Chair
Welcome to our AGM.
This AGM covers September 2022 to Aug 2023
My Name is Lisa Turner, I am the Chair of the committee,
An AGM is an annual General meeting which is normally held by a company yearly and represented by the board and it shareholders.
Little Acorns being a charity Preschool is represented by a committee and this is our yearly opportunity to take time to both look forward and map out the preschools strategy for the coming year and a time to present the key figures and achievements of the past year.
To start with our treasurer Simone, the treasurer's report for the year September 22 to August 2023.
Treasurer’s report attached
I would like to Thank you all for coming once again, and Thank you for taking the time to take an interest in your child’s pre school.
I want to take the time to thank the staff and managers , who work incredibly hard to provide the children with a fun, safe and educational environment every day at our preschool. Thank you. And thank you to the committee and our bookkeeper Liz. Thank you for your help both at meetings, in advice and guidance, through emails and at fundraising events.
I have been the chair of Little Acorns preschool since 2020 and joined during covid. Both of my daughters attended Little Acorns and are now in Primary school, I am no longer a parent at the preschool and for that reason this will be my last year as chair of Little acorns, Little Acorns passed Chairs have had the ambition of little acorns becoming a CIO, The committee are still personally responsible for any debt the preschool has or could incurs, unless they become a CIO. Being financially responsible for the preschool is an unattractive trait of being a committee member
Previously they couldn’t become a CIO until the preschool was dept free and was solvent. Since I took over as Chair in 2020 the preschool has gone from strength to strength, we are not only dept free we are also solvent. Solvent meaning having assets in excess of any liabilities. And that we do.
I as chair have never studied becoming a CIO, I joined during covid and there was a lot of information to absorb, for Little Acorns passed Chairs have had the ambition of little acorns becoming a CIO, The committee are still personally responsible for any debt the pre-school has or could incurs, unless they become a CIO. Being financially responsible for the preschool is an unattractive trait of being a committee member
We concentrated on the preschool the safety of the children and the staff, and we all came out of this thriving and never looked back at the CIO.
We have fundraised endlessly for the preschool but would like more parents to join our committee, so the pressure isn’t so high on the committee members we already have.
At this point I would like to give a big thank you to Gerri, who was very active in helping us fundraise during her maternity leave and we would like to welcome her back to the committee now her son has joined the preschool, if she would consider it.
I would also like to thank all the staff for all their fundraising help during the year, but most of all there has been 2 staff members that have without a doubt been absolutely amazing in helping raise funds for the preschool, That is Terri and Katie. They have volunteered hours of their free time to support the preschool and it is very much appreciated.
We started our preschool year, with a new treasurer, Simone, who is taking over the role brilliantly.
We signed off on our Policies and Procedures which Jenny and Katie worked endlessly on.
We decided to rebrand and relaunch our breakfast club, our numbers were good with in the preschool but the breakfast club hasn’t been the same since covid. We concentrated our efforts on hiring more staff, changing the breakfast menu and created more activities for the children during the club. We said good bye to Lucy Du May as the committee secretary and she joined the breakfast club staff.
In the new year we said farewell to two more committee members Alex Simmons and Natalie Ruggins, both their children had moved to primary school and they need to give their commitment to the PTA at the school.
We saw our amazing staff battle the snow in Tatsfield and keep the preschool open even though some of them walked in from bigginhill, and thanks to them the preschool stayed open.
CCTV was installed in the porch area of the village hall prompting the preschool to install our own.
Maxine was awarded a Distinction for her NVQ level 2 studies, the highest award and an amazing achievement, congratulations Maxine.
Terry did an amazing job planning our easterise , it took place in the hall and It was a huge success.
We invited parents and children to our moving on up session, which was aimed at parents with a child moving on up to primary school, The session was informative and fun and the kids loved it. Thank you for Jenny for putting our packs together and planning the session, There were things in the session that I didn't even think of that can help my child and thank you to Katie and Lisa and Jenny for attending and working the event, the parents gave such positive feedback and you guys were great.
