MINUTES OF THE 2022 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Thursday 3rd November 2022 19:30 Earleybird Pre-School, Robin Room
1. Welcome and Apologies
The Annual General Meeting commenced at 7.30pm. The meeting was chaired by Jen O’Brien (Chair)
Attendees:
Jen O’Brien, Lindsay Barkham, Curtis Mitchell, Donna Sarney, Jade Whatley, Sarah Player, Claire Rodway, Ruth West, Karen Peters, Sandra Warwick, Dani Warwick, Julie Loosley, Merry Wong, Maggie McDonald, Gemma Ashworth, Alan Ashworth, Nichola McDonnell, Katherine Taplin, Holly Field, Alex Field, Faryal Hamidi, Carla Szadowski, Nimet Akciak, Marju Begum
Apologies:
Anne-Marie Singleton, Shellie Litchfield, Karen Peters, Jake Card
Jen started the meeting by welcoming everyone and thanking them for attending
2. Accepting of Minutes from last AGM and matters arising
Copies of the previous AGM minutes and agenda had been emailed to all parents and staff before the meeting. The minutes were accepted as a true and accurate record of last year’s AGM held on 20[th] October 2021.
Proposed: Claire Rodway Seconded: Julie Loosley
Matters arising: There were no matters arising from the previous meeting.
3. Manager’s Report - presented by Donna Sarney (Manager 2021 to date)
Good evening thanks for coming. You should all have a copy of Earleybirds updated curriculum and a copy of the policy document was sent out through email and a few printed copies are also available tonight.
As you will see from our curriculum, we highly focus on developing the core skills children need to be ready for school. We really encourage independence, confidence, and resilience to develop lifelong learners who are able to have a go and bounce back from difficulties. Communication and language are a core focus for us and therefore we base each week around a story book, supported
Page 1 of 7
by Makaton signs and have a word of the week. These open a range of exposure to language and communication to extend the children’s vocabulary and ability to communicate. We believe that children learn best when they are happy and engaged with activities they are interested in and therefore we operate a ‘Learn through play’ ethos where the highly skilled team are able to extend the children’s learning through observation, assessment, the children’s interests and stepping in and out of the children’s play as needed.
The team at Earleybird are a skilled and dedicated team who go above and beyond to ensure the children of Early birds receive the very best start to their learning journey. Ruth is our administer and works behind the scenes ensuring all of the administration for the pre-school is completed. Claire and Sandra are the Pre-schools Deputy Managers and room supervisors. Working with Claire in the Robin room we have Louise, Shellie, and Karen. And in the Starling room working with Sandra, we have Julie, Maggie, Dani Jake and Merry and are also supported in the afternoons by the robin room team. Without the team we have the pre-school would not have the great reputation it has.
The past year as Jen has already touched on was fantastic and full of achievements. The children engaged in lots of added extracurricular activities that could not have run without the support of parent donations, we have football, gymnastics, martial arts, dance, millers farm, feathers and fur owls, baby ducks and caterpillars. We also had a visit early in the year from OFSTED who recognised the dedication and hard work the staff team put in everyday and rated the pre-school as Good which is a credit to the team.
The year ahead already has many fun activities planned. The children have already learnt about and celebrated Diwali and Halloween, Visited Austin House to meet the residents, been on trips to the local park and had Bollywood Zumba come in to do sessions. We have Racket sports and dodgeball coming up next term with Play sports and are hoping to have some instrument sessions to follow the following term. We have feathers and fur and the duckling eggs booked in for spring next year which is a great opportunity for the to experience lifecycles first hand. We also have the Christmas party on the morning of the 20th of December. The photographer is booked for the end of April to do individual and class photos. We will be continuing to develop our outside spaces and are hoping to introduce woodwork into our curriculum and extra outdoor learning opportunities.
Parent partnerships are important to us. We operate a Parent rota which will start next term where parents are invited to come in and help in the pre-school. Ruth will send out further information about this shortly. We also call on your support for jobs around the pre-school such as painting, D.I.Y etc… We have recently moved over to the Famly system that you are all activate on to keep up to date with upcoming events, news, and your child’s learning. We hope you are finding this system useful and easy to use.
Committee- I would like to take a moment to say a big thank you to Sarah, Sarah’s son attended Earleybirds for the past 2 years and Sarah has been the Lead Fundraiser for the pre-school and for part of that she was the only fundraiser for the pre-school during a time that Fundraising events couldn’t happen, and we had to adapt. Sarah put together the idea of online auctions, she gathered the prizes through what I can only imagine was hours’ worth of emailing and responding and hosted the events online through social media. Sarah also supported the pre-school through Match Funding a scheme where your workplace matches any funds you raise for a charity. Your support has been greatly received and enabled the building of the sensory garden canopy so that the children can access this space all year around. Thank you so much.
