Increasingly, PTAs are getting creative about where they hold events, scoping out village halls, faith-based venues, community centres, theatres, concert halls, cafés, bars and even farmland for hire.
‘Doing something outside of the school can make it a more fun experience for the children and the parents – a way to break free of the day-to-day routine,’ says Charlotte Sherman, policy manager at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising and a former event manager.
For friends and family, spending the evening at a professional venue is also a more attractive prospect, and one they are willing to pay a little more for. You may find it’s also an easier sell to the wider community, as it’s less obvious that your event is run by a PTA or school.
On the flip side, you will need to take venue hire costs into account. Charlotte recommends trying to negotiate a discount with a local venue, and building an ongoing relationship with them.
‘If you’ve got well-connected parents on the PTA, they could negotiate a deal with, say, a local hotel, theatre, stadium or sports centre. If you start off with a small event, you never know–that might grow into further fundraising or sponsorship opportunities later down the line.’
But there are additional considerations that come into play when using external venues. Top of the list is inclusivity, which applies to travel as well as ticket costs.
‘Think very carefully about what your community can afford, and then build from there,’ Charlotte says. ‘You could do a quick survey of parents on SurveyMonkey, asking what they’d be able to pay.’
Safeguarding is another key consideration. ‘With off-site venues, you have less control about who’s accessing the event. What do you do if somebody’s hanging around but you’re not sure if they’re associated with a child at the event?
‘The most important thing is that any volunteers or staff members on site are aware of that risk, and you have a clear plan on how to handle it. It could be as simple as having a chat with the person and saying: “Hi, what’s brought you here?”’
When picking a venue, think about how easy it will be to keep track of young attendees. ‘Loos come up a lot because that’s somewhere everybody goes, and nobody really monitors them,’ says Charlotte.
It’s also important to stress that it’s the responsibility of parents to look after the safety of their child, however. ‘Make sure that’s clear across your messaging and that all of your waivers are up to date. Event managers, especially if they’re volunteers, can’t be everywhere.’
‘We got around our school disco ban by taking it off-site’
After Covid our school size increased considerably. The school freaked out and said no more discos.
But we really wanted to resurrect the Halloween disco, so we went around all the local halls until we found one that would host us. They were very welcoming and gave us a 10% charity discount.
There was some kick-back from parents about having to drive to the venue, but it was opposite an Asda, so it had free parking.
It cost £400 to hire for two nights. We did worry whether we would make our money back, but we ended up making £2,000 profit. We charged £4 a ticket and included glow sticks and a drink in the price.
The best thing about using an outside venue is you can do what you want – there’s no watching what you do. An outside caterer came in to do pizzas, and we used the hall’s kitchen to make hotdogs. We didn’t have to rush to tidy up because there wasn’t a teacher waiting for us, desperate to go home.
Nat McCallum is chair of Bursted Wood PTA in Bexleyheath (630 pupils)
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