## **Earleybird**
## **MINUTES OF THE 2023 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGPre-School**
## Wednesday 1st November 2023 19:30 Virtual meeting – Microsoft Teams
## **Attendees:**
Jen O’Brien, Lindsay Barkham, Curtis Mitchell, Donna Sarney, Jade Whatley, Curtis Mitchell, Amanda Handisides, Raegan Du Plessis, Sandra Warwick, Dani Warwick, Shruti, Hala Marzouk, Yasmine, Meenakshi Pradeep Kumar, Hayley G, Ruth West, Asad, Katie Price, Karen Peters, Meenakshi, Wen Jin Ricky Lai, Jodie Whatley-Smith, Vikas Sheoran, Ayesha Siddiqa, Hannah, Alen Ashworth, Homanshu Tomar, Ben Murphy, Oliver Perry, Yasmin Ben-Umar, Katherine Taplin, Jenny Cavubati, Tori Cooper, Sadia Hassan, Saranya, Himanshu Tomar, Sibani Pattanayak, Hala Marzouk, Mahdi Naqvi & Zargham Abbas
## **Apologies:**
Louise Lunn, Shellie Litchfield, Maggie McDonald, Julie Loosley, Merry Wang, Jake Card
## **1. Welcome**
Meeting commenced at 7.30pm chaired by Jen O’Brien (Chair)
Jen started the meeting by welcoming everyone and thanking them for attending
## **2. Accepting of Minutes from last AGM**
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 3[rd] November 2022.
**Proposed:** Ruth West **Seconded:** Sandra Warwick
## **3. Manager’s Report - presented by Donna Sarney** (Manager 2021 to date)
We really appreciate you giving your time to log on and be in attendance at this year’s AGM.
I personally haven’t run an AGM online before so keeping my fingers crossed that all goes smoothly, and we don’t have too many technical glitches. Please bear with us.
As I am sure you are all aware, I am Donna, Earleybird Manager this is my third year at EB. I started following completion of BA Hons Degree in children’s development and learning, seeking a new challenge and career progression. I can honestly say that the team at Earley Birds are the most welcoming and passionate team that I have had the pleasure of working with. With that I’d like to take this opportunity to thank every member of staff for the dedication, passion and care they give to the pre-school and the children each day.
Page **1** of **7**
Following on from this, as a committee run pre-school, we rely on our committee to ensure that the pre-school can continue to operate. This year we have been supported by Jen our chair of committee, Curtis our Secretary, Lindsay our Treasurer, Jade, and Anne Marie as our fundraisers. Together they have ran some fantastic fundraising events to enable us to purchase resources, equipment, furniture and run extracurricular activities. Another thankyou goes out to them. We will be sadly saying goodbye to Curtis and Lindsay from their roles this year, we have highly valued their support and input into the pre-school. We look forward to welcoming our new committee members to the EB team.
Now I’ve done the introductions and thankyous, let’s move onto to the exciting plans for this upcoming year and what your children have to look forward. We are continuously aiming to evolve, develop and provide the best first steps to education for the children of the local community. This year we have incorporated woodwork fully into the curriculum for both rooms, this is a unique experience for the children, and we are proud to offer this as an above and beyond extension. We are partnering with Thrive childcare again this year to spend time together for trips, outings, and hopefully more Austin house visits. We have the duckling eggs arriving early spring for the children to learn about lifecycles and the birds of Prey coming in May. We hope to also be able to run extracurricular classes every other half term with the help of parent donations. Upcoming we have our Christmas performance and party, and across the year we will also be celebrating, Diwali, Chinese New Year, Ramadan, Eid, Holi and Easter. We welcome Parents to come in and support within the pre-school and are excited to open our parent rota this term, if you haven’t already asked for a parent rota slot then please do message Ruth for a slot.
We are continuing to develop our partnership with Hawkedon and work really closely with Miss Povey who is foundation leader. We are excited to start to have a shared outside time once a week where the children can flow between pre-school and foundation outside, this will begin to develop their awareness of foundation space.
