Annual General Meeting for Frimley Green Pre-school
Tuesday 22nd October 7pm 2024
Community Centre
Minutes
Attendees:
Sarah Sawyer, Debbie Franklin, Emma Britton, Ffion Watkins, Karen Johnstone, Rob Coates, Stuart Black and Katy Collier.
Apologies:
Kirsty Barrett, Emily Hudson, Karly Herd, Sam McDonnell, Lauren Hackman and Lucy Copley.
Attendees introduced themselves and the role they play within the preschool.
Reports (see attached):
-
Chairperson report (Kirsty Barrett)
-
Admin report (Sarah Sawyer)
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Supervisor report (Debbie Franklin)
-
Secretary report (Hermione Clark)
After listening to Hermione’s report, it was noted that Hermione needs a new ‘project’ to send to SC Johnson, as we have now purchased the climbing frame and mats. It was suggested an new mud kitchen would a fantastic project to raise money for, as purpose built ones, that are especially designed for children and are guaranteed for many years, are costly.
Sarah and Hermione are to get together to apply for the blue coin appeal at Tescos, as not easy to apply for and financial information is required for the application.
Committee
We are a charity based, Committee led preschool, therefore it is crucial that we have a Committee in place to run the preschool and to raise much needed funds.
All Committee members are happy to remain on the Committee for another year, apart from Lucy Copley, whose son has now left the preschool – SS to remove LC from the Charity Commission
Karen Johnstone is to take over the Amazon Wishlist from Lucy.
We also have two new parents who are wishing to join, as Committee members.
Ffion Watkins - First nomination – Sarah Sawyer Second nomination – Debbie Franklin Sam McDonnell - First nomination – Debbie Franklin Second nomination – Sarah Sawyer
Sarah to send out EY2 and DBS instructions to the new Committee members, once she has ran through the instructions for both the EY2 and the DBS, as there appear to be some changes. Once checked and rewritten, Sarah will send.
The Committee is as follows:
Chairperson - Kirsty Sheehan
Treasurer – Sarah Sawyer
Secretary - Hermione Clark
Committee member – Debbie Franklin
Committee member - Stuart Black
Committee member – Emily Hudson
Committee member – Emma Brittan
Committee member -Karly Herd
Committee member -Rob Coates
Committee member -Ffion Watkins
Committee member -Sam McDonnell
EY2 / EY3 updates
Katy still waiting to hear ref her application and DBS. The application is taking a little longer, as a new passport was required. Katy will let the preschool know as soon as she hears from OFSTED or about her DBS.
Karly is currently mid application and reapplying for her DBS, as there was an issue with her original application, due to moving counties. Karly will let the preschool know as soon as she hears from OFSTED or about her DBS.
Safeguarding:
Karen Johnstone is the preschool’s new Designated Safeguearding Lead and has been updating the current safeguarding policies, which DF will send to all Committee members.
DF will also send out to the Committee, a guide on Safeguarding duties and concerns.
DF also suggested that Committee members access ‘Olive’ as there are a variety of courses on there, that would be beneficial.
Christmas
A Christmas Committee meeting is required to discuss Christmas fully - SS to liaise with KB for a date
We did discuss Christmas briefly and the outcome was that Kev the pony, wouldn’t be making an appearance this year, as the children weren’t too fussed by him. Instead, we will have a walk by Father Christmas, who will drop off a sack of books to be handed to the children. These have been purchased already but need wrapping.
The Christmas party and coffee morning will be held on the morning of Wednesday 18th December.
Hermione will contact Tesco Express about supplying food for the party and for cake donations for the coffee morning. She will request pizza, crisps, cheese, squash, breadsticks and cakes / mince pies.
– – Christmas on the green Saturday 23rd November 2024 11am 2pm
We have booked a stall at the Christmas fayre, which has been held on the green for the last couple of years. It’s a great way to kick off the festivities and has a lovely community feel to it!
We will have a bottle tombola, sell baubles and book donations. Any help with this event would be appreciated!
– – Christmas Craft Fayre Sunday 1[st] December 11am 2pm
Another fun, festive tradition the preschool is involved with. In exchange for receiving all monies from the tables that have been booked for the fayre, the Committee runs a refreshment stall, selling drinks and cakes.
Hermione to contact Tesco Express about the possibility of supplying cakes and goodies for the stall.
Again, any help on the day, would be much appreciated!
