Dear Parents and Carers,
We have arrived at the end of another academic year. Time does fly! Summer holidays are just in sight.
To close the year we wanted to express our deepest gratitude to everyone at Manby Lodge Infant School who have helped us this academic year to raise an incredible record breaking £34,000!
Every parent and carer automatically becomes part of Friends of Manby Lodge at the beginning of their school journey in Reception.
From this amazing community we have been able to fundraise this fantastic amount which comes from every single donation, every volunteers’ time and effort, every prize donation, our events committees, match funding and more.
These funds are invaluable to enrich the children’s school environment and learning experience. We try to ensure every child benefits from this within their time at school and help benefit those that come after.
We hope that you have enjoyed our numerous events from pop up shops for Father’s and Mother’s Day to our Christmas and Summer Fairs.
We always love putting on our parent/carer only events too where we get an opportunity to chat and socialise across the school community. Always a fun night at our annual quiz, a big thank you to our new Reception parent Paul Young who stepped up to host the evening this year and as always the legendary Gemma Ruse who supported and also hosted our Summer Ball.
Money raised from this year and previous years have allowed the school to install a sound cloud in the school hall to help reduce the noise; development of the old garage; new interactive screens for all classrooms; Senco equipment; pantomime shows at Christmas; class wishlist; ice cream treats for everyone and so much more!
Finally we want to thank Miss Morris, office staff and Steve our caretaker in helping us with all our fundraising events – their support is always so appreciated.
We know it’s been a tough year with cost of living and things across our daily lives costing more so we do very much appreciate your support and generosity in these times, enabling us to give the children their very best Manby Lodge experience.
Have a wonderful summer whatever your plans.
Wishing you all the best,
Jacqui Brand & Rachel McIlroy
FOML Chair & Treasurer
Summer Ball 2024
Reminiscing about the incredible night at Burhill Golf Club for our Summer ball
We raised an incredible £6.2k!!!
Thank you every one who helped plan the evening, volunteered to entertain us and of course everyone who came along and made so many donations, we are as always humbled by your generosity.
Hope it was night of fun memories and lots of laughter.
Special thanks to Rachel McIlroy, Gemma Ruse, Michelle Gibson, Katie Andrews and
Loui Lawson and to all our sponsors Rocket Hospitality, Weybridge Skip Hire. AEW Electrical and HawksmanUK.
MANBY ACTIVE CHALLENGE
2024!! 🌈
Final count has been completed for our class prize for the most amount collected in sponsorship 🏆
It was a close race throughout last week but Cygnets took a flying finish and broke through the £1k marker finishing with an absolute incredible amount raised..well done!!! 👏🤩🙌
A big well done to all who got involved over the weekend and helped their Cousin class mascot venture around our local area completing a whopping 24k relay 💪
Here are the totals..
🏆 Cygnets 🦢 £1094
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
🥈Ducklings🐥 £711
🥉Hedgehogs 🦔 £500
🪿 Goslings £407
🐆 Leopards £445
🦊 Foxes £275
🐯 Tigers £200
🐿️ Squirrels £160
🦁 Lions £135
Thank you for raising so much for Friends of Manby Lodge 🙏
What an incredible start 2024!!
🌈
Happy New year!
We hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful time with loved ones over the Christmas break.
We hope all the children loved watching the Pantomimes we were able to put on for them. A performance company visiting the school for Reception and year 1, and year 2 taking a trip to the theatre in Woking to watch Peter Pan!
We are so grateful to be able to give them a special treat to end the year.
All your incredible donations through the year enable us to do this so thank you!
Welcoming in a brand new year, we are excited to plan our events for the spring and summer term for 2024!
To kick start our year we are getting a positive energetic start with our active challenge.
A sponsored event that challenges each class to get outdoors. Working together to get our class mascots around a local 24k circuit.
In our Spring term we shall be looking forward to our Manby Love events in February, pancake competition and Mother’s Day shop and more.
Hope the children have settled into the first week well and we look forward to seeing them at our events.