This year will are also continuing to develop our provision for children with special educational needs, in memory of Christine South who was a much loved member of the team who passed away earlier this year. In her memory we have dedicated our send provision to be named Chris’s chance and the policy for sen has been adapted this year to reflect and commemorate Chris. Chris had a wealth of experience and knowledge working with children supporting them through early developmental difficulties. We aim to maintain and her passion for sen and continue to strive to provide the best possible start for each and every child regardless of boundaries and obstacles. With this we appointed Senco’s for each room and have provided ongoing continuous training and support.
This year we congratulate Shellie Litchfield on completing her SENCO level 3 qualification, Dani Warwick on completing her Maths equivalency and progressing onto her level 3 qualification and Merry Wang on sitting and passing both her Maths and English GCSE which will enable her to start a early years qualification.
We look forward to another fun filled year full of wonder, curiosity and inquisitiveness.
Thank you.
## **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 third 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 2 and daughter in year 4. I have really enjoyed being chair this year and watching the pre-school thrive and develop. I try to pop into the pre-school once a week
Page **2** of **7**
to catch up with staff and see the children who are all happily engrossed in various activities. (Which tend to be very loud and messy!!)
I also want to give 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. I have the highest admiration for the staff seeing how they interact with the students and all the activities they do and encouraging outdoor play which I’m a big fan of! Donna as always special mention as she makes my role as chair super easy. She is a fountain of knowledge and knows everything about all the children and really does focus on the best for them. Thank you Donna! Ruth – what we would do without her I don’t know! She has all the answers to everything committee and Wokingham borough related and I cannot thank her enough for all she does and all the papers she gets me to sign!!! Thank you Ruth.
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 a Bingo, Easter Fayre and colour run which were hugely successful. Other fundraising events have been the Panto tickets, Christmas cards/tea towels. Thank you, committee, for all your hard work and the support you have given me and the preschool. The money raised will be going towards the robin room garden and to continue to support the learning needs of the children in starling room.
This year we held the Easter fayre for the first time in 3 years – it was a great success and I thoroughly enjoyed the day. It is very tricky to run with such a limited committee and I will consider not running it this year if we do not get the support from parents. I think it is important to raise this information to parents as although part of the pre-school is funded anything we buy is almost totally from fundraising. As the national minimum wage, cost of living and our rent goes up it is even more important that we raise as much money as possible so that the pre- school can remain open. If we do not get the volunteers that we need I cannot safely run events – which in turn means we cannot supply the pre-school with the supplies that you as parents have become accustomed to. Please help us and volunteer some time.
This year I’m keen to do the colour run again and maybe a circus with a big top tent! But this can only be done with your help. For the colour run I relied on a few members of staff, my family and friends and the staffs family and friends – this is not how it should be!
We, as a committee, have had a few meetings with Mr O’Shea before he left and will be meeting with Mrs Hughes in the next few months 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 a fantastic working relationship with the foundation team to help those who go to Hawkedon school and I feel this is just continuing to grow and has such a positive impact on those going to foundation.
I feel like I want to acknowledge what a tricky year emotionally the staff have had this year particularly the last 6 months. We tragically lost Chris this year yet a year ago I was here saying how much we will miss her. Here I am a year later saying how much the staff and I miss her having sadly lost her battle with cancer a few months ago. The staff are putting together an area in the garden with a tree in remembrance of Chris. I just want to say thank you to the staff for keeping it together while at work and still grieving for lost ones.
Page **3** of **7**
We are saying goodbye to Curtis and Lindsey this year as they have new commitments. I would like to thank both of them for all the help and support they have given. It has been great fun to work with you both and hope we continue to see you at Earleybird events! Staying on we have AnneMarie and Jade they are fundraisers and do an amazing job – thank you! I personally am very excited to see what’s next for Earleybirds. I will finish on another thank you to all the staff for the hardwork and time you put into all the children. Thank you.
## **5. Treasurer’s Report – Lindsay Barkham** (Treasurer 2021-2023)
My name is Lindsay and both my children attended Earleybirds and had a blast! I’m lucky to have been the Treasurer for the last two academic years and its been a really enjoyable experience, but this is my last year unfortunately.