AOB
Bags 2 schools - Friday 15[th] November 2024
Date of next Committee Meeting: TBC
Chairperson report
Firstly thank you all for taking the time to come this evening. Please accept my apologies for not being able to be here tonight! As chairman of the committee I would personally like to thank all of our wonderful committee members for their help this year but a particular thank you to Hermonie for all the work she has done in receiving great prizes for our raffles and networking within the community to raise our profile and getting Tesco to donate food weekly to the preschool. Wehave had a good year this year and welcomed lots of new families to the pre-school. We have raised £2572.36 this year after expenses and total donations of £1746.85 with the cost of living this a respectable number. Our biggest fundraisers being the sponsored bounce at £467.41 and carnival stall £376.42. The amazon wishlist is still going strong and the children are always getting new toys. Thank you everyone who has supported these events and for all the donations. It has been great to be able to get new equipment for our children and I know the climbing frame is a big hit! As a committee it would be great to get new ideas to raise more money this year. Thank you to all the staff, committee and families for your hard work making this happen, it is a wonderful being on the committee and we are always looking for new members. If you are unable to join we always appreciate people helping out at events and supporting the pre-school. A special thank you to the staff for making the pre-school such a wonderful place for our children. We would like to acknowledge all the work that goes on behind the scenes to running the pre-school and you are all amazing
- Frimley Green Pre School
– Profit and loss Commentary Year ending August 31[st] 2024
Income £140,394.38
Expenses £118,712.54 Profit + £21,681.84
Income
What a brilliant year we have had! Due to the preschool running at full capacity for the best part of the year, we have achieved a profit of £21,682.
The main source of income for the pre-school are our fees, these saw a large increase for the 2023 - 2024 accounting period. Parent paid fees reduced by £3,870.75 but the funded fees we received from Surrey County Council, more than made up for this, as we saw an increase of £27,348.96. What contributed towards this figure was Surrey County Council paying a supplementary amount in the first two terms of last year-up until April 2024.
From April, Surrey amended the funding system so that we could claim Early Years Pupil Premium for some eligible two year olds. Previously this funding was only available to three- and four-year-olds. Most of our parents / carers are now accessing the free 30 hours, therefore we saw many children staying for the whole day. We also received money for several children, who require additional support within the setting.
Another source of income for us is the fundraising from our fabulous committee! Fundraising raises a large source of extra income for us and that’s one of the reasons that the Committee play such a fundamental role in the preschool.
In total we received external funds through fundraising and donations of £4,4319.
On paper it looks as though we are down £1948.57 compared to the previous year, this is because I stripped out the donations that we had received, (most of
which is thanks to Hermione and the relationship she has formed with Luff and Wilkin), as it warranted a section of its own. Fundraising alone, did see a drop of about £200, this is due to the preschool having a stall at the local Coronation event the previous year.
There was only one craft fayre held in this accounting period; this was the Christmas one. We make bit of money on the day, by selling drinks and cakes and baubles, but the majority of the money is earnt by selling table to this event. Most of the money earnt from the selling of tables, was received in the Summer of 2023 (the year before last accounting period) bar £50.
There was no Surrey Heath show in this year and there will be no more, so we weren’t able to apply for any awards from them, which in previous years, was up to £500.
We did however, receive donations from ESSO for £500.00, from a Charity bike ride they held
£391.85 from the BANK OF AMERICA who wanted to help the preschool after it was vandalised
And £245 from the Frimley Green Carnival Committee.
As previously reported, Hemione has done an amazing job securing monitory donations of £600 this financial year from Luff and Wilkin, as well as all the donations she obtains for our raffles throughout the year.
Christmas is a big fundraising opportunity for us, all things festive, Christmas stall, fayre, coffee morning, raffle raised a total of £522.23 profit, an increase of £113.50 compared to the previous year.
Various other fundraisers were held throughout the year, including the Smarties fundraiser, which raised £110 profit, a sponsored bounce which raised £467, which is big increase on the previous years sponsored slide, which raised £146.60.
Commission based fundraising, is an easy way to raise funds for the preschool. This year we received commission from Easy fund raising, Bags 2 school, and a lottery-based scheme. Bags 2 school saw an increase of £15, unfortunately, Easy fundraising and the lottery scheme all saw significant decreases compared to the previous year.
In total we received external funds through fundraising and donations of £4,438.48.
We have benefited from the interest rates being high, which we can only earn in our reserve account, so I moved £50,000 over, which has since earnt the preschool over £1,000.
