WELCOME ABOARD! We are all part of this wonderful school community and you don’t have to be on the committee to count yourself part of the Friends of Morley, because when your children join the school, you automatically become members of the school association.

All of the committee members are parents who currently have children at Morley. However, parents, as well as relatives and members of the local community are welcome to join us.

Current Committee Membership:

• Chair: Harriet Pike
• Secretary: Lisa Hellier
• Treasurer: Martin Dwyer
• Class Parent Coordinator: Rebecca Sims Williams
• Members: Farrhat Arshad, Rinchen Ato, Olivier Bays, Flora Daley, Martin Dwyer, Pamela Galliard, Maggie Luff & Rebecca Sims Williams

What the Governors Say

How the Friends of Morley Support the Learning Journey

When our children begin primary school, they take their first steps on a learning journey that will have a significant impact on the rest of their lives and the choices that they will have available to them in future.  At Morley we aim to help all our children reach their full potential to give them the widest choices in life, so that they may go on to enrich the communities in which they live and work and have the best chance of being happy, healthy, fulfilled members of their families, communities and wider society.

1. Friends volunteer in the classrooms, from undertaking regular individual reading with children and accompanying school trips, to teaching taster sessions in Mandarin.  Adults and children alike enjoy and benefit from these activities as they widen the children’s educational experiences, help them to progress by supporting their group learning and encourage them to explore each subject in greater depth.
2. The other very important contribution from the Friends is fundraising.  Morley, like all state-funded schools, has a limited state budget and our Victorian buildings have limitations for modern teaching methods and are expensive to maintain.  The school staff and governors steward its resources carefully and also try to maximise the income that the school can receive from hiring out facilities such as the Community Room, whilst also meeting its community remit.  The Friends try to support our staff by reducing some of the resource and facilities pressures so that they can concentrate on what they do so well – supporting each and every one of our children as they discover the world and translate that into the skills and understanding that children need to do well in life.  In recent years funds raised by the Friends have paid for two trolleys of laptop computers that can be moved from class to class as needed, new play equipment for the Early Years and Key Stage 1 classes and refurbished the school library.

To do this we work as a team of Staff, Friends of Morley (who include parents, carers, grandparents, other people significant in the family life of our children and staff) and Governors.  We are proud of the results that we achieve.  Children from Morley go on to secondary level study at a wide range of schools, including Netherhall, Coleridge Community College, Parkside, the Perse , St Bede’s, Sawston and Impington Village Colleges.  Our results show that we successfully support all our children, whether they face particular learning challenges, are making the progress expected for their age-group, or show special talents – they are all encouraged and nurtured so that they make the best progress that they can.

As Governors, we are fortunate to have the invaluable support of the Friends of Morley, whose contributions to the school take a number of forms.

The Board of Governors is pleased and grateful to have the volunteer and financial support of the Friends of Morley to enable the school to provide experiences and resources to support the children’s learning in ways that would otherwise be extremely difficult, or impossible.  Having the Friends of Morley as part of the school community enriches the learning opportunities and outcomes for all children at the school.

The small print: The Friends of Morley is a Registered Charity, known as Morley Memorial Primary School Association, registered charity number 1043583.

The Charities Act 1993 requires organisations such as ours with an annual income in excess of £1,000 to register with the Charity Commission. We abide by Charity Commission rules and regulations and are bound by a constitution, which sets out rules about how we operate and how we conduct ourselves. A full copy can be obtained from the Treasurer.

Being a Registered Charity gives us lots of benefits:

1. We are able to apply for Gift Aid, which can earn us an extra £2.50 in every £10 donated, out of earned income
2. We can raise funds more easily from grant giving trusts, local businesses etc
3. We can take advantage of charity matched giving schemes