Ruth is the Administrator for the pre-school and she really does an amazing job which makes the treasurer role so much easier! So thank you for you support Ruth.
Provided to you on screen are the figures for the 2022/23 academic year. These will be independently examined shortly and submitted to the charity commission before the deadline next year. I’m really pleased that we’ve managed to save some money this year (which makes up for the deficit the previous year but we do need to buy a new laptop and there are some great ideas about the garden which I think we should find the money for!) Since covid we have been restricted in the way we have raised funds but I’m so very pleased to see that our fundraising efforts last year raised a similar amount to the pre-covid amounts. So thank you so much for everyone who helped out at the fundraising events because without our volunteers, staff, parents and the wider community we would not be able to raise the funds the pre-school needs.
The next page shows the different accounts the pre-school hold.
In the past year I have reviewed the accounts the pre-school has as they didn’t quite suit our needs anymore. So we have now moved the redundancy funds we are required to hold into a new higher-interest account, which keeps it separate from the funds we use on a daily basis. The provisional figure on these pages is because the statement for this new account didn’t get here in time for the meeting so I need to add in the interest earned but all the other figures are correct.
We’ve also implemented a system to reclaim the gift aid on eligible donations which is a great way to maximise on our income.
That’s everything from me! I would like to thank the parents and staff who were able to join us here today, and I wish the committee and staff success for the future!
## **6. Vote on Policy Document**
The pre-school Policy Document had undergone a review since last year. The whole of the revised Policy Document was circulated via email to all parents & staff for them to review, including a page summarising the proposed changes.
No objections or comments were received before the meeting, and those attending the AGM also raised no objections or comments and agreed to a vote for the whole document.
It was reminded that the Policy Document is available to download from Hawkedon School’s website, the pre-school website or upon request be contacting our Administrator.
**Proposed:** Lindsay Barkham **Seconded:** Raegan Du Plessis
Page **4** of **7**
## **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 Lindsay Barkham (Treasurer) and Curtis Mitchell (Secretary).
All committee members shown below were unanimously voted in with 20 counts by all attendees of the AGM:-
|Committee Position|Name|Nominated by|Seconded by|
|---|---|---|---|
|Chair|Jennifer O’Brien|SallySmith|Jess Perry|
|Secretary|Jodie Whately-Smith|SallySmith|Ben Murphy|
|Treasurer|Ben Murphy|Jess Perry|SallySmith|
|Fundraiser|Jade Whatley|Jennifer O’Brien|Anne-Marie
Singleton|
|Fundraiser|Anne-Marie Singleton|Louise Forrest|Jennifer Cavubat|
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 15[th] November at 7.30pm.
Jen O’Brien closed the meeting at 8.00pm.
Page **5** of **7**
## **Appendix 1: R&P Accounts 2022-2023**
||**Earleybird Pre-School**|**Earleybird Pre-School**|**Earleybird Pre-School**|||**1029326**|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Receipts and**|||**ts andpayments accounts**||||**CC16a**|||
||**For the period**
**from**|||01/09/2022|**To**|31/08/2023|||||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||||||||
||**Unrestricted**
**funds**||**Restricted**
**funds**||**Endowment**
**funds**|**Total funds**||**Last year**|||
||**to the nearest**
**£**|**to the nearest**|**to the nearest £**|**to the nearest £**|**to the nearest £**|**to the nearest £**||**to the nearest £**|||
|**A1 Receipts**|||||||||||
|Fees from Wokingham BC
**202,902**
**-**
**-**
**202,902**
**173,308**
Private Fees
**14,476**
**-**
**-**
**14,476**
**13,221**
Fundraising
**10,948**
**-**
**-**
**10,948**
**8,271**
Other
**526**
**-**
**-**
**526**
**121**
Interest Earned on Bank Accounts
**463**
**-**
**463**
**9**
**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_
**229,314**
**-**
**-**
**229,314**
**194,931**
~~————==—~~|||||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Total receipts_**
**229,314**
**-**
**-**
**229,314**
**194,931**
~~————~~|||||||||||
|**A3 Payments**|||||||||||
|Wages|**154,305**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**154,305**||**148,015**|||
|PAYE|**18,940**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**18,940**||**19,148**|||
