Friends of Swanton Morley VC Primary School
(FOSM)
About FOSM
Friends of Swanton Morley VC Primary School (FOSM) are a small group of parents and school staff who are dedicated to promoting and actioning events throughout the academic year to fund and support extra-curricular events, increase resources and provide funding for new projects for which our school may not have the funding available.
As parents/carers ourselves, we are sure you will agree that we will do everything we can to help our children to build fond memories during their time at our school. By providing the children with the opportunity to take part in fun extra-curricular activities, this can have a positive impact on their development as well as their physical and mental wellbeing.
The current FOSM team was formed in September 2023 so we are very much on a learning curve. The support and dedication that we have received from parents/carers, school staff and the community in and around Swanton Morley has been absolutely amazing and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your ongoing support. Without this support we would be unable to continue doing the work that we enjoy in order to make a difference.
We also encourage our school council to get involved with our work to find out how the children would like the funds to be spent. We appreciate that this is their school and we very much welcome their valuable input.
We will be using this website to keep you all updated with upcoming events, how we are raising funds and how we are planning to spend the funds so please do check this page to see what we are currently working on and how you can get involved.
Upcoming FOSM Events (2024/2025)
Further details on the following upcoming FOSM Events will be provided nearer the time of the event.
| FOSM Event | Time | ||
| 2024 | |||
| 24th October | Non-Uniform Day | ||
| (V) | 27th November | Winter Warmer | 3.15pm |
| (V) | 6th December | Christmas Disco | Lower School Disco 5.45pm – 7pm Upper School Disco 7.15pm – 8.30pm |
| 18th December | Whole school trip to Norwich Theatre Royal to see Pantomime | ||
| 2025 | |||
| (V) | 14th February | Valentine’s Day Disco | Lower School Disco 5.45pm – 7pm Upper School Disco 7.15pm – 8.30pm |
| (V) | 26th March | Easter Fair | 3.15pm |
| (V) | 18th June | Summer Fair | 1.45pm – 3pm Backup date of 25th June 2025 1.45pm – 3pm |
| (V) | 18th June | Sponsored Walk | Backup date of 25th June 2025 |
| (V) | 11th July | Summer Disco | Lower School Disco 5.45pm – 7pm Upper School Disco 7.15pm – 8.30pm |
(V) – Volunteers Required
Volunteering
We very much welcome volunteers to help out at our events and it would not be possible for us to facilitate these events without the help from our volunteers. It is very rewarding to see the children having so much fun at our events and it is a great way for volunteers to socialise with other parents and school staff. The events where we would really appreciate volunteers have been marked with a ‘(V)’ in the FOSM Events list so please send us an email if you would like to be involved. Please see our Contact Us section at the bottom of this page.
Our school and FOSM very much encourage the children to be involved in our fundraising events. Not only is this good for their development but it also provides them with a sense of responsibility and an understanding of the effort and funding that is required to facilitate the extra-curricular activities that they enjoy.
Spending the funds that we have efficiently is just as important as raising the funds in the first place and where possible, we are starting to purchase materials and build bespoke solutions that meet the requirements of the projects we undertake rather than buying often expensive off-the-shelf products. To do this requires various skillsets and we would very much welcome any volunteers to get in contact with us if you feel you have a skill that might be useful on one of our projects.
How have we raised the funds?
The following funds were raised by FOSM in the academic year of 2023/2024.
| FOSM Event | Event Date | Raised |
| Dereham Round Table Santa Sleigh Donation | 15th December 2023 | £333.00 |
| Christmas Disco | 8th December 2023 | £540.00 |
| Bake and Uniform Sale | 18th December 2023 | £156.12 |
| Easter Fair | 13th March 2024 | £437.00 |
| Maths Bingo | 20th March 2024 | £125.65 |
| Easter Disco | 22nd March 2024 | £415.15 |
| Tesco Book Stall and other book sales | 1st – 31st March 2024 | £786.32 |
| Village Yard Sale | 8th June 2024 | £479.50 |
| Annual Sponsored Walk | 18th June 2024 | £1159.60 |
| Summer Disco | 12th July 2024 | £531.00 |
| Playground Ice Lolly Sales | Various dates during Summer 2024 | £70.00 |
| TOTAL RAISED | £5033.34 | |
How have we spent the funds?
The following projects were undertaken by FOSM in the academic year of 2023/2024.
| Project | Cost |
| Whole school trip to Norwich Theatre Royal to see Pantomime 2024 | £2019.50 |
| Full School Maths Event | £750.00 |
| Materials to build 10 picnic benches to be located around the school grounds | £849.41 |
| Ongoing improvements to school playground | £584.00 |
| Times Table Rockstar Day merchandise | £69.00 |
| TOTAL SPENT | £4271.91 |
Donations
We have been overwhelmed by the help and support we have received from our local community and we are extremely lucky to have our school situated within a community that is so willing to pull together and support our school. We would like to say a huge thank you to the following local organisations who have supported us recently. We really do appreciate your kind donations.
| Charles Chaplin Kindly donated compost and seed trays for the school gardening club. |
| Sinclair International Generous donation of two laptops to be used by FOSM |
| Tesco Dereham Kindly provided us with a space for our book stall and donated an Easter Hamper |
| Bawdeswell Garden Centre Kind donation of seeds for the school gardening club |
| Carricks at Castle Farm Kindly donated their time to transport the picnic benches to the school |
| Swanton Morley Men’s Shed Kindly cut all of the timber to size ready for assembling the picnic benches |
| Dereham Round Table Santa Sleigh donated a generous amount of money to our school |
There were also a large number of local companies that donated prizes for our Christmas and Easter Raffles. Unfortunately there are too many companies to list but we would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your generous donations.
Fundraising Ideas
Nowadays fundraising is a challenge and although there are lots of events that we would like to do, upfront/hidden costs, legislation and insurances often make such events financially unviable. We try to come up with new fundraising ideas to provide variety throughout the academic year but there are times when we exhaust our ideas and wonder whether there are any fundraising opportunities that we have overlooked.
If you or your child have any fundraising ideas, please feel free to email these to us so that we can discuss them at our next FOSM meeting. Please see our Contact Us section at the bottom of this page.
FOSM Meetings
We normally hold a FOSM meeting in the staff area of the school every term and our Annual General Meeting is held in September. We welcome all parents to these meetings so you have the opportunity to chat with us, be involved and to meet other parents and the teachers at our school.
We will be posting our upcoming meeting dates and times as we schedule them in so please do keep a check on this page.
Contact Us
Please feel free to email us if you would like to know more about FOSM and how you can get involved. Our email address is friendsofswantonmorleyschool@gmail.com
FOSM is a registered charity. Our charity number is 268852.