Page 2 of 7
Finally, I would like to thank Jen our chair, Curtis our secretary, Lindsay our treasurer and Jade our fundraiser for their continued support of the pre-school and the preschool team and I very look forward to continuing to work with you all and the newly elected committee members. Thank you all for attending and supporting the pre-school to continue to operate.
4. Chairs’ Report - presented by Jen O’Brien (Chair 2020 – to date)
Evening all, I’m Jen and I’m chairperson for Earleybird Pre-school. This is the end of my second year of being chair and I hope to continue for another year. Both my children have been through Earleybirds with my son now in year 1 and daughter in year 3. I have really enjoyed being chair this year and watching the pre school thrive and develop. With little to no covid restrictions now It is lovely to see the Pre-School back to normal with lots of happy little smiling faces. I try to pop into the pre school once a week to catch up with staff and see the children who are all happily engrossed in various activities. (which tend to be very loud!!)
I also want to give a massive thanks to ALL the wonderful staff most of who are here tonight. They create the most wonderful relationships with the children, which is shown by how much the children love coming in. I’m sure as parents you can all understand how hard the staff work in setting up activities that spur the children’s curiosity and interests to keep them busy and entertained throughout the days. This year both Sandra and Claire have been promoted to deputy managers, essentially the role stays the same but it gives the pre school a solid structure and supports Donna the manager. Also Dani and Shellie are now room SENCO assistants. It is really encouraging to see staff want to continue with professional development and that we can promote within. Congratulations to all 4 of you. This year we were sad to see Chris retire from being SENCO, she did an amazing job for 23 years but look forward to seeing all the holidays she is going on!
Secondly, I’d like to thank the committee for everything they do. Without their support and hard work the fundraising and day-to-day running would not be as smooth. This year we have held an online auction and Bingo which were hugely successful. Other fundraising events have been the Panto tickets, Christmas cards/tea towels we attempted band night but it fell on a bad weekend of other events but we will try this again in the summer. Thank you, committee, for all your hard work and the support you have given me and the preschool. The money raised went to our sensory garden which now looks amazing, and we also have put a Perspex roof on it to make it more usable even on wetter days! We as a committee have also spent some time painting the Robin Room Garden to cheer it up a bit and will continue to do this when it dries up again. If anyone has any spare time and would like to help nearer the time, please let us know.
Normally our biggest fundraiser is the Easter Fayre, but we have been unable to run this. It is normally a fantastic day with the help of parents – however currently with only one/two fundraisers this is not something we can run with just the 5 of us. So please if you have time, we would love to have you as a fundraiser. This year we are hoping to be able to run it but we do need more help even if its just an hour a week of e-mailing stall holders, on the day can man a stall or if you know anyone who could run an activity on the day would be amazing and greatly appreciated. I also have grand plans for holding a colour run in the summer, a band night and more bingo! The plan moving forward is to do the garden area up in Robin room and to develop the woodwork area.
We, as a committee, have had a few meetings with Mr O’Shea and the governors to continue building the partnership with Hawkedon. The school have always been very generous in allowing us to hold fundraising events in the hall and waived the rental fee. Donna and the team have created
Page 3 of 7
a fantastic working relationship with the foundation team to help those who go to Hawkedon school.
We are saying goodbye to Sarah this year as she has new commitments. I would like to thank Sarah for all her fundraising efforts. I personally am very excited to see what’s next for Earleybirds. Thank you all for your continued support as we really cannot run without wonderful volunteers. Donna has had an amazing year organizing lots of sporting activities for the children to enjoy, sorting out all the paperwork and keeping on top of all the staffing hours. You make the role of chair much easier so thank you! I also need to say a huge thank you to Ruth, she is always squirreling away behind the scenes and keeping on top of paperwork and getting me to sign various things! Lastly staff thank you again for all your hard work, it really does not go unrecognized and again we really can’t thank you enough.
5. Treasurer’s Report – Lindsay Barkham (Treasurer 2021-Present)
My name is Lindsay. I have been the Treasurer for Earleybird’s for most of the past academic year, and will continue the role throughout this academic year.
I could list my role as making payments and popping to the bank, but Ruth our Administrator carries out most of these tasks so I’m really grateful to her as it means I can just take a second look at everything and check it off in preparation for the annual return to the charity commission.
The team have really great ideas and suggestions for how to improve your children’s experience with us, which usually means Donna asking for authorization of one-off purchases but these are only made after careful consideration. We have had a really successful year of fundraising, thanks to the staff and committee, the parents of both Earleybird and Hawkedon, and the wider community, and I really encourage spending these additional funds on specific projects. For example, the funds we received from our Bingo night together with an employer match funding scheme, enabled us to upgrade the roof in the sensory garden which makes it a more practical area throughout the seasons.
