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school fair

children holding canyfloss in front of faces at a school summer fair

The schools inspiring virtual events and fundraising trends

by Rosie Hurwitz June 1, 2021

With Covid-19 continuing to make real life school events pretty impossible this year, it’s not just kids that will miss out on the fun. Cancelled events mean already cash-strapped schools will also miss out on the biggest fund-raising events of the year. The solution? Virtual school events!

Never-to-be-defeated Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) across the country began using Patchwork last summer to organise their virtual school fairs. They included games, activities, competitions and donations. Their imagination and creativity means families can take part at home and donate much-needed funds online at the same time. Here at Patchwork we love seeing how people use the site in different ways. We’ve listened and responded by creating some easy to customise templates so that other schools can set up virtual events super easily too!

Kate Frood, Head Teacher at Eleanor Palmer School in North London told us “Covid 19 has meant a loss of about £10,000 of fund-raising from our usual array of PTA events, from weekly cake sales to our Summer Festival. This at a time when we have additional expenditures such as the installation of outdoor hand-washing troughs and buying new IT equipment. It was so easy to build the Patchwork page and our virtual school fair looks instantly engaging and attractive. We’ve been able to put together a fun mix of real events and ways of simply donating. It has really captured all our imaginations and we’ve managed to re-create that wonderful community spirit.”

Patchwork allows you to share the plan for a virtual school event and parents and children can choose the things they’d like to fund, make and do. Fundraising activities could include £3 to enter a virtual pet show, £10 for a strip of raffle tickets or £1.50 to name the teddy!

Virtual School Summer Fair Patchwork in iPad

Why host a virtual school event?

A safe way to connect online – to have fun and bring the school community together
Not limited by location or logistics – easy and affordable for schools to host digital events
No mess for PTAs to clean up – families partake in activities in their own homes/gardens
No hassle or infection risk collecting cash – schools receive funds securely via Paypal or into a bank
Fundraising not limited to one day – digital event means donations can keep rolling in!

Jennie Potts of Tufnell Park School PTA says “The pandemic halted our fundraising in its tracks. We were due to hold a bingo night and an annual fun run in the school that we were unable to hold, along with the school summer fair. As well as not feeling we wanted to ask parents for money in the current climate, we have felt we should not be approaching local businesses for donations of raffle prizes, as they are struggling to keep afloat too. The setting up of the virtual fair allows those parents who have remained in work to donate if they feel this is something they would like to do. The feedback we’ve had about our virtual summer fair has been really positive. We’re making money for the school again when we’d assumed it wouldn’t be possible this summer. Patchwork was so easy to use and there was even a school fair template.”

Patchwork Founder Olivia Knight says “Patchwork has always been a brilliant tool to help people organize and fund gifts and events, but it’s really come into its own in the past year, as virtual events have become the norm. We’re really pleased and proud to be able to support our brilliant schools as they adapt and show such amazing resilience in these tough and testing times.”

If you’d like to learn more about how Patchwork can help your school raise funds safely, contact us at [email protected]. Check out our selection of readymade fundraising templates and ask us about our schools affiliate partner programme to earn extra funds for your PTA when you and your school community use Patchwork!

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Child hanging decorations for virtual school Christmas fair

Patchwork Kids Schools and community

How to organise the best ever virtual school Christmas fair!

by Rosie Hurwitz October 1, 2020

written by Rosie Hurwitz

It’s that time of year when Christmas fair planning and fundraising for schools is in full swing. And whether that means getting together irl or setting something up online, we can help you out. We’ve been thrilled to see so many creative school communities and PTAs use Patchwork to set up brilliant virtual Christmas fairs. You can join them and bring a bit of sparkle and fun to families for Christmas. And raise money for your school too – of course!

Savvy schools and PTAs began using our site over the summer to set up virtual events, and now with winter around the corner, they’ve discovered a virtual school Christmas fair works brilliantly too.

Why organise a virtual school Christmas fair?

It’s a really easy, colourful and engaging way to celebrate the Christmas season safely; in a way that’s fun for families and raises essential funds for your school too. With Patchwork, you can set up a virtual fair – where each “patch” represents a stall or activity. Whether it’s a competition or a game, items to purchase, a request for donations, or just some fun ideas for the kids to do at home, everyone can take part – no matter how much or little they have to contribute.

Payments are collected securely through the site via Stripe and go direct to your PTA or school account. Also, because this is a virtual event, the Christmas fair isn’t just limited to one day – you can keep the page open for a few weeks to maximise donations and give everyone a chance to join in the fun.

Oh and maybe the best news of all – there’s no need to rope parent volunteers in to get up early on a Saturday to set up, or stay behind to clear up all that cake and glitter! A virtual fair means no mess, so you can put your feet up and enjoy a mince pie and a mulled wine and watch the funds roll in.

How will my virtual fair look?

