It always does us good at our Annual meeting to look back and reflect on our achievements over the past year with pride.

The year began in September 2005 with the arrival of the new Year 7’s, many accompanied by their parents, and the PTA, in conjunction with the school, held a very successful welcome coffee morning. Matilda and the Caterlink staff again provided the refreshments, and I take the opportunity of thanking them for this and several other occasions when they have supported us in this way. Each new boy received a calculator, paid for by the PTA, as a welcome gift, and we again received appreciative comments from parents and the maths and science departments.

At Christmas we organised a very successful MAD evening, MAD standing for Music and Drama. This featured several short pieces from the school’s Drama Club with help from Lisa Oswald, and a range of vocal pieces from the boys led by John Davison. It was, and continues to be, really great to have the support of these and other members of staff with PTA events, and I’d particularly also like here to again thank our caretaking staff, Roy, Tom and Mick for all their help and support throughout the year. In financial terms, apart from the MAD evening that raised £352 net, Christmas pudding sales produced a profit of £209, and the Christmas raffle raised a further £391, so thank you to everyone who helped in any way to make this our most successful Christmas yet.

The annual Regatta in July, though a little windy, was again very popular, particularly with boys and their parents who are now in the new Y7. It, as always, provides a great way for them to meet each other and begin to feel part of the nautical ethos of the school. Thanks are due to all those who worked tirelessly behind the scenes organising, cooking, serving and clearing up etc. particularly as there were a few problems early on in the evening with the need to collect additional food supplies.

Of course there are many things that go on regularly that the PTA is involved with – the weekly sorting of lost property is just one example, and I want to thank those who’ve come in and done this on a regular basis throughout the year. The school staff have often stated how grateful they are for this help.

The PTA has been present at most Parent’s evenings during the year. The display boards with photos of events and general information are normally up and event tickets, raffle tickets, puddings etc. sold as appropriate, but primarily they are there to be able to publicise and share what the PTA is about and to support the school. Too many individual PTA members have helped on these occasions to mention here by name, but I would like to say thank you to them all for their help. Of course the PTA is also publicised regularly in Making Waves and, for the 3^rd year running, in the school prospectus given to parents looking for a school.

The annual school sports day at Tooting Bec provided an opportunity for the PTA to supply refreshments to staff, parents and pupils alike. Cups of tea or squash are always gratefully received and this year the track vending machines were not being replenished so we were on the winning side in terms of making a small profit.

As a result of our charitable status, we were able to attract a grant of £1242 from the Lambeth Endowed Charity to help purchase a wide variety of camping and outdoor equipment to be used by the geography, business and nautical departments and to equip forthcoming Duke of Edinburgh/Outward Bound trips with the boys. We are grateful to them. No doubt we will be looking for further funding from outside sources in due course.

Financially, it has been a year of consolidation. Some financial administrative work was kindly undertaken by Christina Plumb in the Bursars office, notably around Christmas time, and we are grateful to her for this. I have kept a general eye on much of the PTA finances during the year in the absence of a permanent treasurer, and I am extremely pleased that Maria Edwards, to whom I have recently passed all the paperwork, has agreed to take this on. You will hear the actual accounts from her in a moment or two, but we ended the year with a healthy balance and much achieved. Our membership of the NCPTA (National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations) continues, providing us with the insurance cover we need for PTA events including the Regatta and linking us to other PTAs. The new Y7’s were each given a calculator at the start of the Autumn 2005 term, paid for by the PTA; the Nautical Department were able to buy a set of DVD’s relating to the development of the Port of London; a contribution was made toward the cost of the new piano in the hall; materials for an extra-curricular Latin course were purchased; screen printing and ceramic equipment for the art department obtained, and various MFL magazines and books acquired. Speaking of books, we also paid for a number of sets of books to enable pupils to ‘shadow’ the Carnegie Prize nominees, and contributed £500 to match the £500 from school funds to set up a small fiction library within the English Department to encourage boys to read more. With various discounts the school was actually able to obtain c£1900 of books with this joint venture and they were ‘flying off the shelves’ almost as soon as they arrived. It was good to get a thank you note from the English Department for them. The camping and orienteering equipment previously mentioned was also obtained during the year and is now in use.

Survival Guides were produced for parents of those pupils new to the school in Year 7 and those moving on to Key Stage 4 in Year 10 and both these were well received. We always welcome ideas for future editions.

The PTA committee met 7 times during the year and as well as planning events, a wide variety of topics have been discussed. One of the issues we took up with the school early in the year was the state of the boys toilets. This was subsequently taken up by the leadership group, and resulted in the employment from Easter 2006 of an additional cleaner who would have particular responsibility for this area. Two other issues, homework and complaints procedures have also been raised and are currently under review by the Leadership Team as a result. We took a decision mid-year to no longer post minutes to those not normally present at meetings, as these were generally available via the website. I’ve had no comeback from anyone on this issue who would formerly have received these, so this will continue in the coming year.

All parents and carers and members of staff are welcome at meetings, and minutes, date information etc. are normally available on the website at lns.org.uk/pta Thank you again to everyone who has been to meetings and contributed to the ongoing success of the London Nautical PTA during the 2005/6 year. I conclude with a comment made by the Head at a Governor’s meeting during the year, " the PTA does a wonderful job with very enthusiastic members who are always there to help and who raise lots of money to help the school in every way possible". Thank you.