Friends Of Old Basing Schools - FOOBS

👆WE NEED YOU! 👆

It’s that time of year again when we need to ask for your amazing help! The Summer Fair is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and it is solely run by volunteers. Without the support of our incredible parents and school families, it simply wouldn’t be possible! 🎪🍿

Can you spare just 30 minutes? ⏱️
We are asking if you, your family, or friends could volunteer a short chunk of time to help run your child's class-allocated stall.

💻 HOW TO SIGN UP
To make things as easy as possible, we are using an online sign-up process again this year.
⚠️ Please note: Each class has its own separate link, so please refer to your ParentMail to find the correct sign-up sheet for your child's class! 📲
🗓️ Deadline: June 25th

🎈 Want to do even more?
If your class slot is already full but you’d still love to help, or if you fancy helping out with the heavy lifting during set-up or clear-up, we would absolutely love to hear from you
📧 Please drop us a line at: [email protected]

Thank you so much in advance for your incredible support.

☀️ SUMMER FAIR 2026! ☀️

The countdown to our biggest event of the year is officially ON! 🎪✨ Join us for a fantastic afternoon of family fun, food, and community spirit to raise vital funds for our schools.

📅 Sunday 5th July 2026
🕛 12:00pm – 3:00pm
📍 St Mary’s CE Junior School

WHAT’S IN STORE?
🏰 Inflatables, games, & classic favourites like Splat the Rat!
🛍️ A wide variety of stalls to explore.
🍔 Bar, BBQ, and refreshments.

🎟️ TICKETS
Skip the queues and buy in advance! Online sales close at 8:00pm on Friday 3rd July (tickets also available on the gate).
Adults: £2
Children: FREE (no ticket required!)
👉 Buy yours here: https://foobs.weebly.com/

🐾 Please note: As the fair is on school grounds, no dogs are permitted. See you there! 🎈

✨ It’s Pick a Jar Week! ✨

One of the most popular stalls at our upcoming school fair is back, and we need your help to make it a success! The Pick a Jar Collection is running all next week—from Monday, June 8th to Friday, June 12th.

This fan-favorite activity relies entirely on the amazing generosity of our parents and caregivers. It’s the perfect weekend project to do with the kids!

📝 How It Works:
1 Find some empty, clean jars.
2 Fill them with fun, kid-friendly goodies.
3 Drop them off at either school during this coming week.

💡 Fill Inspiration:
Think about what your little ones would love to win! In the past, we've seen fantastic jars filled with:
🍬 Sweets & wrapped treats
🎨 Crayons, pens, and mini stationery
🧸 Toy soldiers and small figurines
🦄 Stickers and temporary tattoos

⚠️ A Few Important Rules:
🙅 No Chocolate, Please! It melts in the sun and gets messy, so please skip the chocolate items.
🗓️ Check those dates: If you are using food or sweets, please make sure they are well within their expiry date.
✨ New or gently preloved items only.

Thank you so much for your continued support - we can't wait to see what you create!

🌟 HAPPY ! 🌟

This week is all about celebrating the absolute superstars who make F.O.O.B.S. what it is: our incredible volunteers! 🙌✨

Behind every event, there’s a team of parents giving their time and enthusiasm. Thanks to them, we can fundraise for additional resources for our kids at both Old Basing Infants and St Mary’s Junior School. We quite literally couldn't do it without them! ❤️

Why join the F.O.O.B.S. team?

⏰ It’s flexible: Give an hour a term or an hour a week—every bit helps!

👥 It’s social: It’s a fantastic way to meet other parents and make friends.

🏫 It makes a difference: You see the direct impact on your child's school.

We are always looking for fresh ideas and new faces. If you’ve ever thought about helping out, we’d love to hear from you! 🥰

📩 Drop us a DM or email us at [email protected] to find out more.

💪

Just a reminder that it's a non-uniform day at both schools on Thursday 21st May!

In return for wearing non-uniform, we’re asking for prizes for our Summer Fair Tombolas and Have You Got the Bottle stall (or a monetary donation so we can buy them). We need things people actually want to win so any unwanted or unopened gifts would be greatly appreciated.

