Attendees
Ping Henningham (Chair), Dan Farrow (Secretary), Edil Adan, Marina Biaudet, Sara Le Turcq, Naomi Richards, Cat Wood, Zee Gregory
Santa’s Grotto
We discussed options for grotto location e.g. under the adventure playground structure in KS1. The main disadvantage is that it would be impractical to set up, and the children would see everything in advance.
We decided that the lower hall was the most suitable location.
We discussed pre-grotto activities and where to locate them. We decided that outside, in the KS2 playground, is more practical
Pre-grotto activities discussed included:
- Cat’s “Knock the Head Off…” game
- Hunt the Elf treasure hunt game
- Pictures of elves hidden around the playground
- Child elf helpers to check answers and hand out prizes
- Christmas kids choir
- Could act as buskers with a collection bucket
- Dinner ladies choir
Construction
The grotto will be constructed on Thursday 7th & Friday 8th
- Borrow gazebos from church again for structure
- Brainstorm queuing management options
- Mains powered fairy lights should be PAT (Portable Appliance Testing) certified
- Battery powered lights are fine
- Elves to take photos for parents to avoid extra time at end of timeslot
Indoor activities
- Tokens for activities?
- Nerf Firing Range
- Badge Making with the badge machine
- 2 for 50p
- Decorate a Mug
- £1 last year
- Satako & Asako could run this stall
- Optional gift wrapping
- Raffle
- Find the Joker – high stakes game to win a Kindle
- Free craft table
- Reindeer Dust
- Christmas Decorations
- Mostly unmanned – instructions on table
- Christmas Top Hats
- Guess the Weight of the Cake
- Naomi offered to make it but she’s already doing a lot
- Break the Safe
- Kids have to guess the 4 number combination of a safe
- The solution will be on a historical date – clues provided
- The prize is a chocolate bar inside the safe
- Elf Goodies Hoopla
- We have lots of small prizes left over from previous events that need using up
- Put a few in a small lidded cup
- Kids throw hoop over cups to win them
Decorations
Emma Boyd has offered to lead the decorations team. The decorations stored from last year were unfortunately removed over the summer due to a fire audit. The school doesn’t have any storage for decorations, so some parents agreed to help store decoration in their homes while not in use.
The school would like the decorations to go up on the 4th December. We’ll take them down ourselves on the day of the pantomime trip
Naomi has white paper lanterns which we can use.
Food & drink
Everything will be located in the kitchen area.
Dishes will include:
- Macaroni cheese
- Chilli – veg & meat
- Oven chips * Very popular – we need more!
- Mulled wine
AOB
We tabled the idea of holding a second, evening SPA meeting each half term for parents who can’t make Friday mornings
Action list
- Volunteers needed to help construct the grotto on Thursday & Friday
- Look in top cupboards in community room and see what materials / props we need
- Ask Miss Marshal if she would be able to conduct the children’s choir during the fair
- Naomi to repeatedly ask school dinner ladies to sing at the fair until they agree!
- Naomi to ask Dave about PAT testing fairy lights
- Request parents to bring in their Fairy lights for PAT (Portable Appliance Testing) in January
- Somebody needed to make the cake for Guess the Weight of the Cake
- Naomi to ask Tom Lousada if he can make chillis again