Virtual school Christmas fair displayed in ipad

A Patchwork virtual fair works so well because the page is extremely visual, inviting and easy to use. The only limit is your imagination, so you can really make it look and feel festive with Christmassy images and plenty of colour, glitter and sparkle.

How does a virtual fair work?

As visitors scroll over the virtual fair patches, they will see how much each activity or item costs, and they can add patches to their basket, adjusting quantities if necessary, leave a message if they need to communicate any information to you, and then pay securely via credit / debit card.

How do I set up a virtual Christmas event page?

It takes just minutes to setup your school’s virtual Christmas Fair page, and we even have a readymade template that you can easily customise and edit to suit your event. Visitors don’t need a password or an account to visit your page – you just send them your unique URL and they’ll arrive directly at your virtual fair, ready to start taking part!

We recommend including a variety of patches, so some might be games or activities that the kids can take part in – (perhaps you can offer the winner a small prize or certificate). Some patches represent items that you are selling. You could see if any parents make Christmas wreaths or facemasks for example, or you might have some stock of school water bottles to sell. It’s also good to include things that don’t cost money – for some this has been an especially tough year, and Christmas puts an extra strain on budgets. Perhaps you can run a Christmas art competition, or ask the kids to send in pics of their festively decorated homes or gardens? Conversely, there are also some families who do want to donate but don’t have much spare time. So, it’s a good idea to include a patch or two that are straightforward donations – you can be quite specific about what the fundraising is for – maybe the Head has requested funds for new books for the library, or some new laptops or other tech.

Children playing on laptop on virtual Christmas fair page

Christmas stollen loaf on a baking tray with knife placed on side

What kinds of activities can I have at our virtual Christmas Fair?

It’s been really fun to see the kinds of things schools have been adding to their virtual Christmas Fair pages – some of our favourite easy-to-organise ideas are here:

Festive pet show – Kids pay a small fee via the page to enter and email entries to the PTA team for judging!
Christmas bake-off – For a small entry fee via the page, kids can cook up some Christmas themed cakes or biscuits and send photos to the PTA team who will award the bake off crown!
Guess the name of the reindeer – (or the number of decorations on the tree) – upload a photo of a Christmas stuffed toy, or a decorated tree and ask the children to play guess – for a small fee of course!
Dare a teacher – get the children to pay to vote for the teacher they’d like to see do something silly – maybe get dressed up as an elf or try and eat three mince pies in under a minute. The teacher with the most votes (or highest donations!) has to do the dare.
Win a mystery prize / enter the bottle tombola – for a small entry fee, children are entered in to a mystery prize draw or the bottle tombola.
Deck the halls – perhaps this could be a free of charge activity, to make sure everyone can take part. Ask children to click this patch to say they’ll decorate a corner of their home and make it look really festive – then they can send their entries via email for judging.
Sell items from local businesses or crafty parents – if you have parents who can sew, bake or make something, or know a local business happy to supply, you can sell items via the page for a bit of variety and great fund raising potential!
Ask for cash donations for your school’s wish list – for parents who want to donate but don’t have much time, add a patch that’s purely monetary. Maybe £5 towards some new books, or £20 towards some new tech equipment. Don’t forget all cash goes direct to the PTA to spend as you need!
Christmas doorstep portaits – Families can book and pay via the site and then you’ll need to recruit a willing photographer parent to donate their time to do doorstep portraits – Christmas themed ones can be really fun!
Make your own jolly jar – this is possibly the most popular stall at the traditional Christmas fair! Of course this year it has a twist. For a small fee, get the kids to enter a competition to make their own magnificent jolly jar at home, decorate it and then send in a pic so the winner can be chosen! Then they get to eat their own jolly jar treats, making it a risk free, easy and very popular fundraiser that the kids will love!

Editing item on a virtual school Christmas fair patchwork

Mother and daughter on laptop setting up virtual school Christmas fair

How much work is it to set up?

Setting up a page is simple and you don’t need any tech know how – anyone can do it! The Patchwork platform is very intuitive so it’s unlikely you’ll need assistance, but if you do we are a friendly team and are always on hand to help. You’ll need to sign up with a few details to create an account, once you’re happy with your page you can link it with Stripe, create your own URL to share and then it’s ready to go live! If you want to add or delete patches, change the text or images, or indeed make any other changes to the page you can continue to edit it even after publishing. You can also add a collaborator if other PTA members would like to get involved too. One thing’s for sure – a virtual Christmas Fair is a whole lot less work than a real one – and yet still a great way to raise money, and get a bit of that school community feeling back – albeit digitally for the time being!

Editing the virtual Christmas fair patchwork

How will I keep track of activity on my virtual fair page?

In your Patchwork account you’ll be able to view and edit your page, and also see who has contributed to what. So you can manage payments in, see how many orders there are against each patch, and send messages or thanks to parents for their help in making the event a success. You can easily export all data from your account in to an excel spreadsheet to make post event admin manageable.

