Barkham Preschool AGM 2023/2024
Chair’s Report Meeting Date: 14th November 2024 Time: 9.15am
Hello Everyone,
Thanks so much for coming along today, we all really appreciate parents coming to find out a bit more about Pre-School and what the committee and staff team are doing.
As the Committee we have jointly been performing in the role of Chair during the academic year 23/24.
We shall start with an overview of the previous academic year and then move onto an update on what has been happening so far this year.
Academic Year 2023/24
We had a busy year of fundraising including the Christmas Fayre, Easter Raffle and biscuits, Fathers Day biscuits, Bag2School, stall at the Gorse Ride School summer fete, sponsored Toddle Waddle, end of year photographs and Leavers Picnic.
Low attendance at the Christmas Fayre meant our profits fell well below the previous year and our expectations however we had positive results from our Easter Raffle, biscuit sales and Toddle Waddle. Bags2School also continues to be a great source of fundraising.
Thank you to parents and families for supporting us in our fundraising activities, we really couldn’t do it without you.
In regards to business, it was a quiet start to the year with numbers down however they improved later on in the year and an increase in the number of two year olds in setting meant Pre-school saw an increase in funding from WBC.
A minimum wage increase had to be implemented in April, and a pay increase was reviewed and implemented for staff at the same time. The committee also decided to pay out a discretionary bonus to all employees in June to reflect their hard work throughout the year.
In a bittersweet act we profited from the closure of Swallowfield Pre-School, receiving a generous monetary donation from them along with much needed resources.
The summer term of academic year 23/24 was a turbulent one for Barkham with Sarah Horsgood and Hannah handing in their notices. We would like to thank all staff for their professionalism and dedication to ensuring the best level of care for our children whilst we all navigated our way through this tricky time. Helen was successfully promoted to Supervisor and Louise stepped up into the Deputy role at the start of academic year 24/25.
Moving onto this year - Academic year 2024/25
As previously stated Helen took on the role of Supervisor and Louise the role of deputy starting September 24. We recruited Ralitsa to replace Hannah in a Practitioner role however she has unfortunately not seen through her probation so Pre-school requires a permanent member of staff, recruitment for this is currently in process.
Our Committee is also changing this year, Laura, Ioana, Anna and Zoe no longer have children attending Pre-school so will be stepping down.
Debby will be remaining on the committee for this year and we are pleased to announce that Claire, Kirsty, Tash and Brioney will be joining her, with Helen and Louise as staff representatives. Joy will be stepping down as our Treasurer, with Claire’s Husband taking over the role. Roles still to be filled as a requirement are Secretary and Chair. The new committee could decide to share the chair responsibilities as the previous committee did however they will need to appoint a named Chair with Ofsted.
Our committee is crucial for the running of Pre-School - essentially as we’re an unincorporated charity we can’t be open without one! Even if you can only attend the occasional meeting, or occasionally help out, the more parents input we get the more we can improve and grow - so please do contact us if you’re interested in lending a hand.
Due to Pre-School currently operating with only 3 permanent members of staff the number of children in care has been reduced to meet ratio. In order to increase the numbers back up to capacity there would need to be 5 permanent members of staff. Recruitment is currently in process for these Early Years Practitioner roles and is a main priority in the run up to Christmas as we will not be able to take on any new starters in January if we are unable to fill the vacancies. We are asking that if you as a parent know of anyone who would be interested in applying please enquire with Helen for more details.
The new committee have been busy arranging this year’s Christmas Fayre, which will be held on 7th December at Barkham Village Hall. The committee goes to great lengths to create these events so, if you can, please come out and support on the day and don’t forget to spread the word to family and friends. The previous committee worked hard to build more of a community feel, giving parents opportunities to get to know each other, arranging meet ups after pre-school and running events such as the sponsored Toddle Waddle in the summer. We hope that this will continue throughout this year. We missed out on a stall at the Wokingham May Fayre this year but highly recommend the new committee secure a place for May 2025. The footfall at this event will be huge so not only would it be a great opportunity for fund raising it’s also a good way to promote Pre-School in the community and potentially help to recruit new starters for the following year.
In October we were the lucky recipients of a Tesco Stronger Starts grant, receiving £600. This will be put towards much needed learning and play resources. Thank you to all who placed a blue counter into our pot in the Wokingham branch.
If anyone has any ideas for fundraising, or anything you’d like to see us do to improve Pre-School this academic year, please have a chat with us!
Thankyou
The Committee November 2024
General overview of accounts 2023-2024
Income was up by £20,809 on year 2022-2023 (see details below) Expenditure was down by £4,784 on year 2022-2023 (see details below) In November we received a refund from HMRC of £4413.44 In April we purchased a laptop for £278.98 In May Swallowfield Preschool made a donation of £9737.00
In May a donation was received from Mulhall K of £200.00 2024-2025
In June a bonus was paid to all staff, totalling £5120.94, this will effect the wage total in the year 24-25 accounts
Supervisor’s Report
Thank you to all of you for coming today. In the last year we have been lucky to have an active committee who have organised several fundraising events, which as well as raising funds for Preschool, have been enjoyable for children and families. I would also like to thank the committee for their support and handling of a difficult and challenging situation for the staff team.
Moving forward into 2024, I am pleased to be taking on the role of supervisor having been Deputy since December 2020 and Acting Supervisor from September 2022-May 2023. Louise continues to do an excellent job as SENCO and Designated Safeguarding Lead and is a great support as Deputy Supervisor. Lindsey, who started in 2022 as a temporary member of staff is a valued member of the team and continues as Early Years practitioner and key worker. She has just completed training in the statutory two-year check to extend her knowledge in this area.