The Kings coronation was a great success, a great fundraiser for the preschool but also created community with in the preschool, parents got to socialise while their children could enjoy the events set out by the staff.
Towards the end of the year, the Preschool Joined Bright HR.
They help the preschool in the role of Human resources, and staff law, this is great protection for both the committee and the staff.
Returning back in our last term, Our Breakfast club, unfortunately continued to rely on the preschool to support it and we increased the fees for the 1[st] time in 4 years to try and save it.
The staff put together a beautiful leavers ceremony, as always it’s a emotional time for all
As I reflect back on last years report, I am so pleased to say that we are in a better position financially.
Moving forward for this year, the plan is to close down the Breakfast club, and concentrate on the preschool, contact Tatsfield primary and ask if they can accommodate our school aged breakfast club children.
It would benefit parents and the children to open preschool earlier and have a later closing time maybe to coincide with the school, but not increase the hourly fees.
InstallCCtv in the outside play area, we already have the cameras and have been awarded free installation by able electrics.
Have another moving on up session inviting parents and children to join us for informative sessions especially for children starting school.
And extend our outside area to accommodate a outside building for small group work, a gardening area and extend our children’s learning outside.
I would like to thank everyone for coming and that concludes my chairs report.
## **Treasurer report for AGM**
## **24th January 2023**
For the financial year ending 31st august 2022 we had £19,797.77 in the bank account which is still growing. It is currently sitting at £34,069.80. There was £509.29 in petty cash and some extra money that was banked after 1st September of £1229.51. We also had £198.48 In our PayPal account.
So altogether we had £21,735.05
We had £12,027 in our gold savings account and £10,398 in Scottish widows which is to be used if we needed to pay redundancy or for emergency use, although this is not likely to be needed it is a failsafe and means that anyone now joining our committee will not have to worry.
We raised a total of £4789.65 through fundraising this year but spent £3657.51 which included £947.04 giving Jackie a wonderful send off party that she thoroughly deserved after 20 years of service. We received £382 in donations which is slightly more then last year.
This year we were given £96,134 in grants which was £11,588 more then last year and fees were also up this year at £43,860 an increase of £9540.
This year we spent more on staff training and we introduced a new navy blue uniform into the preschool, therefore buying all the staff new uniform. Our computer costs were down this year as Liz negotiated us a loyalty discount. (Thankyou Liz).
We spent £3830 on activities for the children, more then double what we spent the previous year. Buying much needed materials for the children to enjoy different activities at preschool.
Despite rent and insurance increasing this year, we were able to give our staff a well deserved pay increase. We also welcomed new staff members into preschool Natasha and Lucy, and saying goodbye to Jackie.
Our hygiene costs have almost halved this year since the Covid restriction was lifted, although we are still very careful and making sure the preschool Is safe.
We brought a new sum up machine towards the end of the year which we believe will make things easier at fundraising events, most people prefer to pay by card so we are able to offer this as an option.
Simone Farren
Treasurer
## **- LITTLE ACORNS PRE SCHOOL**
**DETAILED INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2023**
|£
**TURNOVER**
Fees Receivable
Fundraising
Donaton
Government nursery grants received
Other income Furlough/SMP
**ADMINISTRATION EXPENSES**
Wages and salaries
118,974
staf training and uniforms
1,025
Rent
13,310
Insurance
1,152
Consumables and actvites
4,406
Computer costs
849
Printng, postage & statonery
776
Subscriptons
755|2023
£
44,629
4,218
731
101,298
0|
|---|---|
||150,876|
|hygiene & catering
Advertsing
Milk
Professional fees
Sundry Expenses
Donatons
Bank charges
Bad Debts
Depreciaton
OPERATING (DEFICITY)/SURPLUS
Bank Interest received
Net (Defcit)/Surplus for the Year|3,053
150
0
2,684
540
0
95
2
4,116|151,887|
|---|---|---|
||||
|||-1,010
206|
|||-805|