Expenses
As always, the pre-school’s largest expense are the staff’s wages, these saw an increase of £1,288.54 compared to the previous year. This is quite a small increase, considering the staff were given their annual 2% pay rise, a pay rise , to achieve the NLW target and a pay increase to encourage staff retention. Staff retention in the early years sector, is becoming increasingly hard to maintain, especially when supermarkets and fast-food outlets are offering significantly more per hourly rate. The preschool also ensures that we have a comfortable ratio of staff to children, especially as the preschool is held on a large site, that requires staff covering all areas and the increased number of children that require additional support.
The rent £13,484 for the year, saw a slight decrease due to a couple of election days, where the preschool had to close.
Staff training increased this year by £532, staff training is essential for legal reasons and for staff morale, as it shows that we are willing to invest in our team.
As with the previous year, we have been careful with the purse strings, in terms of our controllable outgoings, therefore we saw decreases in consumables, stationary.
Equipment saw an increase, compared the previous year, as we purchased an amazing new climbing frame and mats, at a cost of £4,522. This was purchased using fundraising from the Committee and from other funding sources.
Pre-school bank balances continue to look healthy, with a balance in the reserve account for redundancies and contingencies. Balances as of 31[st] August 2024:
Current account: £22,898.40 Reserve account: £81,972.43
Supervisor’s Report (Year23/24)
We have had a wonderful busy year. By July 24, we had 35 children on our register. We had three sets of siblings. Over a third of our cohort had a potential additional need that was recognized and addressed by the preschool. Six children received Early Years Pupil Premium funding (EYPP). Seventeen children were born in summer. Five children received Early Intervention Funding (EIF). Five children spoke more than one language. At the heart of our pre-school are the children that attend our pre-school. We all want our children to have the best start in life.
To achieve this, I have the pleasure and privilege of working alongside a wonderful, dedicated team of staff who work tirelessly to get the best outcomes for our children. The pre-school would not function without them. We currently have 6 main staff members (5 x level 3 qualified, 1x level 6) and 1 admin staff member. We also have two fully qualified bank staff members (Julie and Debra) that are important members of our team. Debra also volunteers once per week and helps support with physio and SEN work and organizes our fundraising craft fayres and the book swap.
I cannot emphasize enough how valuable the team are. Not only have they recognized children that needed extra support with their development. Their observations have led to the early diagnosis by medical professionals of children with potentially serious health conditions.
All our staff are first aid trained and continue to attend courses for their own professional development and to benefit our cohort of children. Karen has recently trained in the important role of Designated Safeguarding Lead and is now a deputy supervisor to reflect this very important role. Karen has been doing a lot of work and research around this area.
Paula (Deputy and SENCo) and Tracey (Deputy SENCo) have been focusing on
the improvement and development of language and communication within
Early Years. They have done a lot of work developing communication strategies alongside other professionals. They have been praised by Speech Therapists and the Community Health Early Support (CHES) for the work they do. We are extremely lucky to have an experienced SENCo team. They have been running various speech interventions and Early Talk Boost Programs with the assistance of the rest of our team.
This is particularly important as at the start of September 23, we found that the main areas of support required again by our cohort of children were in the areas of Personal Social and Emotional Development (PSED) and Communication and Language (CL). A child that struggles emotionally will struggle to make good progress in education. We continued to operate with an enhanced staffing ratio.
Sam has been assisting with children’s language development, particularly listening skills and children with multiple languages.
Imogen has been researching physical and sensory development alongside occupational therapists. Imogen uses music and dance. There are a significant number of children nationally in Early Years that are behind in their physical development. Hence, we encourage outside play, climbing , digging etc.
We are pleased to say that all the children in our pre-school family made good levels of development from their individual starting points. It is important that we acknowledge that our children are individuals, and all have different strengths, family experiences and interests.
The local schools would like the children to be independent. This includes feeding themselves, being able to use the toilet and changing their own
clothes. They would also like children to be able to listen, take turns and socialize with their peers. As we say at pre-school ‘good listeners are good learners.’
In order for our children to achieve their best outcomes, we use a childcentered approach, ‘In the Moment Planning’, focusing on the interests of the children in that particular moment. This approach leads to engaged focused children with an interest in learning. Visitors and professionals to our setting often comment on the calmness and engagement of the children.
There is a book ‘Making Play Work’ by Dawn Rigby and our own Debra Hastings which was written from our pre-school detailing the approach. The blog ‘Tales from the sandpit’ was originally started from pre-school.