|Pensions|**6,267**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**6,267**||**5,264**|||
|Materials|**1,401**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**1,401**||**1,036**|||
|Expenses|**10,917**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**10,917**||**10,073**|||
|Food Shop|**3,004**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**3,004**||**2,798**|||
|FundraisingExpenditure|**3,706**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**3,706**||**3,568**|||
|Training|**549**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**549**||**1,516**|||
|Rent|**10,028**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**10,028**||**16,067**|||
|Phone|**168**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**168**||**186**|||
|Garden|**1,570**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**1,570**||**364**|||
|Miscellaneous|**535**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**535**||**472**|||
|**_Sub total_ **|**211,390**||**-**|**-**|**-**|**211,390**||**208,506**|||
|**A4 Asset and investmentpurchases**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**_Total payments_**
**211,390**
**-**
**-**
**211,390**
**208,506**
~~——————~~|||||||||||
|**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**17,924**
**-**
**- 17,924**
**- 13,575**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**- -**
**-**
**-**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**142,527**
**- -**
**142,527**
**156,102**
**_Cash funds this year end_**
**160,452**
**-**
**- 160,452**
**142,527**
~~===~~|||||||||**- 13,575**
**-**
**156,102**
**142,527**|**- 13,575**
**-**
**156,102**
**142,527**|
|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**|||||**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**||||||
||||||**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**||**Endowment**|||
|**Categories**|**Details**||||**funds**|**funds**||**funds**|||
||||||**to nearest £**|**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**|||
|**62,014**
**-**
**-**
**24,217**
**-**
**-**
**74,184**
**37**
**-**
**-**
**160,452**
**-**
**-**
**_Total cash funds_**
Lloyds Current Account
Lloyds Bus Bank Instant
Petty Cash
**B1 Cash funds**
Charity Bank saver
~~===~~|||||||||||
||(agree balances w ith receipts and payments||||(agree balances w ith receipts and payments||||||
|||||account(s))|OK|OK||OK|||
||||||**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**||**Endowment**|||
||||||**funds**|**funds**||**funds**|||
||**Details**||||**to nearest £**|**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**|||
|**B2 Other monetary assets**|||||**-**|**-**||**-**|||
||**Details**||||**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**|**Cost (optional)**||**Current value**
**(optional)**|||
|**B3 Investment assets**||||||**-**||**-**|||
|**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**Current value**
**(optional)**
Unrestricted
**-**
**-**
Unrestricted
**-**
**-**
Unrestricted
**-**
**-**
Unrestricted
**-**
**-**
Unrestricted
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**When due**
**(optional)**
**Details**
**Details**
Laptops
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
Toys
Digital Camera
Ipads
School Furniture
~~SSS=~~|||||||||||
|**B5 Liabilities**|August 2023 PAYE|August 2023 PAYE|||Unrestricted|**1,207**||**Sept 2023**|||
|||||||||||Page**6**of**7**|
**Appendix 2 Bank Accounts Summary 2022-2023**
||**Lloyds Current**
**Account**||**Lloyds Bus Bank**
**Instant Account**||**Charity Bank 40-**
**Day Saver**||**Petty Cash**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||||||
|**Opening balance 01/09/2022**
**Ext. receipts**
**Ext. payments**
**Interest earned**
**Investment Transfers INCOME**
**Investment Transfers EXPEDITURE**
**Calculated closing balance 31/08/2023**
**Closing balance on bank statement 31/08/2023**|**68,472.79**
228,090.93
-211,389.58
0.00
50,840.00
-74,000.00||**73,937.94**
0.00
0.00
279.19
0.00
-50,000.00||**0.00**
0.00
0.00
183.55
74,000.00
0.00||**116.35**
760.40
0.00
0.00
0.00
-840.00|
||**62,014.14**||**24,217.13**||**74,183.55**||**36.75**|
||**62,014.14**||**24,217.13**||**74,183.55**||**36.75**|
Page **7** of **7**
CHARITY COMMISSION
FOR ENGLAND AND WALES
Independent examinerfs report on the
accounts
Section A
Independent Examiner's Report
Roport to the Iruslees
On accounts for the year
ended
31103
2DzA
Charlty no
(if any)
101932
Set out on pages
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above
charity I'the Trusl") for the year ended 31 2023
Responsibilities and
basis of report
As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of Ihe
accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011
I'lhe Acl").
