'˜Greatest' film will help school to raise funds

Uplands Primary School in Fareham is hosting an outdoor cinema showing of popular musical, The Greatest Showman.

Amy Salmon is part of the Parents’ Association at the school that organises fundraising events each year.

The 35-year-old said: ‘We do events each year and instead of doing the same fete each year we thought we would jump on the bandwagon of The Greatest Showman hype.

‘It is not enough anymore to have events where people give money for not much in return.

‘There are so many events people can go to locally so we need to make them come and spend the money with us and make it worth their while as well as raising money for a good cause.’

The school is also hosting a clown show, summer raffle and a variety of stalls will also be at the cinema evening.

Amy added: ‘We have a clown for the younger ones and a raffle with some great prizes which has been sponsored by Pearsons so we are hoping for a really good event.’

Each year the Parent’s Association is given a fundraising target which the school can use.

Amy said: ‘We hear about education cuts all the time and the funding the school has all goes on teaching but having extra activities and equipment is also really important.

‘I hope we would never have to fundraise for the essentials needed in the school.’

Uplands Primary School is one of many in the area that have turned to alternative fundraising methods.

The News spoke to Leesland Junior School in Gosport which has been trying to raise £100,000 to renovate their swimming pool with a new roof and upgraded heating scheme.

The school has applied for several grants to help with the refurbishment and are hosting a number of different events throughout the year including a Take That tribute night which took place earlier this year.

Business manager Kate Hedges said: ‘The main issue we face is that it isn’t fair to rely on parents to constantly give money to us, especially for things like non-school uniform days where they don’t get anything in return.

‘We simply cannot keep going back to them on every fundraising event that we do.’

Henry Cort Community College in Fareham applied for the Tesco Bags of Help project last year to get funds to improve the school grounds.