Unfortunately, we have been unsuccessful in recruiting a Level 3 practitioner as a replacement for Hannah who left in July this year. Shelley, who has been employed as Bank staff since 2022 has been able to provide cover and we have recently employed Indy as an additional Bank staff member. However, for us to move forward as a Preschool and take on more children, recruitment of at least one and ideally two full time Level 3 practitioners is crucial. We are currently operating with myself as supervisor, as well as key worker needed in setting the majority of the time.
I last wrote a supervisor’s report in 2022, when covering Sarah Horsgood’s maternity leave. In this report I wrote about the introduction of the new Early Years Foundation Stage Framework in 2021, which has a greater emphasis on spending time with the children than on formal recorded observations. With this in mind, we focussed on the areas of learning in the EYFS and used the children’s interests to plan adult lead group and individual activities as well as child led play throughout the session. Instead of spending a lot of time on individual observations we used Tapestry to provide a snapshot of learning for all the children. Since taking over as supervisor this September, this is something I have aimed to reintroduce and we had a very successful Nursery Rhyme theme, based on the children’s enjoyment of our song time sessions. We look forward to continuing similar learning opportunities based on the children’s interests and relevant themes.
The next steps in ensuring we are covering all areas of learning in the EYFS and the children are developing as expected is to introduce informal “checkpoints”, highlighting what the children can do and their next steps. Although this isn’t a statutory requirement it will ensure staff know their key children well. We would also like to be able to split the children into groups according to their age/stage of development for some mat time and adult lead activities.
Due to successful fundraising by the committee, including securing a Tesco stronger starts grant of £1000 and also a donation from Swallowfield Preschool which closed down earlier this year, we are in a position to spend some of this money on improving our provision. This has begun with replacing the fence around our outdoor area which has broken several times in the last year. We are also due to install a new larger shed outside for storage of our bikes and other outdoor resources. This has been partly funded by the Barkham Village Hall committee with the aim of preventing damage to our resources by other hall users. These improvements to the outdoor area will ensure the garden is safe and secure and we can make full use of it. We would also like to use this money for a new role play kitchen and more interactive, cause and effect resources for our outdoor area.
This year, there have been changes in government funding for working families with 15 hours funding being offered to two-year-olds from April and 9-month-olds from September 2024. We currently have 6 two-year-olds on role for the Autumn term and this number remains the same for the Spring and Summer terms as while we have some new two-year- olds starting, some of our existing children will be turning 3. This is a manageable number for us with our current staffing situation.
As a staff team we have the ideas and the motivation to continually improve Barkham Preschool, but we really need more staff and continued committee support to not only do this but also ensure we meet the statutory requirements of the EYFS.
Year End Statement of Accounts June 2023 to May 2024 B#r*ham Prescht>oI IRegi5tored Charlty No- 10260281 Annual Return Incom6 and Exp8ndltur8 Accounts For Ihg Year Endod 318t May 2024 Incomo 2024 2023 2022 2021 PArenUèarer lee8 FundiDg chers Fundrai51TIP i8troU¢ns Oon8lions Bank lThleresi hor 6.791 65.990 11,1 55,003 14,031 64.349 6,078 71,869 651 769 2.813 5,084 275 4.518 10,487 1,492 92 187 2,171 4.713 2,192 Sub Total A8sel$ & Inve8tmenl SBIg& Total R•¢¢lpts 8B.742 68.734 81632 90.017 88,742 ExpondllUf• 2D24 2023 2022 2021 Waoe8 R8nl 88nk Ch8rgo5 IM8ufbnce Consum888 Equlpmgnl Admln Subscrlpfjons Musk Le580ns 71,048 2,055 60 889 1.024 504 212 851 66,807 62,751 1,869 64,938 1,428 75 663 449 925 870 1,437 1,548 425 357 389 1.201 ee1 2,240 623 150 441 69 155 695 MBtketino Fundreldng Events Other Pety Cash 33 503 532 378 255 242 316 581 200 Sub Total A$sgls 8 Inveslmenl PurGhase51>£1001 Totsl Paym8nt• 77.729 74,833 7680 71,808 72,189 77,729 BeIBCe BF In y63r balaDceldefwl 8018nG8 CF £55,582.90 £11.012. £66,595.86 £69.361.69 £57,537.57 £11.824.12 £69,361.69 £39,710.21 £17.827.3e £57.537.57 £55,582.90 These 8ccounts are prepBr8d on a c88h payment and receipts b8515 S&Bnature of 2 trnsts85 on behalf of 811 trustees
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ELAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the tru8tee81 members of Barkham Pre-school On accounts for the year ended 311t May 2024 Charlty no (If any) 1026028 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Iha above charty (Ihe Trust") for the year ended 3110512023. Responslbllltles and basls of report As the charivs trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts In accordance wlth the requirements of the Charltles Act 2011 (Ihe Acr). I report in respect of my examination of the Trusts accounts carried out under section 145 of Ihe 2011 Act arKI in carrying out my examination, I have followed all Ihe applicable Directions given by the Charty Commission under section 145(5){b> of the Act. Independent I have completsd my examination. I confimi that no material matters have examlner's statement come to my attentlon In connectlon wlth the 8xamln8tion which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: the accounting records were rt kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or the accounts did not accord wth the accounting records", or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concemlng tha fonn and cOnt of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fairf view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection th the examination to whith attention should be drawn In thls report In order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Slgned: Name: QC-LA ll COoufyLL Relevant prof88slonal qualiflcatlon(s) or body (If any): Aéckp Address: 20 R4E uii 3£ Korfg, Ai£E-f&/dr IER Oct 2018
Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: direclions and guidance for examiner5). Give here brlef details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose. IER Oct 2018