Following a couple of quieter years due to the pandemic, we are really pleased that over this school year the BSA has gradually been able to begin to get back to business as usual - with live events taking place in school and plenty of opportunities to have fun and raise money at the same time.
After the disappointment of having to cancel yet another school disco back in the autumn term, we were thrilled that the Christmas Fair was able to go ahead - albeit a somewhat scaled-back, socially-distanced version. We moved as much as we could outside, and made sure that the inside attractions were well-spaced. We had a great turn out and our newly-purchased candy floss machine proved to be a big hit! The Christmas shopping Elfridges experience was also really popular and the Infants’ staff did a fabulous job as personal shoppers helping the children to choose and wrap gifts for their families.
Our second Winter Windows trail provided a great excuse for local families to get out in the evening and wander the streets near to the schools looking at the beautiful festive displays. We are so lucky to have such creative families living nearby and we really hope to continue with this new tradition of lighting up our community during dark December days every year.
The Spring term saw the welcome return of the BSA Quiz, hosted by our jovial quizmaster James Sowden. As always, it was a friendly and sociable night - and only the teeniest bit competitive! The Juniors’ staff team retained their title as Quiz Night champions and left with their pride intact. James has promised to return with another quiz, however, so for those who missed out there will definitely be a chance to steal their crown next year!
We rounded off the BSA’s activities for the year with the Jubilee Summer Fair - a gloriously sunny day filled with fairground games and bouncy castles, corgis and coconuts, Pimms and strawberries. Wellies were wanged, rats went splat, and the 1st Malden Scouts kept the sausages and burgers flowing from 12 til 3. We were lucky with the weather and even luckier with the amazing turn out and the support of all our fabulous volunteers. It truly seemed that everyone was just so very happy to be able to do this again after the disappointment of the last couple of years.
Now for the bit that everyone wants to hear (imaginary drumroll, please) - together with the various BSA mufti days, Twosday Tuesday on 22.2.22 and the ever popular cake sales, we are delighted to announce that this year we have raised close to £20,000 which is quite flabbergasting. These are difficult times financially, so we really appreciate the continued support of our families. The monies raised are used in a variety of ways to enrich our children’s education and life experiences - sometimes for more traditionally educational activities such as workshops in school, but also for fun activities such as the Year 5 trip to Southsea, and the Year 6 Leavers’ Disco.
Looking ahead, we hope we can continue to build on this year’s successes with more fun events over the next school year. Fingers crossed that the 2022/23 year will see the welcome return of the school disco, together with cake sales, quizzing, fairs and possibly more.
We are still a relatively small core of volunteers, and we would love our numbers to grow, to enable us to do even bigger and better things. There are so many opportunities to get involved at every level - please watch this space for more details. And if you have any great ideas for events you’d like to see in the future, please get in touch - info.burlingtonpta@gmail.com.