Community Centre Eskdale Road Stoke Mandeville Bucks HP22 5UJ Tel: 07746 750945 Website: www.pollyannapreschool.org.uk manager@pollyannapreschool.org.uk (Emma Newman, Manager) admin@pollyannapreschool.org.uk (Esther Chan, Admin) Registered Charity: 1024769
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
AGENDA
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Venue: Stoke Mandeville Community Centre – Main Hall, Eskdale Road, Stoke Mandeville, Bucks, HP22 5UJ
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Date: 16[th] October 2023
Time: 7.00 PM
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Minutes of the 2022 AGM
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Manager’s report
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Chairman’s report
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Treasurer’s report
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Election of Committee 2023
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AOB
AGM 2023 Minutes Venue: Main Hall, Community Centre, Eskdale Road, Stoke Mandeville, HP22 5UJ
Date: 16/10/2023
Time:
7.15pm
Present : Emma Newman, Stephani Gassi, Vanessa Taylor, Esther Chan, Carl Sautereau, Dawn Collins, Saharish Mahmood, Natasha Rauch, Karen Tully, Katherine Alexander
Apologies : Ievan Passchier-Evans, Gina Lund
1. 2022 AGM Minutes were agreed & signed off by Carl Sautereau (Chair).
2. Manager’s Report was read out by Emma Newman.
3. Treasurer’s Report was read out by Stephani Gassi.
4. Chair’s Report was read out by Carl Sautereau.
5. Election of the committee 2023, resignations & new members:
The following members will remain in post:
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Carl Sautereau – Chair - Nominated by Karen Tully, seconded by Natasha.
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Stephani Gassi – Treasurer - Nominated by Natasha, seconded by Saharish Mahmood.
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• Karen Tully - Committee Member - Nominated by Stephani Gassi, seconded by Carl Sautereau.
Resignations:
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Ievan Passchier-Evans is resigning as Secretary & from the committee.
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• Gina Lund is resigning from the committee.
New Members:
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Natasha Rauch - Committee Member- Nominated by Carl Sautereau, seconded by Stephani Gassi.
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Saharish Mahmood - Secretary- Nominated by Vanessa Taylor, seconded by Karen Tully.
No other business.
Meeting Closed 7.52pm.
OL NA Commlttee Communlty Cent Eskdale Road Stoke Mandeville Bucks HP22 5UJ Tel: 07746750945 OL NA oll anna reschool.com Reg Charity No. 1024769 AGM 2022 Mlnutes Venue: Park Room. Community Centre. Eskdale Road, Stoke Mandeville, HP22 SW Date: 1011012022 Tlme: 7.00pm Present: Emma Newman. Stephani Ga55i. Vanessa Taylor. Esther Chan. Sarah Dlxey-Klng. levan Passchier-Evans. Carl Sautereau. Gina Lund, Dawn Collins. Katie Alexander, Reta Tuculeanu (Christina) Apologles: Kelly Hallou 1. 2021 AGM Minutes were Agreed & Signed off By Vanessa Taylor (Chalr). 2. Manager's Report was read out by Emma Newman, Attathed. 3. Chair's Report was read out by Vanessa Taylor. Attached 4. Treasurer's Report was read out by Stephani Gassi. Attached 5. Election of the Committee 2022. Resignations & New Members: The followlng members will remaln In post: Vanessa Taylor- Chair- Nominated by levan Pa5schler-Evans, Seconded by Gina Lund. Stephani Gassi- Treasurer- Nominated by Vanessa Taylor. Seconded by Carl Sautereau. Gina Lund- Committee Member- Nominated by Stephani Gassl. Seconded by Sarnh.
OL NA Sarah Dlxey-Klng Is reslgnlng as Secretary & from the Commlttee. Kelly Hallou Is resl8nlng from the Committee. • levan Passchler-Ewdns- Secretsry- Nominated by Sarah Dixey-Klng• Seconded by Vanessa Taylor New Members: Carl Sautereau- Commlttee Member- Nomlnated by Glna Lund, Seconded by Reta Tuculeanu IChrfstina} 6. A.O.B: Vanessa Taylor will be steppin8 down with Carl Sautereau taking the Chalr Position once all checks are completed. Vanessa Taylor thanked Sarah Dixey-King & Kelly Hailour for their valuable contributions during their time on the Committee. No other bu5ines5. Meetln8 Closed 7.25pm. IL(10 113
Good Evening Everyone,
My name is Carl Sautereau and I am the chairperson at Pollyanna. I would like to start by thanking you all for taking the time to attend our Annual General Meeting. The AGM is an opportunity to share with parents and carers the progress the team has made over the last twelve months, and this meeting also forms part of our legal requirement set out within our constitution.
