Friends of the School
October 2026
Half-Term Holidays Already
Somehow, it’s the half-term holidays already, and what a busy half-term it’s been for Friends. Here’s what’s been going on this month.
First up, we had the Friends AGM, which took place on 1st October. A huge thank you to the Printworks for hosting us, and to everyone who attended. We needed 10 people to be present for the meeting to go ahead, and we were fortunately able to achieve that number, meaning that we were able to establish our committee for the forthcoming year. Following voting at the meeting, we’re pleased to report that Kirsty Hudson has retained her position as Chair, with Dani Rayner and Megan Pollard also staying on as Treasurer and Secretary, respectively. In addition, we are delighted that Samantha Clark and Jade Griffiths will be continuing as co-opted committee members. At this meeting, we also formally said goodbye to Kim Newman, who stepped down from her role as vice-chair earlier in the year. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Kim for all of her hard work and we hope to continue seeing her at events in the future.
The AGM was quickly followed by our planning meeting, where we set out our calendar of events for the year. There’s certainly a lot to look forward to, but some of the key highlights that you might want to save the date for include the school Christmas fayre taking place on 11th December, the Big Build on 18th January, a Traitors experience on 4th February, a car boot sale on 23rd May and our summer event on 25th June. Please look out for our posters around the village for more details in the run-up to these events.
After the planning meeting, we rounded-off October with our annual Halloween disco. This spooky event is always a popular one with the children, and this year was no exception. There was a fabulous array of costumes on display, with some kids really going the extra mile to look truly spooktacular as they danced the night away. A big thank you to Sam (one of our wonderful committee members), who was once again our DJ for the night and did a wonderful job keeping all of the children engaged and entertained. Thank you as well to all of the teachers at the school who helped supervise the event and all of the parents who volunteered their time to help on the door/tuck shop/temporary tattoo stall. It was truly a team effort and with your help, we were able to raise a fantastic £1457.03 for the school, so we can’t thank you enough.
Looking ahead, we will be kicking off November by taking orders for customised Lego brick keyrings through our Fab Bricks fundraiser. If you know someone who loves Lego and would perhaps like a customised Lego brick keyring for Christmas, now is the perfect opportunity. Order forms will be handed out to all children at the school on 2nd November, but if you do not have a child at the school and would be interested in placing an order, you can do this online at https://linktr.ee/friendsofpendragon. The keyrings cost just £3.25 and £1 of that goes directly to the school. They would be perfect for identifying different sets of keys or as totes for school/book bags, so do please place an order and help us raise some much-needed funds. All orders must be made online by 5pm on Friday 13th November and will be ready for collection from the school office early December.
Finally, please come along to our Christmas fayre, taking place from 3:30-4:30 on Friday 11th December. We’re still working out all the details, but there’ll definitely be games stalls, a tombola, stalls selling cakes, sweets, Christmas decorations and hot chocolate, and the man in red himself might even make an appearance. We can’t wait to see you there!
If you’d like to know more about Friends or have any questions for us, feel free to get in touch at Friends@pendragon.cambs.sch.uk. We’re always on the lookout for new committee members and extra volunteers (you don’t need to have a child at the school), so if you have any time to give and you’d like to help us support the school then let us know.
September 2026
School Summer Holidays
Just Flew By
Well the summer holidays flew by and it was straight back to business as usual for Friends. Here’s what we’ve been up to this month.
After our disappointment at the end of the last academic year, we had no choice but to hit the ground running this September with the postponed Summer Event taking place just a week into term. Despite everyone being a bit frazzled after the first full week back and us facing a number of unexpected set-backs in the days running up to the event, we’re please to say that it was a roaring success! The weather was kind (which was a massive relief for all of us) and we had a fantastic turn-out, giving the event a real summer vibe, even it was technically autumn. It’s taken a while to count everything up, but we’re now pleased to report that this event raised an incredible £1443.63 for the school, which will go a long way to meeting our usual spending commitments for the year ahead.
As the Summer Event is our biggest event of the year, there are always a huge number of people that we need to thank. First up, a massive thank you to all of the volunteers who helped to set up, clear up or man the Friends stalls during the event. An event like this is always a huge team effort and we couldn’t have done it without you. Our thanks also go to the Scouts for running a fantastic BBQ as always, and Steve Fenton for organising the fabulous sound system. Thank you as well to Hot Steps Dance academy for their incredible dance performances, and to VJ from Unboxed Fitness for her help in setting up and running the obstacle course. Thank you to all of the outside stall-holders who came along to sell their goods, including the wonderful company that supplied the very popular bouncy castles. And of course, we have to thank all of the teachers at the school for organising and manning the class games/stalls for the evening – I’m sure staying so late at the end of a very long week wouldn’t have been your first choice of activity, so we really do appreciate the effort.
Looking ahead, our next key event will be the Friends AGM. This was originally going to be held at the school on Thursday 24th September, but we recently found out that this clashed with an open evening at Swavesey village college. In order to ensure that year 6 parents had the opportunity to attend, the decision was made to delay the AGM until Thursday 1st October. In addition, due to difficulties connecting to the WiFi at school, the venue for the meeting was changed to the Printworks to allow people to connect to the meeting online if required. We look forward to reporting on the outcome of the AGM in the next issue.
Finally, for parents at the school, just a quick reminder that our second-hand uniform store is now up and running. Head to our Facebook page for the link to the online catalogue and then drop us an email at friends@pendragon.cambs.sch.uk stating the item numbers of the things that you’d like to buy and we’ll be in touch.
If you’d like to know more about Friends or have any questions for us, feel free to get in touch at Friends@pendragon.cambs.sch.uk. We’re always on the lookout for new committee members and extra volunteers (you don’t need to have a child at the school), so if you have any time to give and you’d like to help us support the school then let us know.