Just a reminder we have lots of Preloved uniform available so please do reach out if you need anything.
foml.preloveduniform@gmail.com
Much love
Jacqui and Rachel
December 2023 Christmas Fair
Dear Parents and Carers,
Hope everyone is feeling festive after the past weekend!
We end fundraising for 2023 with our Annual Christmas fair. Held on a Sunday for a change and not even the rain could dampen our mood!
So many festive games in the playground hosted by each class, the classic bottle and chocolate tombolas always a hit, alongside new games such as Festive snaps, Snowball scavenger hunt and much more!
New this year, our incredible Grotto was setup by our Reception year area and Santa was all snug inside (and thank goodness with that weather!), ready to welcome the children. Thank you to all the Elves who works so hard planning and helping on the day.
What a treat to have live music by wonderful Ducklings parents Lisa and Alun who donated their time and even some music donations to our fair. They got everyone dancing and feeling festive!
We had our very own bar, cafe and of course our BBQ! And if you were still hungry the fabulous Stoked was on hand cooking up Christmas pizzas!
Inside our school hall our festive market with local businesses, some who are parents of Manby Lodge! Hope you managed to get those last minute gifts!
A big thank you to the teachers who came along and volunteered on our always popular facepainting/glitter tattoo stall, so many happy faces there.
Did you spot our Manby Alumni stall?? A few Manby Leavers came back and sold a few craft items/treats. So lovely to see them be so responsible and using their math skills with their shop.
So we are very excited to say that we raised an amazing £3.5K, and with confirmed match funding we’ve raised just over £4.5k for our lovely school! We are hoping to get more match funding, so watch this space for the final amount raised!
Thank you to one and all for making our last event of the year a huge success.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!
From Jacqui & Rachel
Friends of Manby Lodge
Nov 2023 Pumpkin Presentation
What a treat! (and no tricks at all!)
Thank you for joining our Pumpkin Presentation today. We loved seeing all the amazing pumpkins.
We are pleased to announce the winners:
Reception:
🥇 Arlo (Cygnets)
🥈 Emmie (Goslings)
🥉 Leo (Ducklings)
Year 1:
🥇 Niya (Squirrels)
🥈 Amelie (Hedgehogs)
🥉 Sefton (Foxes)
Year 2:
🥇 Mara (Leopards)
🥈 Caleb (Tigers)
🥉 Vova (Lions)
Congratulations winners! 👏 They all received a certificate and a medal 🏅
All children received a lolly 🍭
We raised £123.94. This will go straight back into the school to enrich our kids’ learning.
There’s still time to donate if you haven’t done so already!
🌈
FOML Committee 2023-24
Welcome to all the children and families starting the new school year at Manby Lodge.
Welcoming back children into Year 1 & 2, and a big hello to all the new starters!
Our new Reception year are now attending full days and will start their first full week next week.
We hope you’ve all settled in well and enjoying this late summer blast of weather!
The team at Friends of Manby Lodge are excited for our plans for the next school year.
Our previous years donations are now being used to enrich the children’s learning this year.
New touch screen boards have been ordered, Christmas pantomimes have been booked, new Preloved shed storage project is in planning. We hope you can see how all the donations enrich your children’s experience of school this year.
Some of our larger efforts continue to help leave a legacy for children in the following years.
So let’s look forward to a fun time with all the events planned and helping to raise those essential funds which help provide an enriched education for our children.
First up is Reception Welcome Parents Evening on Wednesday 20th September 7.30pm.
An adults only event held at the school.
A wonderful chance to get to know each other, chat with Miss Morris and the FOML team.
Fun events for the children like Pumpkin Presentation and Cake bake sales are in key dates. And of course our legendary Christmas Fair.
We can’t wait to see you all and have a great time supporting each other through this school year at Manby Lodge.
We are always here to help and support.
Much love,
Jacqui Brand (Chair)
Rachel McIlroy (Treasurer)
FoML End Of Year
Dear Parents and Carers,
With the economic news a little bleak and our household budgets feeling the pinch, we are overwhelmed with how generous everyone has been this year. As a charity, we are so very grateful for every penny and every pound we receive.