Dialogue with parents and carers is an essential part of running a successful pre-school, and we welcome your attendance and any questions or comments you may have during the meeting. I will start by signing off the minutes from our last AGM in front of all in attendance. Team Recognition:
I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you to Emma, Dawn and the team here at Pollyanna for their continued hard work, commitment and passion in making Pollyanna a positive and inclusive environment for the children of our local community. Being Chair has enabled me to witness first hand the amount of work that goes into operating the pre-school, and I am grateful that the children of our community has the opportunity to begin their early years journey with a team that cares so much about their development, wellbeing and happiness. On behalf of our parents, carers, committee members and local community, thank you team.
I’d also like to say thank you to our committee members for their efforts, and recognise that they are volunteers doing their best to support the setting with the capacity they have. Thank you team. I’ll now hand over to Pollyanna’s Manager, Emma Newman, for the Manager’s Report. Manager’s Report:
I’ll now hand over to our Treasurer, Stephanie Gassi, for the Treasurer’s Report. Treasurer’s Report:
Thank you Stephanie.
Chair’s Report:
Since our last year’s AGM, the setting has continued to go from strength to strength. Firstly, the leadership team along with support from the committee has done an excellent job of ensuring the financial viability and stability the pre-school, growing our cash in reserve despite a lack of additional grant funding and reduced fund-raising in general.
There is work to be done to ensure that the setting adopts the Charity Commission’s Internal financial controls for charities (CC8) procedure, and this will be an area of focus for both the committee and leadership team in 2023/24.
Fundraising remains arguably our biggest Achille’s heel. As the economy emerges from the cost-of-living crisis, it’s vital that the setting can generate much needed funds to offset the increase in operating costs. The committee and leadership team have had much conversation around our desire to not pass on costs to parents and carers in recognition of the challenges many households face, and we will continue to review this in the coming months.
We have lost members from the committee who have previously been very active within the fundraising space for us, and we have struggled to add new members to breathe new ideas and activity within the fundraising space. This remains a risk for us to monitor and manage moving forward, and it is essential that we reinvigorate this part of the setting next year.
This year saw an increase in National Living Wage, which the committee took as an opportunity to review and address the setting’s approach to pay in March. The committee unanimously voted in favour of a change in hourly rates across the setting, which had previously seen all bar one of the roles within Pollyanna paid under the median salary for the South-East.
We were delighted to address this issue given just 25% of Pollyanna colleagues feeling that they were paid fairly for the work they do in our inaugural colleague engagement survey.
While we anticipated our Ofsted inspection towards the end of the 2022/23 term, and much was done by Emma, Dawn and the team in preparation for this, we did not received notification of an inspection. That said, we anticipate an inspection in 2023/24 and the team will continue to all they can to demonstrate our ability to deliver the required standards for a positive inspection.
The primary challenge for the committee in 2023/24 is to ensure it has both the membership and capacity to actively support the pre-school in its ambitions; we recognise that the lack of engagement due to family and professional commitments, alongside a lack of interest in joining the committee, has stalled its ability to add consistent value to the setting.
Much work is required to alleviate this issue, with many members decided not to stand for re-election. I am personally grateful to all committee members who are leaving and remaining for their efforts, and I recognise first hand that despite our best intentions to support the team, its not always easy to do with our own family and career commitments.
With this in mind, I’d like to announce that I will not be seeking re-election to the committee at next year’s AGM, as my own professional commitments make providing the level of support to the team extremely difficult. I am committed to working with Emma, Dawn and the committee to find the right Chair with both the capacity and connections to help accelerate the setting forward.
The leadership team need a committee and Chair that can be regularly accessible, and I am conscious that they too are trying their very best to ensure Pollyanna can remain open and thrive – and they cannot do it alone.
New Committee Members and Voting: We will now move to the official elections. Carl Sautereau to remain as Chair. Stephani Gassi to remain as treasurer. Ievan Passchier-Evans to resign as secretary.
Gina Lund to resign as committee member and safeguarding lead. Vanessa Taylor to resign as committee member. Karen Tully to remain as committee member.
Saharish Mahmood to take the role of secretary - who will nominate and who will 2[nd] ? Natasha Muller to join as committee member - who will nominate and who will 2[nd] ?
Thank you to all the new members for offering your time and experience to the committee for Pollyanna. I look forward to working with you all.
Before we conclude this meeting, does anyone have any questions or any other business? Thank you to everyone for attending tonight.
Managers’ report AGM October 2023
We have started the year with 43 children on roll which is fantastic. Pollyanna is welcoming children from all the areas of the county. We have 15 two-year-olds with us. We now have an extensive waiting list.
We have 4 new members of staff, Angel, Tia, Shelley, and Millie they have all had a fantastic start at Pollyanna. We are currently recruiting another member of staff to join the team.
