2024-08-31-accounts

Minutes of Meeting

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Friday 8th November 2024 – 12:30pm

Meeting for YE 31.08.24

Attended: Chris Millins, Jemma Parris, Iola Palmer-Stirling, Joanne Webber, Sarah Brough, Gemma Cameron

Staff: Zoe Woodroofe, Kelly Watson, Karen Skilton

Chairs Report – Iola Palmer-Stirling

We have had a great year of fundraising and would like to thank all of the committee for their help and support. It would seem that doing fundraisers ‘little and often’ works and is more manageable than running the big events of the past.

Committee meetings are now carried out virtually on zoom. There is a Whatsapp group for the committee which is constantly updated and is where ideas are shared. It would be nice to possibly run some sort of social evening, e.g. cheese and wine – to enable the committee members to get together face to face and would be a nice way to involve new parents.

Minutes of the 2023 AGM Approved:

Proposed by Gemma, Second by Chris

Treasurer’s Report – Jemma Parris

As already mentioned, we have had a great year for fundraising and the figures show just how important that extra bit is for topping up our annual income.

Our highest expense as always is wages and staff cover. The minimum wage increased in April to £11.44 per hour which is great news for staff. Unfortunately, the funding we receive doesn’t increase at the same rate so it leaves us with no option but to increase our session fees to ensure we can cover the increase in wages. We raised our fees to £24 a session this year, which is still well below average for the local area.

With the minimum wage set to go up again next April, there is no doubt that we will have to increase our fees again in line with this.

We have changed how we charge for snack fees which seems to be working well and is fairer for families. Snack fees are now charged at £1 per session that the child is in.

Treasurer’s Report: Proposed by Iola, Second by Joanne

– Supervisors Report Chris Millins/ Zoe Woodroofe

Firstly, we would like to say a big thank you to those who have attended today and for your continued support throughout the last year.

This AGM covers the school year from September 2023 – July 2024. Our leavers at the end of July 2023 was 23 children……we kept our September 2023 intake slightly lower to accommodate for new starters in both January 2024 and April 2024. This gave us a total headcount of 55 at the end of the school year.

We started the new term with our topic ‘All about me’ which is a great icebreaker for new children and gives them the opportunity to talk about their families and bring in photos and special items from home to share with their friends and staff. We then looked at the seasons and also covered different celebrations that occur throughout the year including Diwali, Remembrance Sunday and of course Christmas.

Kelly completed her level 3 qualification during this period so huge congratulations to her, and Sophie is halfway through her level 3. Emily decided that the time was right for her to leave Manor Road at the end of the summer term 2024. Emily was only ever meant to help us out on a temporary basis but many many years later she was still with us and played an incredible part of the team. Now her children are both at secondary school she felt that the time was right for her to do something for herself. She will be back on occasions to help us out but it goes without saying that she will be greatly missed by us all.

Chris also made the very difficult decision that from September 2024 she would be stepping down as manager. Chris has held this role for decades but again, has also decided that the time was right for her to step aside. She will of course be staying with Manor Road and will continue to pass on her wealth of knowledge to myself and the rest of the team……we really couldn’t do it without her. During the last part of the school year 2024, Karen informed us of her plans to retire at the end of the summer term 2025. Again, she will be greatly missed by us all after many years with Manor Road Preschool but we wish her a very happy retirement when the time comes.

Finally, just to clarify the importance of the amazing fundraising and the support you give us over the year, below is a little insight as to the reasons why this is so important:

The government decided to make changes to the funding from April 2024 to include 15 hour funding for working parents of 2 year olds. Although this is amazing for our families, it was going to have a big impact on lots of settings financially. The amount of funding per hour for a 2 year old would be £7.55 – whilst this may seem ok, the amount is less than we would charge per hour and would then drop to £5.16 per hour when they turn 3. This results in us receiving almost £3 per hour less than the £8 per hour we charge at this time, resulting in a loss of £9 for a 3 hour session. We had quite a few families apply for this and we have been in a position to be able to accommodate the children for the hours they needed, but it has meant that we have had to review our snack and lunch fees to enable us to make up any shortfall, as agreed by the committee. Snack fees will now be charged at £1 per session rather than the £2 per week it was previously……and our lunch fees have remained the same. This has also meant that fundraising has been even more important and our amazing committee (and their equally amazing families) have put in place some great events to help raise a staggering amount of money over the year. This money has enabled us to purchase new resources for the children including lego, and duplo sets, new babies and dolls and more supplies of paper, pens, stickers etc.

So a huge thank you from all of us to our committee and their families, thank you again for all your ongoing support.

Election of Officers and Committee Members

Committee Members standing down:

Niola Gooding: Proposed by Chris, Second by Iola

Members staying on:

Christine Millins (Nominated person) Jemma Parris (Treasurer) Claire Harrison Joanne Webber Iola Palmer-Stirling (Chair) Sophie Wolfenden-Williams Sarah Moaby

New Members:

Gemma Cameron: Proposed by Jemma, Second by Zoe Stephanie Sheppard: Proposed by Chris, Second by Iola

Any Other Business

• It was discussed about the possibility of the setting going incorporated. The whole process takes around 4 months to complete and costs around £2000. Then we wouldn’t need a committee going forward, just maybe 3 trustees. Maybe something to consider in the year 2025/2026.

• We only get funding for 14 weeks of the term so it was mentioned that we may need to start charging parents for any additional days at the end of term if it is longer than 14 weeks. The days would have to be worked out across the whole year. It would be the parent’s choice if we stay open and they pay extra for those sessions, or they choose to have the extra days off and break up earlier for the holidays. Something for the committee to discuss again in the future.

• Top up fees and increasing snack fees was discussed.

• It was generally agreed that Early Years needs more money on the whole.

The meeting ended at 13:10pm

MANOR ROAD PRE-SCHOOL

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE

Y/E 31/08/23

Balance brought forward INCOME: Fees/KCCfunding/Grants Fundraising/Commissions/Donations Collaberation/Other Settings EXPENSES: Wages: Rent: Goods for the children: Cookery, craft items, new toys etc Consumable goods: Cleaning items, toiletries, wipes etc Stationery: Ink cartridges, postage, registers, paper etc Food and drink: Miscellaneous: New equipment, Christmas presents, gifts etc Staff training: Additional staff cover: Audit costs, Ofsted registration, membership renewals: Mobile/Broadband: Insurance: Refunds/Transfer of fees Net decrease in funds Balance carried forward	£ 124,516 2,685 1,451 128,652 95,364 4,800 971 1,211 453 1,477 777 1,510 22,392 584 587 722 692 131,540 2,888	£4,558 £1,670

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