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Post by **Angie** on Sept 29, 2015 3:16:43 GMT
Ds' school is trying to come up with ways to increase parental involvement, boost its public image, and still be appealing to the students.
They've never had a PTO/pta until last year and this year, they are trying to do some special events. All of the things I can think of are already being done by other schools and the powers that be don't want to compete
Please give me ideas!!! Thanks. 
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Post by zztop11 on Sept 29, 2015 3:32:28 GMT
One think I remember is that on some mornings, they did "Muffins with Mom" and "Doughnuts with Dad". Chance to child and parent to eat together for a few minutes and there would be discussions. The school sponsored a spaghetti dinner for families to help build morale. You can have a family fair/ health fair, whatever you want to call it. Booths set up with information for parents and students, give a ways, etc. We had an international day too. Same idea with booths, music and dance from other cultures in the community.
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Post by freecharlie on Sept 29, 2015 3:41:18 GMT
We have a chili dinner with a silent auction each year to support the athletics department. That is about it.
You could have:
movie night
festival night
community service day
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Sept 29, 2015 4:09:28 GMT
We have a fall festival.. mainly inflatables.. that are geared towards middle/highschool
Winter Dance - HUGE hit last year. The kids had a blast.
Spring Founder's Day celebration... which is booths, games, food and learning... it was a lot of fun.
We also are organizing a gaga ball tournament.
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Post by doesitmatter on Sept 29, 2015 4:50:52 GMT
Well these aren't new ideas and we are small town but ours are:
Pumpkin Pass n Run - they do a bunch of games with pumkins close to Halloween.
Turkey Bowl - they bowl with fake turkeys
Turket trot - relay and individual races.
Culinary does a spaghetti dinner one semester and something else another semester.
Dances, basketball, volleyball, baseball, flag football, track, soccer, band, choir (concerts) and a few special things like a dodgeball tournament, dress up days (school spirit and other themes).
There seems to be so much more at the elemntary and highscool levels.
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sweetpeasmom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,592 
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Post by sweetpeasmom on Sept 29, 2015 12:10:27 GMT
Our MS has a dance just about every month. It's put on by different groups each time. Last month it was the competition cheerleaders. Not sure who it is this month (actually today). I know that the football team does the on in February. It's $5 to get in then concessions.
Last year, they did a 5K. It was a good but small turn out. It was the first time they did it. I hope they do it again this year.
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Post by melanell on Sept 29, 2015 12:30:34 GMT
We have craft shows, Bingo nights, movie nights, after-school programs, Breakfast with Santa, Harvest Fair, book sales, dances, basket raffles......that's what I am remembering off the top of my head.
Oh, pizza nights, also.
Sorry, I forgot we were talking about Middle School. The Santa Breakfast, Bingo, and Fall Festival are elementary events here.
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keithurbanlovinpea
Pearl Clutcher
Flowing with the go...
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Post by keithurbanlovinpea on Sept 29, 2015 12:45:31 GMT
I am a little confused about what the competition would be for? Competing events that the community wouldn't attend? I guess I am thinking that schools are kind of insulated... parents and kids attend events at their own school so why does it matter if the neighboring school has a similar event?
Anyhoo... our MS does various events with different organizations. Like band has a big carnival-like bash and there is a dance every quarter that a different organization sponsors. The PTA doesn't do a fundraiser with sales, but has an annual fund that they want parents to donate to. There are various PTA events every year that are specific to the grades... for example, 8th grade has a career day that PTA puts on.
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Post by anonrefugee on Sept 29, 2015 14:26:57 GMT
Ours attempted an informal weekly soccer game night with hot dogs and light meals. It's not an official school sport until highschool.
The thought was it would pull some families and kids not normally active. Admin blatantly said they were trying to woo a specific demographic (don't blame me). Instead it drew the same old crowd, and those playing expensive club sports trying to be noticed for highschool.
It brought in crowds, but not the crowd they hoped.
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Post by JustCallMeMommy on Sept 29, 2015 14:57:40 GMT
The big activity that the middle school PTO hosts is all done in one day. It involves carnival games, a teacher competition (powder puff football this year), talent show, performances by various school groups, etc.
For the most part, I think parents are pulled in through their child's activities. I'm at the school for band nights, choir nights, Jr. Beta club activities, and football games when my rotation in the concession stand comes up as a band parent. Other parents are at all the sports stuff because that is what their child does. I also help with smaller PTO activities like quarterly lunches for the teachers. I think making sure you have a diverse set of extracurricular activities would be key to more parent involvement.
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Post by **Angie** on Sept 29, 2015 16:39:18 GMT
I am a little confused about what the competition would be for? Competing events that the community wouldn't attend? I guess I am thinking that schools are kind of insulated... parents and kids attend events at their own school so why does it matter if the neighboring school has a similar event? We have four middle schools within ten square miles (there's actually five in our county, but it's way out in the country). There's a lot of emphasis placed on the other three middle schools - one is almost new and has all kinds of "fancy" stuff, the other two are affiliated with the University/hospitals/Mylan and have a larger per capita parental income than ours. We're in a lower income area and not affiliated with a big business.
Unfortunately, image is everything around here, and competition is huge. People lie to the county to get their kids into the other schools. I know of three families that let their kids live with the grandparents during the week so they can go to one of the other schools. We want to improve our image with the public and some feel that if we do the same event as another middle school, and don't do it as well, it hurts our image.
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