2022-08-31-accounts

Woodborough Village Pre-school Committee

Trustees annual report for the financial period 01 September 2021 – 31 August 2022

Reference and administration details

Charity name

Woodborough Pre-School Playgroup

Other names the charity is known by

Woodborough Village Pre-school

Registered charity No

1030313

Principal address

Woodborough Village Hall, Lingwood Lane, Woodborough, Nottinghamshire, NG14 6DX

Trustees

Timothy Zinsaz- Chairman Joanne Hollier- Secretary Kirandeep Kaur Purawal - Treasurer Chantelle Meakin Lynsey Baugh Samantha Stevenson

Members Induction and Training

All new trustees are encouraged to read ‘The essential Trustee’ as a means of education into the duties and responsibilities they hold. They also follow a formal induction process.

Names of senior staff members

Louise Parris – Supervisor, Sarah Stanford – Supervisor. S Since January 2021 Louise Parris and Sarah Stanford have been Acting Supervisors.

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Structure, governance and management

Governing document

2011 Constitution adopted in 2020.

How the charity is constituted

Membership is divided into two kinds:

Family membership:

• parents or guardians of all children who attend the preschool and wish to support its aims;

• each family will count as one member and will be entitled to one vote at any annual general meeting of the pre-school.

Affiliate membership :

• open to those individuals, organisations or other bodies interested in supporting the aims of the pre-school;

• affiliate members may join at any time with the agreement of the committee and will be entitled to one vote at any general meeting of the members of the preschool.

Trustee selection methods

Trustees are appointed or reappointed annually at the Annual General Meeting held in October. Up to two additional committee members may be co-opted during the year.

Additional governance issues

• Woodborough Village Pre-school is a member of the Early Years Alliance.

• Woodborough Village Pre-School rents the village hall from Woodborough parish council and uses them as premises.

• All trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no re-numeration or other benefits.

• Woodborough Village Pre-school has a child protection policy in place.

• Disclosure and barring checks are carried out on all members of staff prior to commencement of employment and to trustees prior to trusteeship.

• Trustees also must apply to Ofsted to join the committee and be deemed suitable.

Objectives and activities

Summary of the objectives

• to provide high quality care and education for children below statutory school age;

• - to work in partnership with parents to help children to learn and develop;

• to add to the life and well-being of the local community;

• to offer children and their parents a service that promotes equality and values diversity.

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The main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objectives

• We provide a wide range of stimulating activities inside and outside which are appropriate for the age and stage of development of the children in our care.

• Our provision for children’s development and learning is guided by The Early Years Foundation Stage (DfE 2014) and reflects the four guiding themes and principals.

• Each child has a key person. The key person ensures that each child makes satisfying progress and works with parents as partners in helping each child to learn and develop.

• In our setting we maintain the ratio of adults to children that is set through the Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements. We also have volunteer parent helpers where possible to complement these ratios.

• We give the children in our care the chance to join in with other children and adults to play, work and learn together and join in with local community events.

• Woodborough Village Pre-school is a community-based, voluntarily managed setting run by the parents of children who attend the pre-school.

Achievements and performance (reporting year 2021-2022)

Introduction

This year has ultimately been about change: whilst this started with ideas and suggestions, it ended with necessity. We have had to make decisions quickly and efficiently, but also whilst doing our best to maintain high standards and ensure the least possible disruption to the children and families who use the provision. Without pushing through these changes, the preschool simply would not have been able to continue to serve its current children or the future generations of our community and we start 2023 with a stronger, more positive outlook than we thought possible only a few months ago.

Committee

It remains a challenge for any preschool to attract and maintain volunteer committee members, whilst we expect some resignations at the AGM from parents whose children have now left the setting, we remain hopeful that current parents/carers of children will join the committee. To assist this transition, the committee has opened more direct dialogue with parents and carers over the last few months; a part of that has been to explain what we do and the importance of family involvement in the committee.

Children

We have 22 children in attendance. This is lower than last year.

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It should be noted that Woods Foundation School (WFS) only has 16 children in Class R, compared to 31 the year before and consensus seems to be that this is at least in part due to WFS no longer being oversubscribed as it was in the past; this does have a knock on effect on the preschool, but as things improve for WFS we would hope to see more interest in the preschool. We have seen an increase in funded hours being applied for this term and last year saw more children attend as the year progressed, we would hope for the same this year and look forward to more proactively marketing the setting to attract more families.

