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← Frimley Green Playgroup

2025-08-31-accounts

- Annual General Meetng for Frimley Green Pre school

Tuesday 21st October 7pm 2025 Community Centre

Minutes

Atendees:

Sarah Sawyer, Debbie Franklin, Debra Hastings, Kirsty Barrett, Emma Britton, Hermione Clark, Bianca Wing, Rob Coates, Stuart Black, Emily Hudson.

Apologies:

Francesca Collins, Karly Herd, Eloise Barwick

Atendees introduced themselves and the role they play within the preschool.

Reports (see atached):

Commitee

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 Kirsty Barrett, whose daughter has now left the preschool and is therefore stepping down from her role as Chairperson – SS to remove KB from the Charity Commission

Emma Brittan is happy to take over as Chairperson.

Nominated - Sarah Sawyer

Second- Debbie Franklin

Sarah to make relevant changes to the Charity Commission.

We also have three new parents who are wishing to join, as Commitee members.

The Commitee is as follows:

It has been recognised that a Parent Liaison role would benefit the preschool and their families.

Emily Hudson offered to take on the role, as did Rob Coates, external to the AGM.

It was also suggested that a regular coffee morning is held each month. This is not for fundraising purposes, but for parents and carers to get together chat over a cuppa. Date TBC

Safeguarding

DF highlighted that there are a number of courses available to Committee members.

My Learning – DF to send links out

Early Years Central – DF to add all members to the database

Debbie reminded everyone of the safeguarding roles at the preschool and who fills them. As it is crucial that all Committee members know:

Designated Safeguarding Lead - Karen Johnstone

Deputy Safeguarding Leads - Debbie Franklin and Paula Kelley

– Climate Acton Plan Debra Hastngs

There are 2 new changes that Pre-school needs to work towards.

  1. All Pre-schools must have a Climate Action Plan in place by September 2025 – Debra has begun working on this.

  2. All businesses must follow new waste disposal rules, businesses with under 10 employees like us by 2027 others by 2025.

To address these new initiatives, we need to put in place a Sustainability Working Group, I need volunteers to join the working group so we can identify ways we can improve our sustainability as a business, work to follow the new waste disposal rules and promote sustainability within the setting, with children and parents.

Progress so far with actions:

  1. An energy review of the building has been undertaken with the Center Manager and the Community Centre is doing all it can to be sustainable ie/ solar panels and LED lights.

  2. We have completed a review of single use plastics such as gloves, nappy sacks, aprons and black bin bags. The review highlighted that we don’t need to use gloves for every nappy change, nappy sacks don’t need to be used for wet nappies as they can go directly in the nappy disposal bin. Nappy sacks were also being used for sending home wet/dirty clothes. They will now be sent home using a cloth/drawstring bag that can be washed by parents and returned. In the future we will encourage parents to supply a bag for their child but we do have a supply.

  3. We are going to be working to change the mindsets of parents and children regarding waste and sustainability. Initially we will be using books and stories to provide children with some basic information. We will be sharing information with parents via

Updates/Newsletters/Email and Facebook. If anyone would like to borrow books please let me know.

  1. We are encouraging litter free lunch boxes. This is line with both sustainability and with the new waste disposal rules. We need to have separate waste disposal facilities for plastic, glass and paper/card. So the less waste we have coming into pre-school in the way of plastic cartons, yoghurt pots, tin foil, cling film, crisp packages etc the better. We have already

shared ideas for litter free lunch boxes on the weekly update and parents are doing really well. We have started to recycle food waste into a council food waste bin provided for the community centre.

  1. How parents can help: talk about simple ideas for looking after the planet with children at home. Look at the recycling symbols on food packaging with your child before recycling. Talk about the environment and how to look after it, using litter bins, compost bins, saving water, water butts, looking after our wildlife, feeding the birds, providing bird nesting boxes, hedgehog houses, insect houses etc. Think about using both sides of paper for crafts/mark making, let them help with their packed lunches, get them to use old packaging for box modelling. If they understand the reasons behind our actions, it will make more sense to them. We already have our Book Swap Shed so if everyone can promote that with family and friends please.

If anyone would like to be involved speak to me. If anyone has any useful links to grants/funds available please let me know.

External to the AGM, Rob Coates has offered to help Debra with the Climate Action Plan.

Christmas

We have a few fundraising events over the festive period. It would be great if we could have some help with these, as more hands make light work and is a great way to get into the Christmas spirit!!

– Saturday 29th November Christmas on the Green

We have a stall organised, selling baubles, books and booze tombola. This runs from 11- 2 any assistance with setting up beforehand, tidy up at the end or help during event would be great!

- – Sunday 7th December Christmas Craf Fayre The Community Centre

11 – 2 Any help on the day is welcome. We will be selling tea, coffee and cake and will also organise a raffle.

