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Supporting Our School

Welcome

Ashdon Primary School sits at the heart of a village that looks after it.

We are a small school, and the extras that make our children’s education rich — the trips, the books, the equipment, the experiences beyond the classroom — are made possible by the generosity of our families, our village organisations and our local supporters. Our values of Challenge, Care and Celebrate are lived as much outside our gates as within them.

Ashdon is a state-funded school, and our core funding pays for the essentials of a good education — our teachers, our building, our books. What it does not stretch to are the extras: the trips that bring a topic alive, the equipment that lets a child discover a sport they love, the visitors and experiences that widen a child’s sense of what is possible. Giving our children exposure, opportunity and aspiration is one of the things we care most about at Ashdon, and it is where every penny raised goes.

This page explains how our fundraising works, what it has paid for, who has helped us, and how you can be part of it. You do not need to have a child at our school to support it. Many of our supporters are villagers who simply believe in the school at the centre of their community, and we are always glad to hear from them.

How our fundraising works

Fundraising at Ashdon runs through two registered charities, working closely together. Which one your support goes to depends on what it is for.

  • Ashdon C.P. School Parent Teacher Association (registered charity number 1028671) organises the events that bring our families and our village together across the year, and applies for grant funding on the school’s behalf. The PTA raises funds for the activities and experiences that enrich our children’s school life — trips, visitors, resources and the things that make a school year memorable. The PTA can be contacted at ashdonprimarypta@gmail.com.

  • The Friends of Ashdon Primary School (registered charity number 1145518) is a trust established to raise funds for the provision, refurbishment and maintenance of buildings and equipment, for the benefit of both the school and the community of Ashdon village. The Friends are recognised by HMRC for Gift Aid, which means a donation from a UK taxpayer is worth 25% more to us at no extra cost to the donor. The Friends can be contacted at friendsofashdon@gmail.com.

In short: buildings and equipment through the Friends; activities and experiences through the PTA. If you are not sure which applies, please contact the school office and we will point you in the right direction.

We asked - You gave

When there is something particular our children need, we say so. We tell our families what it is, we hold a non-uniform day or a fundraising event to pay for it, and then we show everyone what arrived. Nothing disappears into a general fund.

Here is what our community has bought for our children:

  • Hall and stage curtains - Ashdon Rustic Players

  • New hockey sticks and balls - parents through a non-uniform day

  • Resurfacing of the MUGA - PTA through the British and Foreign Schools Society

  • Our school library (PTA with TESCo token grant) — a world map carpet, tree reading nooks, new bookshelves, a reading sofa and bean bags, a cataloguing system, mural in the library and a great many new books.

  • Dictionaries and Thesauruses - PTA funded

  • Subscription to Get Set 4 P.E - PTA funded

  • Time to clean up the school and paint fences - Parents arranged by the PTA

  • Subscription to Kapow - PTA funded

  • Repairing the school gate lock - Ashdon Rustic Players

  • White Rose Mathematics Subscription - Ashdon Rustic Players 

If you could give us an hour...

Not all support is financial. Some of the most valuable help we receive is an hour of someone's time — and it doesn't need to be a regular commitment or a set day.

Parents, grandparents and villagers can help us by hearing readers, lending a hand in class, joining in with playground games or turning out for jobs around the school. We are still painting our fence, and would love for it to be completed.

You don't need any experience. There are a few forms to complete before you can help with the children, but it's straightforward and we'll help with everything. If you'd like to help, please contact the school office on 01799 584219 or admin@ashdon.essex.sch.uk.

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Grant funding

We are grateful to have received grant funding from:

  • Tesco — awarded through our PTA

  • The Educational Opportunity Foundation

  • The British and Foreign School Society — which funded the transformation of our school library

Thank you to our supporters

Our school is fortunate to be part of a generous and close-knit community. We would like to thank the following for their kindness and support:

  • Ashdon Rustic Players

  • Marpa House

  • Our PTA

  • KidzActive

  • The parents and families of Ashdon Primary School

  • Individual residents of Ashdon village, who give generously and often quietly

Our school's place in the village

Support runs in both directions. Our children are part of village life, and we want them to grow up understanding that a community is something you contribute to, not simply something you live in.

We share a close relationship with All Saints Church, Ashdon. Parishioners lead our monthly Open the Book sessions, and our whole school gathers at All Saints for our Christmas and Easter services.

Our wishlist

We are putting together a collection of things for our children to play with outside at lunchtime — not plastic games sets, which they tire of within a week, but crates, planks, tyres, fabric and pots and pans that they can stack, build with, drag about and turn into whatever the game requires that day. Children play with these for hours, and they play together.

Almost everything we need is something that is already sitting in a shed, a garage or the back of a cupboard. If you have any of the following and would like to pass it on, we would be delighted.

Crates and containers — milk crates, plastic bread trays, sturdy storage boxes, buckets, washing-up bowls, dustbins with lids

Things to build with — wooden planks, scaffold boards or decking offcuts, pallets in good condition, cable drums, lengths of guttering and drainpipe, plastic funnels, large cardboard tubes and boxes

Tyres — four to six clean car tyres, and one or two tractor tyres if anyone farms

Fabric and dens — tarpaulins, old sheets, duvet covers, curtains and blankets, tent pegs, rope, washing line and string

For our mud kitchen — old saucepans and frying pans, wooden spoons and ladles, sieves and colanders, muffin tins and baking trays, plastic jugs, plates and bowls

Digging and pouring — trowels, hand forks, small spades, plant pots, watering cans

Things to play with — long skipping ropes, French skipping elastics, hula hoops, footballs and tennis balls

To keep it all tidy — a wheeled garden trolley or builder's cart, and a shed if anyone happens to be replacing one

A few things we cannot take, with our apologies: anything electrical or with a flex, glass or china, anything broken, splintered, mouldy or rusted, soft toys, upholstered furniture, prams or car seats, and chemicals or paint.

Please bring anything you can spare to the school office. We will take what fits and find another good home for anything we cannot use, so please don't be offended if we say we have enough of something — we would rather be honest than end up with forty saucepans.

Thank you. Every crate, plank and old frying pan will be very well used.

Other ways you can also support us

  • Come to our events. Details of everything our PTA has planned are on our PTA page. Turning up is fundraising.

  • Join in with our non-uniform days. When we are raising money for something specific, we hold a non-uniform day and ask for a small contribution. These add up quickly, and the children love them.

  • Volunteer. We always welcome help at events, and readers in school. A DBS check is required for regular volunteering in school — we will guide you through it.

  • Ask your employer about matched giving. Many employers will match what their staff raise for a school or charity, which can double a donation at no extra cost to you. It is always worth asking.

  • Donate directly. Every donation, however small, goes straight to the children. If you are a UK taxpayer and giving towards buildings or equipment, please give through The Friends of Ashdon School so that we can claim Gift Aid.

Donating through Arbor

The simplest way to give is through Arbor, the system you already use for trips, clubs and dinner money.

Sign in to the Arbor Parent Portal or open the Arbor app, go to Payments, and you will find our current appeal listed alongside everything else. You can give any amount, and you can do it in under a minute on your phone.

If you cannot see what you are looking for, or you would rather give another way, please contact the school office on 01799 584219 or admin@ashdon.essex.sch.uk and we will sort it out.

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