Increase in staff salaries and utilities means our school’s budget only covers so much. Miss Morris works tirelessly to seek external funding to bridge this gap.
This is where Friends of Manby Lodge helps, we hope we have filled the past academic year with fun and engaging events for both your children and parents/carers. We certainly have had lots of fun planning and hosting.
Highlights have been the return of our new Reception parents’ welcome drinks evening, handcrafted Mother’s day flower shop and of course our Christmas and Summer Fairs.
A big mention to our Quiz night and most recently the hugely successful Miami themed Summer Ball.
We are proud to announce that all of your generous donations have allowed us to reach a phenomenal record- breaking final figure of £31,687.96! (We may well be able to push past the £32K mark – depending on whether some match funding will come through by August)
This will help us to
• contribute towards the renovation of the garage;
• host our New Reception 2023 parents welcome evening;
• book our Christmas pantomimes;
• contribute to school trips, workshops and much much more.
Finally, we’d like to thank all the parent volunteers who helped make every event possible. We wish you all a wonderful fun-filled and where possible a restful summer.
Much love and thanks,
Jacqui & Rachel x
Manby Lodge Summer Ball
A huge thank you to everyone who attended the Manby Lodge Summer Ball on Friday, we hope you all had a great time!
We are extremely pleased to announce the ball made £8,621.12, which is absolutely incredible.
However, with match funding through one of the parents’ employers, we are able to secure a further £3,085, meaning the ball made a phenomenal £11,706.12.
A special thank you to the Summer Ball Committee – Hannah, Leah, Becca, Seema, Michelle, Sally and our hostess of the night the incredible Gemma!
They have worked so hard in the past year putting the event of the year together.
We THANK YOU all!
But none of this would’ve happened without the incredible support of all the Manby Lodge parents and local businesses who donated all the prizes.
We are finalising the total raised this academic year and we can’t wait to share that with you soon – so watch this space!
Every single pound will help enrich the learning of all the current and future children at Manby Lodge
Much love
Jacqui & Rachel
FoML
Summer Fair
FoML would like to thank everyone who came along to our Summer Fair this year! There was such a great atmosphere in the gorgeous sunshine! Lots of yummy food and drinks were enjoyed and everyone had lots of fun at all the different stalls including hook a duck, pick a lolly, tombola, face painting and loads more!
A big thank you to all the volunteers that helped with the organising and with running stalls on the day! We managed to raise a fantastic £4,245.44 for our school.
Father’s Day Shop
The children had a brilliant time selecting chocolates, stamping labels and having their lovely gifts wrapped at our Fathers Day shop! It was so lovely seeing them getting so excited about giving the presents to their dad’s and others that they love.
Thanks so much for all the donations! We managed to raise a fantastic £338 for the school!
Canvas Raffle
Tomorrow in the playground after school (and for the next two Fridays), we will be selling raffle tickets for a chance to win the amazing artwork each class has created.
It’s £2 per ticket via cash or card. Or you can purchase tickets by emailing us at foml.bookings@gmail.com.
Here’s a little more information direct from some of the children themselves!
Come and check out the amazing artwork and buy some tickets tomorrow!
FoML 🌈
May 2023 Reception Coronation Bake Sale
We had a brilliant turnout for our Reception Coronation bake sale last Friday! A big thank you to everyone who came along and bought cakes and Coronation balloons and flags!
We managed to raise a massive £431.02!
Apr 2023 Quiz Night
A massive thank you to everyone who got involved in our annual Manby Quiz last week and made it such a fun night! Drinks were drunk, pizza and ice cream consumed, pringles tasted and some fabulous coronation crowns created!
There was such a brilliant atmosphere and we managed to raise more than £1500! A big thank you to our quiz master Paul Brand and everyone else who helped on the night and to organise the great event!
Congratulations to the top three teams
1st: The Hedgehog Heroes
2nd: Agatha Quiztie
3rd: 8 out of 10 Dads
And well done to Quiz-nets for their winning coronation crown!