– – Friday 19th December Christmas Cofee Morning The Community Centre

9 – 12 Our annual fundraiser, where we sell cuppa and cake and hold a huge raffle.

A crate will be left outside to collect bottles for these events.

50th Anniversary of Frimley Green Preschool

We need to start thinking about how we are going to celebrate this momentous year.

Confirm a date for a celebration party, to be held at the community centre. It was decided to keep it very similar to our 40[th] anniversary celebrations, which was hugely popular, with guests including previous staff members and families past and present.

AOB

Hermione has arranged a 10% discount for a table at the darts, which is held at Lakeside, on 3[rd] December. If you are interested, please get in touch with Hermione.

Date of next meetng:

TBC

Discuss all thing Christmas over the WhatsApp group

REPORTS

– Chairperson Report Kirsty Barret

As chairperson 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 continuing to network within the community to raise our profile.

We have had a good year this year and welcomed lots of new families to the preschool. We have raised £2698.56 this year after expenses and total donations of £3984 with a large donation from SC Johnson of £2784. Our biggest fundraisers being the sports day at £677.35 and sponsored bounce £381. Thank you everyone who has supported these events and for all the donations. It’s always great to be able to get new equipment/toys for our children and if anyone has any new ideas to raise more money this year please let the pre-school know!

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 preschool and you are all amazing.

On a personal note after spending 3 years as chairperson it is now time for me to leave as my children have moved to school. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on the committee and wish everyone and the pre-school the best of luck.

- Frimley Green Pre School

– Proft and loss Commentary Year ending August 31st 2025

Income £150,473.04

Expenses £144,388.31 Profit + £6,084.73

Overview

The financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2025 reflect the continued stable operation of Frimley Green Preschool within a challenging financial environment for Early Years providers.

The preschool had a successful and stable financial year overall. It saw a profit of £6,084.73, achieved in the 24-25 accounting period, compared with a surplus of £21,681.84 in the previous financial year. This reduction of £15,597.11 can be attributed, primarily, to increased staffing and pension costs, alongside general inflationary pressures affecting utilities, consumables, and rent, which, despite these challenges, the preschool remains in a sound financial position with adequate reserves to ensure operational continuity and sustainability.

Income

Total income for the year amounted to £150,473.04, representing an increase of £10,078.66 compared with £140,394.38 in 2023–2024

The increase in income compared to the previous year, was mainly driven by higher local authority funding which increased by £14,984 to £135,586 reflecting higher take-up of funded hours and improved attendance rates. This income stream continues to represent the principal source of funding for the preschool.

Parental fees contributed £5,998, down from £12,716 in the previous year, a change that mirrors the greater proportion of children receiving full or partial funded hours.

Strong community and Committee support through combined fundraising and donations saw an increase of £2,343.

Donations included:

Donatons included:
SURREY HEATH SHOW £500.00
CARNIVAL COMMITTEE £500.00
LUFF & WILKIN £200.00
SC JOHNSONS MK £2,784.00

Fundraising has been helped significantly by the sales of tables at the Christmas craft fayre, this attributed to £510 plus the sales we made on the day, selling coffee and cake, which contributed £198 to the fundraising pot.

Interest income, on our Reserve account, £1023.50 a slight decrease of £30.90 compared to the 24-25 accounting period.

Expenses

Total expenditure for the 2024-25 accounting year rose from £118,712 in 2023– 2024 to £144,388.

Staffing costs accounted for the majority of this rise. The increase reflects the impact of National Living Wage pay adjustments, higher pension, NI contributions and additional staffing to meet statutory child-to-staff ratios. It also represents the preschool’s commitment to fair pay and staff wellbeing.

Spending on training and development rose to £1,325.00, highlighting the preschool’s ongoing investment in quality teaching and compliance with early years standards.

The cost of the premises is another large expenditure for the preschool. We were informed that the hourly rate would rise by 5% due to the increased running costs of the community centre this rose from £13,469.00 to £15,008.00

Other operating costs, such as utilities, consumables, and equipment, remained within controlled limits, showing good financial discipline despite wider inflationary pressures.

Despite the increase in expenditure, the preschool achieved a healthy surplus, maintaining a strong financial position going into the next financial and academic year.

The team at Frimley Green Preschool, continue to monitor expenditure closely to preserve reserves and maintain a quality provision for children and their families and carers.

Net Result and Reserves

After accounting for income and expenditure, the preschool recorded a net surplus of £6,084.73. We consider this outcome prudent and consistent with the preschool’s objectives to sustain operations in a tough financial climate and yet investing in staff and resources where necessary.

Outlook

We will continue to prioritise financial stability and the quality of the provision. Key priorities include monitoring funding policy developments, maintaining staff stability through fair pay and development, and sustaining community fundraising efforts to diversify income streams.