I report in resped of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out
under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I
have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission
under section 14515){b) of the Act.
Independent
examiner's statement
no
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have
come to my attention in connection with the examination14k
diqela") which gives me cause to believe that in, any material
respect..
the accounling records were not kept in accordance with section 130
of the Charities Act., or
the accounts did not accord with the accounting records., or
the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements
Conrning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities
(Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement
that the accounts give a 'true and fair, view which is nol a matter
considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no conc£rns and have come across no other matters in connection
with the examination lo which attention should be drawn in this report in
order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
ease delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.
Signe
Date:
oq
2a2
Relevant professlonal
qualification(s) or body
IIA
IER
Oct 2018
lif any):
Address:
8 F£(5402 c£.
G6 (4Ju
Section B
Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs lo highlight material mallers of concern
(see CC32. Independent examination of Charity accounts.. directions and
guidan for examiners).
Give here brlel detalls of
any items that Ihe
examiner wishos to
dlsclose.
. I*LL l
IER
Oct 2018
| (HARITY(OkllUSSIO
Receipts and payments accounts
CC16a
Sectlon A Recelpis payrnent5
Al
14A
Sub roial
Iw.gJt
A3P
iy.y
1¢
7.1
5ubrot41
17.924
1*101
liQ,4J2
Section B Staternenl of a55els and liabilitie5 at the end of the period
BI Chlur
M717
R*Èlrtt
fund&
1oiw•bt¢
B2OihBrnMJnwY1XI•19
4 AÈ&ths Thtalrt*dfDrth
¢haiky's O¥¥M uie
Tw
Oy11Kj
JinLNiB
oyi*ra¥)
CHARITY COMMISSION
FOR ENGLAND AND WALES
Independent examinerfs report on the
accounts
Section A
Independent Examiner's Report
Roport to the Iruslees
On accounts for the year
ended
31103
2DzA
Charlty no
(if any)
101932
Set out on pages
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above
charity I'the Trusl") for the year ended 31 2023
Responsibilities and
basis of report
As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of Ihe
accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011
I'lhe Acl").
I report in resped of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out
under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I
have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission
under section 14515){b) of the Act.
Independent
examiner's statement
no
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have
come to my attention in connection with the examination14k
diqela") which gives me cause to believe that in, any material
respect..
the accounling records were not kept in accordance with section 130
of the Charities Act., or
the accounts did not accord with the accounting records., or
the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements
Conrning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities
(Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement
that the accounts give a 'true and fair, view which is nol a matter
considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no conc£rns and have come across no other matters in connection
with the examination lo which attention should be drawn in this report in
order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
ease delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.
Signe
Date:
oq
2a2
Relevant professlonal
qualification(s) or body
IIA
IER
Oct 2018
lif any):
Address:
8 F£(5402 c£.
G6 (4Ju
Section B
Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs lo highlight material mallers of concern
(see CC32. Independent examination of Charity accounts.. directions and
guidan for examiners).
Give here brlel detalls of
any items that Ihe
examiner wishos to
dlsclose.
. I*LL l
IER
Oct 2018
| (HARITY(OkllUSSIO
Receipts and payments accounts
CC16a
Sectlon A Recelpis payrnent5
Al
14A
Sub roial
Iw.gJt
A3P
iy.y
1¢
7.1
5ubrot41
17.924
1*101
liQ,4J2
Section B Staternenl of a55els and liabilitie5 at the end of the period
BI Chlur
M717
R*Èlrtt
fund&
1oiw•bt¢
B2OihBrnMJnwY1XI•19
4 AÈ&ths Thtalrt*dfDrth
¢haiky's O¥¥M uie
Tw
Oy11Kj
JinLNiB
oyi*ra¥)