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MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE FPTA OF THE BESG HELD ON TUESDAY APRIL 8^th 2008 AT 6:00pm IN THE SCHOOL HALL

Attendants:

Opening Remarks and Welcome

1. Lale opened the meeting by sharing last Saturday’s ‘Egg Hunt’ event was a great success and thanked to all involved in the preparations, especially Mark.

Summer Term Events

Pancake and Smoothie Fun

2. 300 pancakes with the assumption of two pieces for each child or three for the juniors will be prepared a night before by the volunteers. Lale, Mark, Ebru and Angela volunteered to cook 75 pancakes each and it is decided that the pancakes will be warmed up before children served.

3. Smoothies will be served in plastic pitchers and then put in the cups. 180 servings will be prepared just before the event. Haryeong, Handan, Lale and Ebru decided to meet at DT room at 10 am. Haryeong, Handan will bring their blenders.

4. The tables will be set with table clothes. Lale will bring white table clothes. Announcements prepared 3 days ahead of time said 2YTL/pancake and 3YTL/smoothies, a flat rate of 5ytl was agreed upon as price, regardless of the number of pancakes a child eats.

Children’s Day

5. Lale asked what is planned for April 23^rd, Children’s Day. Dawn elaborated on the plan to pay a visit to the school ‘Karataş İlköğretim Okulu’ in a village near Ankara whose head teacher paid a visit to our school and they agreed to celebrate it together at Karataş. Dawn and some members of the staff are going there on Friday, April 11^th to see the school and plan more on the day of event. Lale and Dilek expressed interest to join aswell.

6. Both infants and juniors will visit this school on April 23^rd in the morning. Our students will contribute to the celebration by reading poems and singing songs. A donation of books to this schools library was appreciated as a good idea. Many different ideas were also discussed as to how exactly to support that school with a special emphasis on finding a way to avoid “looking down on the poor” (in line with the recently topical criticism to CAS - Community Action Service) and making sure the good intentions to share were not misperceived.

7. Few ideas were, staging their play in our hall and raising money from the tickets, or planting trees, mini-bazaar items made by children/parents etc for School Council to sell to.

8. On April 23^rd the visit to Karataş is only planned to last a couple of hours and the school will be open as usual. For all children cup cakes are thought as snacks.

Ice Cream Treat

9. This is planned as an after-lunch treat, quality Maraş ice-cream will be bought from Leda pastanesi. The date is still to be finalized, most probably June 12^th or 13^th.

Summer Fair

10. Lale committed herself to arranging for Safety clearance with the Embassy for May 31^st and arrange the invitations and tickets as other printed material. Admission fee was agreed upon as 5YTL. Lale mentioned that special Raffle prizes are ready. Katie mentioned that staff members will volunteer for token, raffle, drinks and school logo items to sell.

11. Lale emphasized the need to inform volunteers early enough in order to prevent confusion and for this purpose Children’s Activites have to determined by May 6^th and parents will be informed for volunteering latest May 12^th before the half term holiday.

12. In the Mini Bazaar, FPTA will rent stalls, sell BESG logo items like mugs and cotton totes. FPTA will also sell the donated old uniforms and the ones in the Lost Bin after they are being washed. Dawn will send a message to parents giving a last chance for them to check the Lost Bin before the items are handed over to FPTA. There may also be consigned items from vendors for FPTA to sell. Y6 students will hold a Library Book Sale. Dilek said she knows where to provide the cotton totes.

13. Catering : Ebru will organize providing chicken and/or meat Döner, kumpir or vegetarian roll. Juice for children, soft drinks, beer, sangria, ice cream will be provided by Mark aswell as any other related shopping. The wine will be provided by Doluca as in previous activities.

14. Katie suggested ‘Olympics’ for the theme of the fair. It is agreed. Lale said that this theme will be reflected into the activities and to the general flair of the fair.

15. If there aren’t enough raffle tickets in the FPTA room, Dawn will order them.

Year Book Committee

16. The committee will be headed by Lale and the three subcommittees were agreed upon as Design, Visuals and Writings will be headed by Ebru, Handan and Krassi respectively. Year Book distributing will be agreed to do on June 27, Friday. Lale said that before the year books printed, parents will be sent and announcement/order form as how many year book and CD or DVD they want and direct the committee how they want to pick it up.

17. Lale had asked Neil Sumner, Y6 teacher, for the students to come up with a theme latest by April 14^th. Y6 will design the cover of the Yearbook. Lale suggested that the same theme in sub-themes will be carried inside by the other classes. If there are two or more themes to choose from, there might be a voting process.

18. Individual and Sibling photos of students will be taken on April 16^th. A reminder announcement about the day which will also remind parents to send their children’s own hair combs, will be sent. Handan, Dilek, Ebru and Wendy volunteered helping better organization on that day and also on Group Photo Day Mat 1st. A standard set of 8 passaport size photos will be prepared for each child and one will be kept by FPTA to place inside the Yearbook. This standard pack will be presented to the parents with a detailed order form.

19. Wednesday, April 16^th at 6:30pm was agreed as a meeting day for the Yearbook subcommittees.

Conclusion

Next FPTA meeting will be held on May 6^th at 6:00pm. And a Core Committee meeting will be held on May 2^nd.

In ‘Portfolio Presentation Week’ FPTA will provide snacks and drinks for parents at the school reception.