Attached are the figures for the 2021/22 academic year. These will be independently examined shortly and submitted to the charity commission before the deadline next year. Its important to note that the money saved in the reserve account is the staff redundancy fund, and this has not been paid into during the past year. I will be carrying out a financial review over this academic year to ensure we are in the correct position.
Our main source of funding is from Wokingham Borough Council, alongside a small amount generated from private fees, and last year there was an increase on income generated by fundraising. Although this increase was partly due to Covid restrictions being lifted, it shows how important it is for us to have a team of fundraisers who can help the preschool achieve this important stream of additional income.
You may notice our rental costs have increased significantly, and they have also increased further for the coming academic year. It was discussed at a meeting with Hawkedon and you should note that they have not significantly increased our rent over the previous 7 years. Whilst a rent review is never a welcome discussion, it was somewhat overdue.
That’s everything from me! I look forward to continue helping Earleybird’s over the next coming year, and would like to thank the parents and staff who were able to join us here today.
Page 4 of 7
6. Vote on Policy Document
The pre-school Policy Document has been fully reviewed since last year. The whole of the revised Policy Document was circulated via email to all parents & staff for them to review, and raise any comments or objection before the vote this evening. No objections or comments were received before the meeting, and those attending this AGM agreed to a vote for the whole document. Policy Document is available to download from Hawkedon School’s website, the pre-school website or upon request be contacting our Administrator.
Proposed: Sandra Warwick
Seconded: Dani Warwick
7. Resignation of Committee and Election of New Committee
Jen thanked all current committee members for their support this year and those stepping down this year. Committee members stepping down are Sarah Player (Fundraiser).
All committee members shown below were unanimously voted in with 20 counts:-
| Committee Position | Name | Proposed by | Seconded by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chair | Jennifer O’Brien | EmilyRakauskas | Curtis Mitchell |
| Secretary | Curtis Mitchell | Anne-Marie Singleton |
Emily Rakauskas |
| Treasurer | Lindsay Barkham | Anne-Marie Singleton |
Nichola McDonnell |
| Fundraiser | Jade Whatley | Jennifer O’Brien | LindsayBarkham |
| Fundraiser | Anne-Marie Singleton | Emily Rakauskas | Nichola McDonnell |
| Fundraiser | Carla Szadowski | Katherine Taplin | Nichola McDonnell |
Donna Sarney has been co-opted to the committee.
8. AOB
No other business was raised.
The first committee meeting for the new committed was arranged for 16[th] November at 7.30pm.
Jen closed the meeting at 8.00pm.
Page 5 of 7
Appendix I: R&P Accounts 2021-2022 (>i#miY(orir1155KJTI RK•l •nLI pyThnti •¢¢oiini• CC161 Pvth Séctiort A Re¢&ipts p3ym¢fiig Al iJJr 5oction 8 siaiènni ot a8sèis ano Iiablllljès ai eno ot the period 01 Cakn D1 D*1 Page6of7
Appendix 2 Bank Accounts Summary 2021-2022
Page 7 of 7
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLANO ANO WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Report to the trusteesl members of Earteybird e-S¢h( On accounts for the year ended 3110812022 Charity no (rf any) 1029326 Sot out on pagas l to the trustees on my examina1m of the accounts of the above charity {Ihe Trusf) for the year ended 3110&Q022. Responsibilities and basis As the charitvs trustees. you are responsible the preparation of the of report accounts in aCc(dance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (Ihe knr). l POrt in respect of my exarninalion of the Trust's acownts rried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145{51(bl of the Act. Independent examinerfs I have rA)mpleted my examination. I confirm that no material matters have statsmont come to my attention in connection with the examination (oth8F#. 10.) which gives me cause to beIve that in, any material the acc))unting recofds were not kept in accordan( with seciion 130 of the Chariiies Act.. or the accounts did not accord wtth the acownting records: or the accounts did not comFly with the appCable requirements (xjnceming the form and cx)ntent of accounts set out in the Charities (ACcUnts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requiremènt that the accounts give a 'true and fairf view vthich is Tr)t a matter idered as part of an independent examination. I have no concerns and hav8 come across no other matters in conn8Ction with the examinalion to which attention should b8 drawn in this réport in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reathed. . Please delete the words in the brackets rfthey do not apply. Signèd: Dat•: 01.02.2023 Name: Nichola McDonnell Relevant professional quallfi&l¢)n(s) or body (rf any): NIA Address: Marflx)rough IER Oct 2018
SN8 1DY Only comp4ete if the examiner needs to high1ht material matters of conc£m (s88 CC32, Indépéndènt 8xamination of charity accounts: dir8Ctions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examlner wDshes to disclose. Nothing to note. IER Oct 2018