How does Patchwork make money?

We usually charge a 3.6% commission for our service, but we have made a commitment to support support schools and families, especially during this difficult time. When a school signs up to be a Patchwork School Partner you’ll receive not only a 50% reductio in our usual fee, but the chance to earn commission throughout the year by referring parents to us for their own gifts and occasions. Read more here about the Patchwork School affiliate programme and join hundreds of other happy schools using Patchwork for their PTA and fundraising events. Please note that Stripe charge their own small commissions to process your payments. You can read more about how these charges are calculated here.

three tiny snow covered fir tree decorations

We hope this has helped inspire you to set up your own virtual Christmas fair page! Don’t forget to check out our win-win School Partner offer, and let us know how your event goes by following and tagging us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter! If you need to get in touch please do drop us a line at [email protected]

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Patchwork Kids Schools and community

Organise the Best Virtual School Summer Fair

by Rosie Hurwitz June 26, 2020

written by Rosie Hurwitz

Not to be defeated by lockdown, PTAs are using Patchwork to organise brilliant virtual school fairs. The kids can still join in the fun and raise vital funds for their schools. You can too! It’s super easy and you can have a brilliant virtual summer fair page set up in minutes. With competitions to enter, cakes to be made, Pimms to be drunk and games to be played. It’s guaranteed to be lots of fun (at home) this year, You can also raise lots of funds for your amazing school!
The best news? There’s no setting up or sweeping up mountains of cake crumbs and glitter afterwards.. WINNER!!!!

How can I organise a virtual school summer fair?

It’s that time of year – the kids are usually gearing themselves up for the overdose of sugar, sunshine and excitement that always comes in the form of the summer school fair. It’s also the biggest fundraising event for most schools across the country.
This year is a bit different of course with Covid-19 dashing hopes of putting on the usual crowd-drawing events. However, Patchwork can help! You can organise a brilliant, fun, and most of all profitable school fair. This will also be a lot less work than usual!
Yes, that’s right, you can organise your school fair virtually. In reality, this means families can host their own “school fair” in their homes or back gardens. They can donate funds to your school via your online Patchwork page.

It’s super simple. Here’s how:

How can I set up a virtual school fair Patchwork page?

Set up your virtual summer fair Patchwork page in minutes by using our readymade template. Next edit the template with your school details and date.
You can add or delete patches, add your own images or use our gorgeous photo gallery. It’s easy to edit prices, and add patches so that people can “fund” “make” or “do” things that will make the fair a huge success. Patches can be rearranged and resized, and it’s so easy even a technophobe can do it. You can be as creative as you want – so have a play!

How to raise funds at a virtual school fair

Fundraising is super simple with a Patchwork virtual summer fair page. Just link your page with your school’s bank account via Stripe, our card processing partner. Stripe allows parents to donate easily and securely via a debit or credit card.
Details of all contributions are stored in your account. You can see who’s doing what, generate post-fair reports and calculate revenue.

People can also leave messages on the page sharing what they are doing to support the fair or just letting you know they will take part! It’s a great way to build that community spirit again and get everyone together, albeit virtually for now!

Ideas for a virtual school fair

A virtual bake off: Charge a small entry fee, ask entrants to bake their masterpiece on or before the day of the fair, then email photos of their cake, and a description of it for a virtual bake off competition!

A pet show: Get the pet owning families to send in pics of their furry friends for a small entry fee and judge the cutest / fluffiest entrants!

A doorstep family photo competition – keep it simple with some rules or themes. “Dress as your superheroes”, or “wear your school colours” are easy ways to do this, and it’s one the whole family can join in.

Name the teddy: Ask the children to guess the name of a soft toy for a small charge (put a photo of the toy on one of the patches) and pick the winner after the fair. The winner gets the teddy!

child playing summer fair games in garden

Games to play at a virtual school fair

Encourage parents and carers to get involved by setting up a hot dog or pizza stall at home, or a lemonade and Pimms bar. They can get the kids to design posters, decorate the space indoors or out, and play some summer party tunes to get in the mood.

If they have paddling pools or a trampoline, make these part of the fair too. Face painting, jolly jars, a make your own burger stall, tin can alley, egg and spoon race, beat the goalie, guess the name of the teddy, soak the teacher (or this year, soak the grown-up!) are all great ideas for summer fair games. Then give the kids some pocket money so they can recreate that summer fair experience at home, have lots of fun and raise money for your school at the same time!!

If you’ve been inspired to set up a page for your school check out our easy to customise template. Next, link your payment details and share the URL of your page direct with your school families so that they can start preparing and donating! Then sit back, enjoy a Pimms and watch the funds roll in! Let us know how your goes by sharing pics with us on Twitter – using #virtualsummerfair and don’t forget to follow us on FB and Insta too.

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