Pre-School is often the first place where children encounter their peers, must share resources and where potential additional needs become noticeable. Over the past year we have supported families to access additional support.
This includes (but is not a comprehensive list), potential additional needs, parenting support (via Surrey Heath Family Centre), financial support. We work with our families by inviting parents and children to pre-start visits, having a settling in meeting within a few weeks of children starting, inviting parents to engage in their child’s focus weeks and discuss their next steps. Where relevant, we complete the statutory two year check.
Pre-school is part of the local community, and we would like to thank that community for their support.
We have developed a lovely relationship with the Frimley Church of England Community Crew. Several of the children in the crew were originally from our pre-school. We have been on trips to their library, and we have arranged joint
craft sessions at the pre-school.
This year we have reestablished our Harvest for the old people’s Tuesday bingo group.
Our families attend pre-school from all walks of life, and we work hard to enhance the cultural capital for all of our children with lots of events. We have held dance lessons (Aspects of Dance), nature walks, birthday celebrations, Tesco trips, recycling trips, World Book Day, Zoolab.
We had a wonderful Christmas Party with a visit from Kev the Pony, party food supplied by Tesco and a very generous donation of the soft toy Snapper from Waitrose for every child.
We celebrate each child’s birthday, and they receive a birthday book. Johnson’s Wax has supported our community book swap with more books. We had a successful carnival entry with ‘It’s a small world’ . Our teddy rehoming stall and bottle tombola was a big success. We have just received a very generous donation from the Carnival committee.
On polling day, we had a session at Little Street. Sadly, due to the numbers of children that we have on our register we were only able to host the children from that day.
All our children were able to enjoy Zoolab, parties, dance, carnival and sport’s day.
As part of the pre-school constitution, it is imperative and vital that we have a parent committee. We would like to thank all our committee members for
stepping forward and making the commitment. The committee are mostly involved with fundraising activities but also have an important role in making decisions about the pre-school.
Our committee help make and support relationships within our community.
They have also brought new initiatives and ideas to our setting. We would like to thank our community for all their donations and prizes. Tesco have been providing food and other supplies which helps to keep our costs down. We have been able to ensure our children have a good range of fruit at snack time. Luff and Wilkin paid for activities such as Zoo lab and the pony. We have had lots of donations from our Amazon Wish List.
We have had a few challenges over the last year. The new two-year-old funding for working families put a strain on the whole of the Early Years sector. We have had to operate a waiting list and do not have much space flexibility. We are going to have to ask our families about September 2025s sessions for their children much earlier. There are still several settings closing down in Surrey.
The short supply nationally of early-year spaces and the lack of experienced staff throughout the country has caused an increase in the Early Years sector wage market. We would like our pre-school to be a setting where our staff do not want to leave due to financial pressures.
Surrey Early Years changed their funding portal and funding documentation in August. This has been a lot of work, especially as they had some teething problems with the system. It is important that all documentation is completed correctly as it is audited.
We cannot be sure how the new government’s initiatives for the Early Years are going to impact us in the future. We are already receiving registration forms spaces for September 25. We do welcome their change in wording from free funding entitlement to government funding. The previous wording is was misleading.
Moving forwards:
The pre-school is full at the moment, providing everybody that is due to start does take up their space. There is some space for children to stay all day once
they turn three years old. Some of the two-year-olds have struggled completing a whole three-hour session and are building up gradually. Our fundraising project last year was to fund a new climbing frame and mats. The old climbing frame was old when our older members of staff started but was looking very tired. We now have a lovely community play things climbing frame and mats. It is much more robust and easier for the staff to manouver. They are guaranteed for 15 years. The mats are proving popular on their own for other physical activities.
This year we would like to replace our mud kitchen units in the garden. Esso pipeline did arrange for Men’s Sheds to construct one. This looked lovely initially, but it is already falling apart. We hope to approach local businesses for support.
We would also like to upgrade our internet/web site and register a new domain name from fgps to Frimley Green Pre-School. The original fgps was set up many years ago when everything was abbreviated. Email addresses with gmail and Hotmail are becoming outdated. The police initiative ‘Operation Encompass’ is being restarted and the police will no longer communicate with Hotmail or gmail accounts for this service. As we will have to update the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) email, it is a good opportunity to overhaul the whole system.
I would like to end my report by thanking everybody for their support over the last year.