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 2025:

Current account: £27,959.63 Reserve account: £82,995.93

– Supervisor report Debbie Franklin

Welcome to our pre-school family.

We had another wonderful busy year. We finished the year with 40 children on our register. All our children made good levels of development from their original starting points. This is particularly impressive as only 11 children within our cohort last year had no vulnerabilities. We had 7 different languages, 2 diagnosed Special educational needs and 3 suspected SEN. Four children received Early Years Pupil Premium, 3 health conditions, 10 children had vulnerable

circumstances.(Please note that some children had multiple vulnerabilities.

At the centre of our pre-school family are the children. We all want our children to have the

best start in life. I have the pleasure and privilege of working alongside a wonderful,

dedicated team of people who work tirelessly to get the best outcomes for our children.

They are the pre-schools greatest asset. Tracey recently celebrated her silver anniversary.

We currently have 6 highly qualified 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 just as important members of our team. Debra has volunteered to lead our climate action plan (more later). I feel that Debra may need to write another book.

All our team are first aid trained. All team members engage in continual

professional development to benefit our cohort of children and to keep knowledge

moving forwards in line with the latest research and best practice.

Karen has the important role of Designated Safeguarding Lead. She has been working to support vulnerable families and be an advocate for vulnerable children.

With over a third of our cohort last year having an additional need or

vulnerability, Paula (Deputy and SENCo) and Tracey (Deputy SENCo) have been working together and alongside other professionals to ensure that all children make the best progress that they can. They have been running Talk Boost and Sentence Semantic groups. They have been praised by the outside agencies for the work that they do. Pre-school is often the first place where children encounter their peers, share resources and potential additional needs are noticed.

This is very sensitive can be very unsettling for our families. Often families are reluctant to accept help initially and may flipflop between wanting/not wanting referrals to other support e.g. Surrey Heath Family Centre, CHES team (now stopped due to funding). Families who accepted support found this extremely beneficial. Unfortunately, delaying accepting help can lead to joining long waiting

lists and children not being able to access additional support until reception class or beyond.

With a continual eye on our future and the proposed local authority changes to SEN support, Imogen has also trained as a SENCo and Sam as additional Health and Safety Officer.

Our cohort tracking for last term has shown an increase in children who struggle to manage their emotions and struggle with dysregulation. A child that struggles to regulate their emotions will struggle to make friends and struggle to progress in

education. We have been reflecting on this area of our practice and using current research to inform procedure. Our new children now initially attend much shorter sessions and gradually increase their time. The new children start later and leave earlier which means their key person is present to be with them and make the new attachment more quickly. Although this may not be popular with some parents, it has been very successful with the children. We have revisited the important role of the key person and staff have been researching and attending courses on areas such as dysregulation, positive touch. We have put more quiet spaces into the setting. There are also visual and aids in all areas.

All our pre-school family made good levels of development from their individual starting points. We acknowledge that our children have different strengths,

interests, families and experiences. Our child centred approach, ‘In the moment planning’ is very successful and we continue to receive comments from other professionals and visitors about how calm, focused and engaged our children are. We had very positive praise from the fire service and police service who visited as part of ‘people who help us.’

We have a good relationship with our local community. We have attended every carnival since the carnival started and had another successful procession entry. They have again supported us with funding towards improving our mud kitchen. The raw ingredients have been delivered, and we are waiting for half term to put it all together.

Tesco’s have been supporting our snack bar but are no longer able to do so. SCJohnson have supplied us with new mud kitchen furniture (£2750). Men’s

Sheds have created new planters for our garden. Luff & Wilkin have supported in

various ways by sponsoring events, supplying resources and hosting a small art competition which was won by Catherine.

Debra put her climate action ambassador hat on and helped the children create a

scarecrow for a competition at the Rural Life Museum, Tilford. Wheelie was based on Deeks Bike Shop that used to be in Frimley Green.

We have regular visits with Frimley CofE community crew. The favourite event being the litter pick during the summer. The children loved the new litter pickers and great for developing their dexterity. We are off on a treasure hunt this week. We invited local reception teachers to visit pre-school and read to our children preparing for school.

To enhance our cultural capital as well as the fire service and police service, we had a visiting author, music sessions, Aspects of Dance, Zoolab, Brambles Animal encounters visit.

Our local MP visited to discuss the lack of SEN provision in Surrey Heath. We had a few weeks free sessions with playball. This has been excellent and encompasses so much more than ball games. A visiting health professional observed one session and was so impressed with the different skills taught that she is arranging sessions for her own groups. The company offer reduced sessions at pre-school with their coaches. Approximately half our cohort have taken up the offer. Children are really excited to attend, and it has been great for

developing all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Our Frozen Themed Christmas Party was a big success especially with our very own Anna and Elsa.