Here’s what has been donated previously:
• Adult Tombola: Gift sets, toiletry sets, candles, journals, games, books, mugs, and food items like nice biscuits or chocolates.
• Children’s Tombola: Toys, games, water bottles, and kids' toiletry sets.
• Have You Got the Bottle Stall: Any bottles! Toiletries, alcoholic, or non-alcoholic drinks.

⚠️ Please check expiration dates on all food and drink donations. ⚠️

Thank you for your support!

🛍️ HappySchoolBag will be collecting again from Old Basing Infants on Friday 17th April. So, here’s your opportunity to have a big clear out over the Easter holidays!

Collection dates:
Thursday 16th April between 5pm-8pm – at 2 local addresses to be supplied nearer the time
Friday 17th April 8:15-9am at Old Basing Infant School and Royal British Legion carpark

In addition to raising funds for F.O.O.B.S. this also raises awareness amongst the children of the benefits of recycling and reuse. Happy School Bag works in partnership with schools to help us raise funds by collecting and selling your unwanted textiles to the second-hand market industry. These items are exported to various countries worldwide, where thrift markets flourish, providing affordable clothing to disadvantaged individuals and vintage clothing enthusiasts alike.

Please see details about what can and can't be donated here https://www.happyschoolbag.co.uk/what-we-collect/

School uniform – if you have any uniform to donate for either of the schools, please keep it separate and ensure the bags are labelled as uniform if being donated at the same time. This is to ensure it doesn’t get mixed in with the Happy School Bag items. Please note: we do not accept any white t-shirts/shirts or small sized infant school jumpers/ cardigans with the old logo.

🐣 Thank you to everyone who joined us at the Easter Fair last weekend, we had an egg-cellent time 🐣

A MASSIVE THANK YOU to everyone who baked, and provided cakes to sell, we couldn’t host these events without you!

All the winners of the different competitions have now been contacted. The winning info for each is as follows:

🎂 Guess the weight of the cake
The weight was 3,345kg
The winner guessed 3.2kg

🍫 Chocolates in a jar
There were 156 chocolates in our jar
The winner guessed 150 🤩
(3 people all guessed 150x so we pulled names out of a hat to decide the winner)

All the guessed names for the chicks and the bunny were added to a hat and drawn out at random.
🐤 Name the Chick in Session 1 - the chick’s name drawn was Becky
🐰 Name the Bunny in Session 2 - the bunny’s name drawn was Glitter

🐥 Find the Chick - The location of the chick for each session was drawn from a hat and the relevant winners from both sessions have been contacted

Thank you again to everyone who came on Saturday, we loved having you and hoped you had fun. We even managed to book the sun for the day ☀️

From your F.O.O.B.S. committee and special guest, The Easter Bunny 🐰

We are very excited that the F.O.O.B.S. Easter Fair is now just a few days away! Calling all cake bakers!!

Donations of cakes, baked or bought, will be gratefully received. If you can provide any 'free from' cakes, this would also be appreciated as we have a number of children who have allergies. Please avoid any nuts or nut-based ingredients. If the baked goods are homemade, please include a list of ingredients for those with allergies.

Cake donations can be dropped at the Infant School on Friday 20th March or please simply bring to the event itself when you arrive.

🍫 Chocolate Tombola
‼️ WE NEED YOUR HELP

The deadline for donations to the Chocolate Tombola for the Easter Fair is on Friday this week.
The kids love playing on this Tombola for their chance to win an Easter egg, so F.O.O.B.S. really do appreciate your support with this and we would be grateful for your donations.

We need your help please with donations of chocolate for the Chocolate Tombola and the refreshments stall at our Easter Fair!

🍫 Chocolate Tombola Donations!
One of the children’s favourite stalls at the Easter Fair is the Chocolate Tombola – but we can’t do this without your help! We would be very grateful for donations of any chocolate (Easter egg donations are particularly gratefully received, but any chocolate is fine!) for the Chocolate Tombola. The more donations we receive, the bigger your chance of winning!
If you can, please, please add an Easter egg to your next weekly shop and bring it into school between Wednesday 4th and Friday 13th March.

🍰 We would also be very grateful for donations of cakes for our refreshments stall - home baked or purchased. These can be dropped at the Infant School on Friday 20th March or simply bring to the event itself when you arrive (please avoid any nuts or nut-based ingredients)