- – Hermione Clark Secretary Report 2023 2024
I have been Committee Secretary for the last 2 academic years. Firstly, I would like to thank all of the committee members for their help and support over the last year with all of our fundraising events. Kirsty, you have been an amazing Chairperson and Sarah, as Treasurer you have always provided support with my role of liaising and working with local businesses. Over the last year as the Committee Secretary my main role has been to liaise with local businesses and source prizes for our raffles. Luff and Wilkin have been our main sponsor and have kindly donated £600 to the pre-school. I have found that updating donors throughout the year with pre-school events and how we used their donation has made them want to continue helping and supporting the Pre-school. Luff and Wilkin especially donate more than once a year as I send them a quarterly update on how the children have benefited from their donation such as Kevin the Pony visiting at Christmas and ZooLab. I have built a great relationship with many local businesses who are always happy to donate to the raffles and Pre-School events. Tesco Express on Balmoral Drive have been amazing over the last year providing us with hampers for our raffles, cakes etc for coffee mornings and of course the weekly fruit, vege and cheese donations they kindly give the Pre-School children.
Although many businesses are struggling and it is increasingly competitive to obtain free donations with rival PTA’s etc. we have a list of great local businesses that are always happy to donate to the pre-school raffles to name a few; Tesco Express, SC Johnson, Farnborough FC, Bocketts Farm and Birdworld. I will continue to support and maintain a relationship with all of our donors over the next year as they are vital in all of our fundraising events.
We have had a successful year with our fundraising and the Christmas
Coffee morning, Easter Coffee morning and Sports Day have been
incredibly successful and beneficial for our pre-school. Our July Sports Day raffle and Silent auction raised just over £500. The Easter coffee morning raffle raised £110 and the Christmas raffle over £250. These events are a great place to hold raffles to raise money for our Pre-school. We have also had wonderful donated prizes which have allowed us to run other fundraising such as the Euros 2024 sweepstake. I want to thank the amazing committee for helping me run the Coffee mornings and raffles
especially the sale of raffle tickets which are always popular. Also a big thank you to Sarah for helping me with the hampers, we never quite know what random donations we will receive.
The committees hard work and commitment over the last year has been really important for all of our fundraising and events. We hope to continue the success of obtaining wonderful raffle prizes and donations to allow us to raise money for Pre-school.
Our next big fundraiser will be the Christmas Coffee morning and I am currently working through my contact list to obtain raffle prizes and silent auction prizes. I look forward to raising lots of money for the Pre-school this academic year and of course working with our amazing committee.
| 2023-2024 | |
|---|---|
| INCOME | |
| FEES PARENTS | £12,715.75 |
| FEES SCC | £120,602.64 |
| ADMIN FEE / SHIRTS | £541.50 |
| FUNDRAISING | £2,986.63 |
| OTHER | £854.10 |
| DONATIONS | £1,546.85 |
| £0.00 | |
| REFUNDS | £92.51 |
| INTEREST | £1,054.40 |
| £140,394.38 | |
| EXPENSES | |
| WAGES | £92,022.62 |
| RENT | £13,483.83 |
| MARKETING | £353.60 |
| TRAINING AND EXPENCES | £938.84 |
| EQUIPMENT | £5,736.49 |
| OTHER | £843.52 |
| CONSUMABLES | £545.52 |
| STATIONARY | £435.79 |
| ANNUAL / REGULAR COSTS | £1,750.56 |
| TELEPHONE | £1,028.75 |
| FUNDRAISING EXPENCES | £116.27 |
| PETTY CASH | £0.00 |
| OVERPAYMENTS | £463.32 |
| FOOD VOUCHERS | £975.00 |
| POST | £18.43 |
| £118,712.54 | |
| PROFIT/(LOSS)FOR THE YEAR | £21,681.84 |
| OPENING BALANCE | |
| Current & Reserve | £83,188.99 |
| Plusprofit/loss foryear | £21,681.84 |
| Pettycash openingbalance | |
| Adjustment | |
| Outstandingchqs | |
| Chqs notpresented | |
| £104,870.83 | |
| REPRESENTED BY CLOSING BALANCE PETTY CASH CLOSING BALANCE NAT WEST CURRENT ACCOUNT NATWEST RESERVE ACCOUNT TOTAL IN ACCOUNTS DIFF ACTUAL BANK A/C VS FGPS FIGURES |
£22,898.40 £81,972.43 £104,870.83 £0.00 |
| £0.00 |