Last Saturday was the 10th anniversary of one of Crompton House’s main fundraisers, the Spring Ball which was held at The White Hart Inn in Lydgate. What an enjoyable night it was! The theme this year was ‘Putting on the Glitz’ and, as usual we were surrounded by wonderful guests, who swapped their every day attires for glamorous frocks and dinner jackets; each looking happy to be there to share some special moments with their friends and colleagues whilst knowing their presence was and would be making a difference to the pupils’ learning experience at Crompton House School.
An event such as this is unique because it allows governors, staff and parents to interact socially at an event where the only agenda is fundraising, have fun and enjoy top quality cuisine. Whilst we are on the topic of cuisine, the White Hart yet again did not disappoint; after Mr Holt’s very eloquent Grace, we tucked into an unctuous leek and potato soup, closely followed by an orange sorbet to cleanse our palate. The main course was a Pavé of Beef on a bed of Mashed Potato and Kale whilst the vegetarian option was a Spring Vegetables Risotto, which received an equal amount of praise. Dessert was sublime with a Chocolate Délice accompanied by White Chocolate ice cream…is there an adjective to describe that dessert? e-mail me!
As soon as everybody was served with a coffee and homemade Truffes au Chocolat, the Chair of Governors, Gordon Main started the speeches by asking everybody to be upstanding and toast Her Majesty the Queen; our Headteacher, Mr Newell took over with a very entertaining speech that included a quick game, which was won by Andrew Harrison on table 7. He took the opportunity to thank the special unit that is the extremely dedicated staff and Governors as well as the parents who support the school in so many ways, from taking part in PTFA projects like the Spring Ball and the 500 Club lottery to the Plant sale and the Christmas and Summer Fairs. Most importantly, he paid homage to the pupils, who are the reason why so many people come together to help the PTFA provide the resources that the school’s budget could not otherwise afford.
Mr Upton, Chair of the PTFA and Senior Deputy Headteacher made the final speech to talk about the importance of the PTFA and what we have done for the school so far; he called out the two main organisers, Angela Russell and Sylviane Lawrence, who both received a beautiful bouquet of flowers. He also thanked Yvonne Campbell, Joanne Hayes and Deborah Kelly for their help and also presented them with a bouquet of flowers. The first game we played was to win a Michael Kors handbag, which went to Elisha Donallan on table 9. The second game was our £200 cash game; this year, Angela made 48 car registration cards based on the numbers 2,0,1,6 and the letters CHS in front or behind the numbers.
The winning car registration was 
1062 CHS, which was won by Tracy Woodward on lucky table 13. We also hired John Harding, a very clever magician, who entertained the guests in the bar, during the meal and treated us to a 30-minutes’ stand-up show, which was amazing. Our regular DJ Paul Melia took over for the rest of the night with all the dance favourites. Take a look at our photo gallery of the night, acknowledgements and prize winners on our PTFA Spring Ball page.
We managed to raise £3,365.48 and we would like to thank all our guests for choosing to spend the evening with us but also DPC for their £100 donation, the businesses and parents who donated items for the raffle, Elizabeth Jackson for creating our beautiful gold and black panels, Martin Ryan for transporting them to and from the White Hart, ‘Art of Weddings and Events’ for lending us the table runners, chandeliers and feathers and the parents, staff, friends and governors who purchased raffle tickets via the Finance office. None of this would have been possible without you.
I will leave you with my chosen pictures which, in my opinion represent the spirit of the evening; our very special ex-Chair of Governors Leon Ashton enjoying himself with his fellow governors, table 7 at the bar led by Andrew Harrison, Mrs Newell’s gold dress, three ladies from table 12 whom you are more likely to see on the sidelines of a football/rugby pitch every week, dressed in their warm coats and wellies but who managed to scrub up very nicely indeed and finally our PTFA team sandwiched between the Chair and Vice-Chair.
