Everyone is welcome at our school, be they a regular member or just a visiting guest. In order to ensure that we can continue to operate to everyone’s satisfaction, we have put together a guide that can help you get started during the first few times at our school.
The Building
During the week, the building is used as a senior centre. Due to this, multiple aspects of the building require attention, when we use it every other Saturday. The entrance is from the yard. The yard gates are able to be opened even by small children, therefore we ask that parents keep keep an eye on their childrean, so that they do not leave the yard. For the smaller children, we provide toys that they can play with in the corridoor. We ask that the parents put the toys back into the bags or boxes they came from, before leaving.
Register
For fire safety reasons, upon arrival, please sign in on our register, noting every individual arriving and the time of arrival. When leaving, please sign out on the same list.
Use of the yard
When the weatehr is good, the children can use the yard during breaks. Because the site is used as a senior centre during the week, there are unfortunately no playground toys in the yard, but we have a few toys the children can play with. Children are allowed to play with rubber (not leather) footballs in the back yard. The reason for this is that the communal tea room, leading to the yard has thin glass windows, which have been sucessfully broken on many occasions and the repair of which has cost a significant amount of money. When using the yard, please keep in mind that we are in a residential area and avoid unecessary noise, so we can keep a good realtionship with our neighbours. We ask that the parents look after the children playing in the yard. We would like to encourage parents to take on supervision of the children in a rota, rather than just supervising their own, so that the division of labour can free up everyone to enjoy themselves while at the school.
Volunteers
The Hungarian Children and Prents Group is a non profit charity organisation, working to spread the Hungarian language and culture. Though our teachers get a modest fee, apart from oganising ad teaching, all the work is done by volunteers, by our members, by you. These include the setup at the start of the day, organising each classroom, the running of the cafeteria, preparing te fruits given to the children during the breaks, washing up, supervising the children and tyding away at the end of the day. A condition of memebrship is that each member helps on at leas three occasions during each half-year, with one task or another.
The Cafeteria
The fresh pankakes, made on site by our volunteers are very popular in our school. We have a book where you can place your order for pankakes (and any other consumables) and they will be prepared on a first-come-first-served basis. Those ordering more than three pankakes will receive theirs in batches, to ensure that everyone gets at least some on time. Hungry children can be moved to the front of the queue with one pankake at the dicression of the volunteers. We ask that everyone who has a child over the age of three help out at least once every half-year with the pancake making. This requires three people. One cooks the pancake, the second person adds the fillings, while the third distributes them and takes the payments.
Membership, Gift Aid, and Volunteering Deposit
A tagdíj, amit tagjainktól kérünk, nagy része (kb 60%-a) a tanárok díjazására megy, a többi pedig az épület bérleti díját fedezi. Mint karitatív szervezet a brit törvények szerint tagjaink adományai után a tagok által fizetett személyi jövedelem adót visszaigényelhetjük. Ennek feltétele, hogy 1) az illető tag Nagy- Britanniában fizessen adót; 2) a tagdíj 50% -át adományként adja; és 3) erre vonatkozóan nyilatkozzanak, az ún. „Gift Aid” nyilatkozat kitöltésével. Ezt a nyilatkozatot a csatlakozáskor vagy bármikor utána meg lehet tenni, egy nyomtatványunk kitöltlésével. A tagdíjról itt találhat részletes információt. The majority of the membership fee we charge (approx. 60%) goes to paying the teachers, the rest to paying for the rent. As a charity operation in the UK, we can claim the tax paid on the membership fee paid by our members. To do this, the member must 1) be paying taxes in the UK; 2) pay half the membership as a donation; and 3) fill out a Gift Aid form. This form can be filled out upon joining or at point after.
As mentioned, the volunteering work of the members is vital to the functioning of the school. To encourage volunteers, and acknowledge those who help out, in 2015 we introduced the volunteering deposit, which is £20 per half-year. Our members who help out regularly (at leat 3 times every half-year) will receive their deposit back at the end of the half-year, and the volunteer who helped the most will get a prize at the end of the year.