We were lucky to receive a one-off grant from Surrey Early Years. We had to use the funds for a specific purpose and in a very short time frame. We replaced our very tired well used woodwork bench (Physical, Craft, understanding the world, maths), purchased large wooden scales for the sand pit (Maths), purchased a wooden hollow nook for children who need quiet time (PSED), purchased selfservice paint dispenser (independence, craft), animal handling (understanding the world) , Wigit (Communication and Language)and items off our Amazon wish list.

We would like to raise money this year to purchase a water cascade extension for our popular water tray. This will allow our children to explore their environment

and experiment with movements and forces including cause and effect. This is £1750 plus VAT.

We have wonderful equipment and have been able to invest and replace over the last few years. This has been done with company donations, fund raising and grants. The down side is that this has the negative effect of increasing our insurance.

We had our very intensive child protection and safeguarding audit from Surrey Early Years. We are pleased that we had no next steps. Early years complete audits every couple of years. We are due to prepare for our Learning and Development Reflective Conversation with our Early Years Advisor in November.

At Frimley Green Pre-School we are committed to improving our setting. We have been visiting other settings in our area to look at their practice. We have welcomed feedback from a local outstanding pre-school manager on our own setting. We will continue to research ways to improve. Our parent survey was extremely positive, and we have found that modernising the way we deliver questionnaires means that we get a better response. It also means that we can address and explain unrealistic expectations.

We are in the process of upgrading our website etc. We have upgraded our DSL email to a secure system to be compliant with the police initiative Operation Encompass.

As part of the pre-school constitution, it is imperative that we have a committee that is formed of 60% parents. We have been very fortunate that we have several parents that have stepped forward over the years. The committee are mostly involved with fundraising activities, but they also have a role in decision making. We would like to thank all our committee members and supporters for their commitment and dedication over the last few years.

We have been very lucky that Kirsty has served as our chairperson for the last three years and Hermione as our secretary. It has been consistent and

reassuring to have long term committee members and helps provide stability to the pre-school. Kirsty has had to read and sign off every single one of our policies.

As we say goodbye and thank you to Kirsty, we would like to thank Emma for volunteering to take the role if agreed by everybody. Emma is a teacher by profession and has a good working knowledge of child protection procedures.

We expect a few challenges over the next few years. There are changes coming

into force due to the change in government. Changes to the living wage and national insurance are going to have a financial impact. The Ofsted inspection framework and how inspections are conducted are due to change in November. We are going to be watching closely over the next few months.

– - Secretary Report 2024 2025 Hermione Clark

I have been Committee Secretary for the last 3 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. All Committee members have been amazing throughout the year with their help at our Fundraisers especially with selling raffle tickets the Pre-school would not have been able to have such successful events without your help and support.

Over the last year as the Committee Secretary my main role has been to liaise with local businesses and source prizes for our raffles. I have continued to liaise with our current sponsors and have also established new relationships with new businesses in ways they can support our 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 Preschool. 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, veg 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, Aldershot FC, Bocketts Farm and Millers Ark. 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 £677.35. I have found that the Silent Auction is really important and raised over £200 at Sports Day. The Easter coffee morning raffle raised £119.50 and the Christmas raffle over £250. These events are a great place to hold raffles to raise money for our Pre-school.

For all our events I work on a profit only model where the kindness of local

businesses supporting us allows us to raise money which is directly put back into the pre-school.

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 continued 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.

2024 - 2025
INCOME
FEES PARENTS £5,997.50
FEES SCC £135,586.16
ADMIN FEE / SHIRTS £223.00
FUNDRAISING £5,781.34
OTHER £591.54
DONATIONS £1,000.00
FOOD VOUCHERS £270.00
REFUNDS £0.00
INTEREST £1,023.50
£150,473.04
EXPENSES
WAGES £109,209.02
PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS £3,943.20
RENT £15,022.42
MARKETING £449.01
TRAINING AND EXPENCES £1,325.07
EQUIPMENT £5,705.46
OTHER £936.93
CONSUMABLES £728.66
STATIONARY £213.64
ANNUAL / REGULAR COSTS £2,369.53
TELEPHONE £1,434.65
FUNDRAISING EXPENCES £98.78
PETTY CASH £0.00
OVERPAYMENTS £1,856.40
FOOD VOUCHERS £780.00
POST £0.00
GIFTS £149.36
BANK CHARGES £166.18
£144,388.31
PROFIT/(LOSS)FOR THE YEAR £6,084.73
OPENING BALANCE
Current & Reserve £104,870.83
Plusprofit/loss foryear £6,084.73
Pettycash openingbalance
Adjustment
£110,955.56
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		 £27,959.63
£82,995.93
£110,955.56
£0.00
£0.00

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