The Friends of LEH

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4 students in Friends Courtyard
The Friends of LEH 60 yrs logo square

welcome

A very warm welcome from The Friends of LEH, the school’s parent association. As soon as your daughter joins Lady Eleanor Holles School, you automatically become a member of the Friends.

Our aim is to enhance our daughter’s educational experience as much as to support and promote a vibrant community by running various social and fundraising events throughout the year.

Over the years, we have financially contributed to the acquisition of specialist data-logging equipment, display boards for the pupils’ art and sporting achievements as well as high quality sound and lighting systems for concert and drama productions. We have also assisted with refurbishing the Junior School Science Laboratory, creating The Friends’ Courtyard and, most recently, The Friends made a substantial contribution to the Gateway Project.

Each academic year the Junior and Senior schools produce a wish list of “icing on the cake” items that The Friends have funded including most recently, a Vorwerk Thermonix for the food and nutrition department, a sublimation printer for the art department and a larger more sophisticated drone for the Airgineers Club in seniors and pop up goals and indoor and outdoor footballs and sound equipment for the Junior PE and Science departments.

The secondhand uniform sale profits go to the school libraries to support author talks, workshops, and furnishings to make the library experience more enjoyable for the students.

Just as LEH students relish playing an active role within school, as part of The Friends we invite parents, carers and other family members to enjoy taking part in our various social events and activities. We would also welcome any of you who would like to volunteer to be Class reps or join the Friends Committee, or help at our any of the different events we have planned each year.

The ongoing success of The Friends is wholly dependent on the enthusiasm and generosity of every LEH family and for this, we are enormously grateful.

Stephanie Wheeler

Chair of The Friends of LEH

Contact via email

classlist

The Friends of LEH is now on Classlist which connects you to our school community. The award winning school app for parents makes it easy to communicate with other parents, help each other and stay in the loop with what’s going on at your school. The Friends of LEH post details on here of up coming events and other school information. Sign up to stay in the loop by registering for an account and selecting 'Friends of Lady Eleanor Holles School' when asked for your school name. 

events

We aim to host a wide variety of events during the year which have the dual purpose of bringing the school community together to have fun and also to raise money for The Friends Charity Fund.

Details of events will be publicised in the Friday Post and on Classlist. You can also find dates for all events in the school calendar and on the website.  Class Parent representatives will also  promote and sometimes be involved in the organising of events so keep an eye on your class WhatsApp messages.  The following gives you a brief overview of our annual staples:

The Thirds’ Welcome Evening at the start of the autumn term is a fabulous way for new parents to establish connections with other families in their daughter’s class and year.

An autumn term event that in the past has included a comedy night which was such fun with a real comedy club atmosphere and, more recently, the Open Air Cinema at the start of term which was a super evening for all the family.

The Christmas Bazaar in November is our biggest annual fund raiser. It sees the entire LEH community involved with an impressive array of external and internal stall holders to inspire, entertain and to get that Christmas shopping off to a flying start!

During the spring term, we host our popular Quiz Night, which invariably results in some intriguing new facts being garnered with a good dose of humour and a delicious meal.

In the summer term, the younger pupils eagerly anticipate the Junior School discos.

We have also organised other social events, such as wine tasting and fun n’ jazz on the green, and encourage all of our parents (and children for that matter!) to come forward with fresh ideas on how we can bring our LEH families together to be entertained and socialise together.

membership

As parent, you are automatically members of The Friends. A voluntary £20 annual subscription per family is collected via your youngest daughter’s autumn fee account and transferred to The Friends.

As a registered charity, Gift Aid makes a real difference to us so, if you are a UK taxpayer, please do complete a Gift Aid Form (PDF attached below) in order that you can increase the value of your donation by 25%.

The Friends Gift Aid Form

get involved!

The Friends is run by a Council, a group of up to 24 members, including 19 parent volunteers as well as school representatives. We meet termly to discuss ideas and projects as well as plan events.

The Council is extremely fortunate to be assisted by a network of class reps from each year group who support and promote our events. In addition, by engaging with their fellow parents through informal get-togethers, including coffee mornings, evenings out and end of term parties, class reps strengthen our sense of community.

We hope you will join us and become part of our thriving community. There are so many ways to be involved so please share your ideas, attend our events, consider becoming a class rep or joining the Council. The roles and responsibilities are detailed in the link below. 

We look forward to hearing from you and welcome your participation. Come and see us at the welcome events.

Roles and Responsibilities of the Friend's Council

Friends of LEH Council Members 2023-2024

Click on the titles below to find out more about how The Friends can enhance both yours and your daughter's experience at LEH.