“ Male or female, working or non-working, you’re welcome at the Friends and can help make a real difference to the lives of the children studying at the school.”

Who are the Friends of Saint Cecilia’s?

 

The Friends of Saint Cecilia's is a registered charity formed by parents and carers of students at Saint Cecilia’s. The Friends raise money to help support the school and also help bring the wider community together by organising social events throughout the year and hosting a Facebook group for parents/carers.

Every year we fund school equipment, trips, classroom resources, which help to improve pupils’ and students’ learning experience. Last year, to name but a few of the projects we supported, we supported the school in buying equipment to support students doing the Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards programme, contributed to support the purchase of laptops for use by children struggling with digital poverty during lockdown, and enabled the music, art and drama departments to buy equipment and supplies to support students throughout the school and funded the refurbishment of one of the blocks of toilets in the school.

The Friends of Saint Cecilia’s depend on a continual cycle of parental involvement. As children reach their final year and leave, so do their parents. The school staff and Leadership Team support us in many ways but without parents/carers involvement, we cannot exist so we really need you!

Forget the tired stereotypes you may have come across of parents’ associations in the past. They don’t apply here. Male or female, working or non-working, you’re welcome at the Friends and can help make a real difference to the lives of the children studying at the school.

Want to get involved or support our work?  There are loads of different ways you can do this, some requiring very little effort!

  • We need people to turn up and enjoy our events! Yes, turning up, drinking a beer and eating a burger helps to support our charity.  We try to run three fundraising social events a year, culminating in the Summer Fete. Watch out for news of them in the school newsletter.

  • We need people to buy/donate second-hand uniform.  If you have something to donate or are looking to buy second-hand uniform, please contact our uniform team (uniform.friendsofstcecilias@gmail.com).

  • We need people to choose Friends of Saint Cecilia’s as their chosen cause on EasyFundraising or Amazon Smile - you can raise money for the Friends at no cost to yourself, and without moving from your sofa.

  • We need people to volunteer to help run events. This doesn’t need to be a long-term or time-consuming commitment.  Even half an hour would make a difference - imagine how much resource we would be able to draw on if every parent and carer donated half an hour of their time!

  • We need people who will take an interest in the running of the organisation. All current parents and carers are eligible to join the Friends, you just have to fill in this form so we can add you to the mailing list.  Becoming a Member of the Friends enables you to vote to elect the trustees at our Annual General Meeting and have a say in how the charity spends its money.

  • And if you don’t have time to get more actively involved, we always welcome donations (contact treasurer.friendsofstcecilias@gmail.com for our bank details if you would like to make a one-off or regular donation; we hope to have easier online giving arrangements in place in the near future).

Join the Friends by completing our Google Form, available here

Contact us:

Chair: friendsofstcecilias@gmail.com
Treasurer: treasurer.friendsofstcecilias@gmail.com 
Secretary: secretary.friendsofstcecilias@gmail.com   

Plus the uniform team are contactable on: uniform.friendsofstcecilias@gmail.com

The 2023-24 Friends Trustees are:
Charlotta Bolton and Helen Shaw (Co-chairs)
Rachel Evans (Secretary)
Lee Drage (Treasurer)

Rebecca Gregg (Trustee)
Charlotta Bolton (Trustee)
Rebecca McKenzie (Trustee)
Chavione Richardson-Walker (Trustee)

The Friends’ constitution is available here.