PTA Spotlight on… Father’s Day

Okay so it may be several months away (Sunday 18^th June 2017 FYI), but a little forward planning never hurt, right?

So, with 9 weeks to go, now is a great time to start thinking about what your PTA could do to celebrate the male role models in your children’s lives.

Whether it is a dad, step-dad, grandfather, uncle, brother or family friend, there are plenty of ways that the kids at your school can show their appreciation.

Sometimes it’s nice to let children pick their own gifts to give, but this isn’t always easy for mums to facilitate.

Your PTA can come to the rescue by running your own Father’s Day shops with gift wrapping service included too! While there are companies that provide gifts to sell, you could hit some of the discount stores in your town and buy in bulk. A set price per gift works well and small markups on your initial cost can quickly generate a small profit.

Check out how busy the pop-up shop is at St Doms school:

The kids at High Ham school had the opportunity to make a tool box and fill it with Dad-treats for their Father figures at their Father’s Day shop

This is a popular event in the US. Fire up the urn and offer hot drinks, cold drinks and a selection of fresh, delicious donuts to all dads doing the school run on the last Friday before Father’s Day.

Or why not combine it with a coffee morning like Sherrier Primary school?:

We all know the importance of reading with our kids, but sometimes dads miss out thanks to long hours at work or time spent commuting.

Gables Montessori held a reading session where dads, grandads and more had the opportunity to go in and share stories with the children:

Now we know it’s a cliché, but you simply can’t beat a good old fashioned handmade card. So good, that it is cherished for many years!

There are dozens of card-making ideas as well as other awesome crafts on our Father’s Day Pinterest board.

We love the way these scrabble letters have been used:

Handprints and fingerprints are always firm favourites and can be used in lots of different ways too:

BBQ events go down a storm for any event. Why not hold a beer and bbq event after school one evening, or on Father’s Day itself?

Charge a nominal entry fee per person and/or give each dad vouchers for a couple of burgers/hotdogs and a bottle of beer.

Charge for extra food and drinks to cover your costs or ramp up your profit (don’t forget if you want to see alcohol you will need a licence from your local authority).

You could make this adult only, or one for the whole family to enjoy.

Check out some of these successful BBQ events we’ve seen!

Nailsea school PTA busy flipping burgers:

Big smiles all round at Corpus Christi School

For something a little different, why not organise a dads’ night out to somewhere fun and local. There are loads of different activities that they could take part in. Are they up to the challenge of paintballing?

Or how about a trip to a local dog racing track for them to try their luck?

Zorbing looks like great fun, but perhaps not for the faint-hearted!

Or you could organise a coach to take them all to a local brewery for a beer-tasting event. The only limit is your imagination!

So many PTAs we talk to have ZERO men on the PTA committee (except for some who have a male chairperson – and suddenly manage to sign up lots of Dad helpers!)

Showing your appreciation for the Dads through fun PTA events might inspire some more of the menfolk to step up – so don’t forget to pitch for new recruits at the end of each event.

So… guess who’s Dad was on the PTA?!

We’d love to hear what your PTA has in store for this Father’s Day, so whether you’ve used our suggestions or done something entirely different, we would love for you to share your success with us! Email us , tweet us or get in touch via our Facebook page.

PTAsocial makes organising events super-easy and inclusive by allowing volunteers to pick out a specific, manageable task. It’s completely free, so just start an account for your school right now in 2 minutes.