At the end of the school year, we held a leaving ceremony for our school leavers, and this was received very well by parents and carers. We had a summer party for the children which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Last week (3[rd] October 23) myself and Dawn visited our main feeder school Stoke Mandeville Combined School and was pleased to see all the children and how well they are settling into school life.
We held coffee mornings throughout the year which were a huge success. We had lots of activities for parents/carers to share with the children.
We had lots of visitors to preschool these included the fire brigade who brought along their big red truck which the children thoroughly enjoyed exploring and we got to hear the siren and use the hose! We had a visit from Ark Farm who brought in lots of animals for the children to pet and learn about, we even had a cuddle with their pet Labrador. We also had a visit from the ice Cream man where the children got to ask for a 99 with sprinkles and sauce!
We have changed the room around to make sure we incorporate all 7 areas of learning; we have been lucky enough to be a part of Bucks county’s Side by Side group and with the grant we received we have purchased a new bookcase to encourage early reading and a love of books. We have a brand-new mud kitchen in the garden which we purchased with the donations from the summer fayre. We also purchased a brand-new indoor kitchen set which the children have already enjoyed hours of play with.
Once again for harvest we delivered food packages to the local elderly residence, and this was well received. Thank you everyone for the donations.
Finally, I would like to thank all our parents for their continued support, the children for showing such resilience and embracing preschool life and of course, the staff for all their hard work and their dedication. We are always looking to improve and welcome any suggestions or comments from parents, carers, and families, so if you do have any ideas or comments, please do feel free to let me know.
Kind regards Emma Newman
Pollyanna Preschool – Treasurer’s Report – AGM 16.10.23
Accounts – January to December 2022
I’m happy to announce that Pollyanna, managed to make a profit of £30,908.16 compared to £10,052.90 last year. Fundraising wise we held some events which included the successful Quiz in September 2022 which raised £483.71 which enabled the Preschool to buy kitchen accessories to add to the new play kitchen/wooden role play toys and Christmas craft resources. The Christmas fayre generated a further £437.75 which enabled us to buy a dolls house and reward accessories, craft resources and science projects and finally the Summer Fayre generated £376.80 to buy the beautiful new mud kitchen! All these fundraising events are vital for the preschool and to keep the children entertained and educated.
Unfortunately, we could not hold any further events such as the Quiz which was postponed and then sadly cancelled due to lack of interest. It is important that parents and carers and friends get involved to ensure these events happen.
We also received money from the Bucks Lotto and Amazon Smile, however Amazon Smile unfortunately has ceased to operate. There is a new format that we will be looking into registering with, so watch this space. We received a £500 grant to help with the healthy eating project. This was awarded through the Tesco Community Grant back in September 2022. The report has been completed and submitted to Tesco Groundwork Grants. We applied for a further grant from Waddesdon Manor, but this was denied. Grants are something that we will continue to focus on.
Thanks to the parents who have been making one off donations, this has been helpful. Between September 2022 and July 2023, we received £558 session fee donations. These donations have gone towards the healthy eating snacks that we promote and enable the preschool to get more creative with snack time and getting the children more involved. The preschool spent approximately £1600 on snack, craft and household consumables between the same period so as you can see the session donations alone do not cover this expenditure so we need all the help we can get if you are able to. We have asked for donations of 50p per session to contribute towards these expenditures, if you would like to know how much your child would be over a term, please speak to Esther. We also receive some regular monthly donations, and this has helped with installing the new garden fence last September.
We have printed out copies of our income and expenditure for January to December 2022 which you are more than welcome to take home with you for your reference. Thank you
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OL NA POLLYANNA PRE.SCMOOL {IlegWered Chtsth No. 1tr24769) Fundrowng Accounl lor 1st Jonuory to 37 Decemlxr 2022 INCOME Chaiilable Acllvltes Oonotions Glll Ald Lottory Amozon SmS1¢ Olher Tolgl Incom• 2918.05 148. 461.xs 73.41 471.19 4072.15 EXPEPIDITURE Exlernol Piovlder R¢souicesl Equlpment Events Other lotal Exp•nditum 1591.43 2746.42 225.C 67.15 4630.tyj Prolll low th• y•ar Bank 8olonce 01101122 -£557.85 3550.08 £2.992.23 Bank balonce ot 31112122 YOIAL £2.992.23 £2.9•2.23 Audllors Roport I hove exomlned the obove accounls wlth Ihe books ond vovchern supplled lo me. In my opinlon Ihe occounts show a Iiue and lol¥ view of Ihe deficit for Ihe yeu onoj the 51ale ol Ihe alla1 os al 3151 Decembfjr 2021 Signed Treasurer Dol• Slgngd Indeoendent ExomSner Dole