FOML 🌈
Mar 2023 Mothers’ Day Flower Shop
The children had great fun creating some gorgeous bouquets and decorating seed pouches at the Mother’s Day shop on Tuesday! We loved seeing them getting excited about selecting the lovely flowers for their mums and others that they love 
Thanks so much to everyone for their donations. We raised just over £600!
Feb 2023 Pancake Recipe Competition
Well done to everyone who took part in the pancake recipe competition! We loved seeing all the fabulous recipe ideas along with the great drawings and writing!
Congratulations to the winners for their brilliant recipes!
Year R: Emma (Ducklings)
Year 1: Ashleen (Foxes)
Year 2: Joseph (Lions)
Pancake Stall
We had a great turnout for our pancake stall in the playground! There were lots of yummy pancakes created with chocolate sauce, whipped cream, sprinkles, marshmallows and other delicious treats. Thanks so much to everyone who helped run the stall and who came along to buy the pancakes. We raised a fabulous £71!
Feb 2023 Manby Love and Year 1 Bake Sale
We had two fantastic fundraising events in February, Manby Love and our Year 1 bake sale.
We absolutely love our Manby Love display this year! We had so many amazing love heart creations from the children and gorgeous messages for the people they love! We raised a brilliant £176.36 thanks to all the donations.
We also raised a fabulous £290.21 from the February bake sale! The yummy cakes were a real treat before the half term break. Thanks so much to everyone who made cakes, helped on the stall and came along and bought the cakes and love heart balloons.
In light of the recent Turkey and Syria earthquake, our school, along with Friends of Manby Lodge, has donated all proceeds from Manby Love and 50% of the proceeds from the Bake Sale to the Red Cross Turkey-Syria earthquake appeal. With match funding from DeepMind we were able to donate a brilliant £700!
Jan 2023 Manby Active Challenge
Hope you’ve all had a wonderful festive holiday.
Thank you all for the fantastic response to our 1st FOML event of the year.
Manby Active Challenge 2023 has now raised over £2k!
Hope you all enjoyed some fresh air and active movement to kick start an amazing 2023. The weather was incredible, cold but absolutely stunning winter scenes.
Well done everybody!
Class donation totals are in!
Well done Leopards 🏆
🥇Leopard £488.50
🥈Cygnet £415
🥉Lion £393
Hedgehog £390 got beaten by Lions marginally!
Class prize will be arranged for later this week.
Happy January
Much love FOML 🌈
Jan 2023 Happy New year to all!
Hope you’ve all had a wonderful festive holiday.
With us saying goodbye to 2022 we would like to update you on our Christmas fair total, with some final adjustments to stall profits, Flash sale shop, Savills very generous donation and some wonderful match donations we have pushed past the £5k mark ending the year with an amazing total!
Well done to all involved and thank you for those who came along and enjoyed the day!
We also hoped all the children enjoyed the Pantomime’s in December! FOML fund these for the children each year. Reception and year 1 were provided by Hobgoblin Theatre Company at school and Year 2 enjoying a trip to Victoria Theatre, in Woking.
So hello 2023!!!
We have some fun and exciting events planned for the year.
Just a few to put in your diary…
Active Challenge – 20th January (family activity)
Manby Love – w/c 6th February (children)
Quiz – Friday 28th April (adults only)
Summer Ball – Friday 7th July (adults only)
With some thoughts on spend for this year, we hope to replace the canopy over year 1 classrooms very soon and help towards the Garage refit. Looking to also provide a permanent Preloved shop with a storage shed in the school playground too!
Much love
FOML 🌈
Dec 2022 Christmas Fair
FoML would like to thank everyone who braved the cold and came to our Christmas Fair on Saturday. Special thank you to all the volunteers for their wonderful help, and also thank you to those who couldn’t physically be there but supported us in spirit! We are still waiting on a few sponsorships/donations to come through, but currently we are looking at a profit of almost £4500! Once the final numbers are in, there is a very strong possibility that we will have raised over £5000 for our lovely school! A true triumph, given everything that is happening around us at the moment. We couldn’t have done it without your continued support! Thank you!
Hope you’ll all have a lovely Christmas and a very Happy New Year when it comes! Watch this space for more fundraising events next term!
