douglas House in Oxford.

Mr Hoyland’s weather magic was on a roll with a sunny Summer Afternoon to finish the year. Following the athletics excitement, highlights included the all-new Pimms Buggy, a 2CV coffee van, the sweeper bouncy castle, hair feathers, vintage teas, pupils’ revenge, children’s games and the return of the dog show.

Many thanks to all the committee, staff and parents for their continued hard work and enthusiasm. It has been another wonderful year and we are sad to say goodbye to Kate, Sarah and Tans from the committee. They have been an amazing team and will be very much missed. We are very happy to welcome some new members who have kindly offered to give their time to the committee from September 2017.

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 Sasha Kennedy or Henrietta Hoyland.

2018 Committee