FoML Team
Dec 2022 Keepsakes Initiative
The Self-Portrait Keepsakes initiative was a massive success. We absolutely love all the portraits, well done children and teachers! Thank you to everyone who purchased a keepsake, we managed to raise just over £1,000 for our lovely school!
We still have limited stock available to purchase, so if you didn’t get one, or want to get more, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us!
FoML Team
Nov 2022 Year 2 Cake Sale
Thanks to everyone who donated and bought cakes at our Year 2 Fireworks themed cake sale, we made an amazing £375.03!
Oct 2022 Pumpkin Presentation
A huge thank you to everyone who supported us, we raised a smashing £182.83!
Oct 2022 Meet our new committee
2021/22 was record breaking!
Friends of Manby Lodge had one of its most successful fundraising years.
Led by Charlotte Dury and Emily McCormick, alongside the legendary Elaine Henderson as Treasurer, these wonderful parents and many others have enabled FOML to provide much needed funding to assist Miss Morris and the school to enrich our children’s learning to the highest standards. Creating a safe and inviting environment to learn.
With that I say thank you for leaving such a legacy.
Charlotte, Emily and Elaine have now resigned their roles and you will find them using their PTA experience in Cleves!
I would like to introduce myself as your new Chair. My name is Jacqueline Brand, my daughter Lara started Manby in 2020. She is now in her final year, yes infant school goes fast! She is one of my four children so I hope to continue to be a part of Manby for a good few years.
Obviously covid hit hard when Lara started school and with that my career in London ground to a halt. I found time to be a more active volunteer at the school and within the school community. As the years went on I became more immersed in the events FOML held and it has brought me so much joy, seeing children enjoy the events but alongside knowing the money raised would enrich their learning and the children coming through the school behind them.
I have built such wonderful friendships sharing these events with fellow parents/carers.
That’s why I’ve put my hand up to become Chair. At Manby time is short, post-covid events are now firmly back in the calendar. Let’s make that time count!
Jacqui
May 2022 Quiz
A huge thank you to everyone who got involved with the quiz last night. There was such a brilliant atmosphere, and lots of money raised for our wonderful school totalling £1,422
Congratulations to our top three teams:-
1st : Eye of the Tiger
2nd : The Delusionals
3rd : The Gosling Gang
A special mention to ‘Get That Team Around’ who proudly bought their way into the final (and a mouth full of maltesers)!
We had a blast, and hope you did too! FoML
Year 1 Cake Bake
Wow that was amazing! Fantastic effort everyone. Thank you to all the helpers, whether you made cakes, sold them or ate them. Year 1 have raised an amazing £374.11!
Feb 2022 Manby Love
We are so in love with our amazing Manby Love display. Of course we could not have done it without your support and love. The children’s messages have been so heartwarming. From all the donations, we have raised a brilliant £180.
Dec 2021 Christmas Fair
FoML would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated, helped, and came to the Christmas Fair on Saturday.
It was the busiest fair we’ve ever seen, and there was such a lovely atmosphere. It really highlights how amazing our school community is, and hopefully lots of happy memories were made.
We are delighted to confirm the fair was indeed a RECORD BREAKING event, and raised a massive £5400 for our school.
Once again, a massive thank you to our wonderful Christmas Fair Team, Class Reps and our fabulous Manby Parent Community. None of this would be possible with you!
Year 2 Cake Bake
A huge thank you to everyone who donated cakes, bought cakes, and helped to run the stalls at the Year 2 bake sale. Together we raised an incredible £657.43!
As always, we’ll share the money between FoML and the classes who ran the event. So each Year 2 teacher will have £100 to spend on new resources for their class.
Our next event is the Christmas Fair, and we can’t do any of this without you. Keep your eyes peeled for exciting updates!
Oct 2021 Pumpkin Display
It was so wonderful to see all the pumpkins today. Thank you for all your generosity and creativity. The pumpkin display raised £273.62 for the FoML charity. All money raised, as always, will go to enhancing the children’s experience here at Manby Lodge.