Opening Hours

We amended our opening hours to 09:00 until 15:30 Monday to Friday. This more closely aligns with WFS and followed parental feedback about having to wait for 15 minutes in the car park in-between drop offs.

Fundraising

Due to a focus on core issues and taking account of our financial situation, more focus has been put on management matters than fundraising. Regardless:

• We raised £71 from our Christmas raffle which went towards our Christmas party.

• We have just taken delivery of a clothing donation bin which can be used by the whole community, with proceeds being paid to the preschool.

IT: Google Workspace, Famly & BrightHR

The committee recognised that a large part of the challenge being faced in the preschool, were due to outdated processes and paper-based systems.

It became apparent that overhauling these processes would allow the preschool to be more efficient, increase visibility for remote or part time staff and crucially free up vital staff time that would be better spent caring for the children. It has also allowed us to review and improve upon online safety, introduce secure passwords, and build resilience.

Arguably more importantly, was the ongoing concern of the committee that parents would not always know what their children had been doing in the setting and how this was a missed opportunity for the preschool. A privilege of being a committee member is that you do sometimes get to see what the children are doing during their time at preschool and we all spoke fondly of the relationship’s children had with one another and how happy they were in the setting… all that was missing was sending that message back home to parents.

With all of this in mind, the committee authorised the implementation of Famly as a one stop application for everything related to parents/carers and children, as well as the purchase of a number of new tablets. The aim is to record all aspects of the children’s learning journey and be able to communicate with parents in real time where needed (including an activity planner). In built daily registers, room planning, and invoicing mean these processes are streamlined too.

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Google workspace has allowed online secure document storage and sharing as well as dedicated email addresses for the preschool, the committee and finance.

BrightHR centralises all aspects of the preschools relationship with staff and puts it all in one secure online portal. Both the committee and management have access to online rotas and timesheets and employees have benefits such as BrightExchange. We have only just gone live the new system, but it has already proven invaluable with the introduction of new contracts and an employee handbook for new starters

Management Structure Change

As management has become more onerous, noting the concerns about attracting new volunteer committee members and respecting the wishes of our supervisors to be able to spend more time working with the children; the committee authorised a change in structure and the creation of a dedicated managers role. The intention being to close the gap between supervisors and the committee, ensure the quality of provision in the setting continues to improve and allow the committee to focus more on assisting and overseeing the direction of the preschool.

Recruitment has been difficult, but in November 2022 and with the assistance of WFS, we were introduced to Jade Topliss who is an outstanding teacher at Holly Primary School and published author of children’s books “Coronasaurus Rex” and “Leo the Lion Lost his Roar”. Jade acts as our executive manager, on a part time basis whilst continue her teaching role; she is a delight to work with and brings with her a wealth of ideas. These include planning for the rest of the academic year (which will then be used to create termly and weekly plans), new activities, learning objectives and the introduction of daily phonics. WFS have also been fantastic in helping share resources with the preschool where needed, so a big thank you to Jade for continuing to nurture that relationship. In December the children were able to share a craft morning with Class R and watch their nativity play, we hope to more actively engage in other events held by the school, e.g. sports day.

Staffing

We have unfortunately said fond farewells to several staff members over the last few months. It is always sad to lose any long serving member of an established team but having a number of resignations in relatively quick succession has been unsettling. We have sought to reassure parents and carers that largely this is an issue of timing rather than due to a single underlying reason. Due to the preschool historically running over ratio it has ensured that we have been able to manage the situation relatively well and ensure that recruitment standards have remained high. The committee agreed an increase in wages to attract and retain staff as part of that process and our existing staff have assisted by covering extra days and hours where possible. As a result of dedication and hard work, the only shortages came at the very end of term and were the result of high levels of staff sickness; whilst our team were still able to put together a wonderful Christmas party for the children, they were certainly ready for a welldeserved Christmas break.

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Victoria has been promoted to Deputy Manager in recognition of her commitment and service to the preschool as well as to reflect the extra responsibilities she has taken on. As well as Jade, we are delighted to have recruited Millie and Jen who started working at preschool immediately following the Christmas Break and have settled in well, being very popular with the children. The recruitment process is ongoing, we have another part time member of staff starting with us on 2[nd] February which then leaves only one more staff member to bring our levels to where we would like in order to push forward with planning for growth.

The Future

The preschool has been in existence since 1974 and like WFS has historically been oversubscribed and extremely popular.

More recently, the pandemic, increased competition, issues at WFS, a low birth rate and changing needs for childcare have all resulted in less children attending the setting, and this has been disheartening and stifled an appetite for growth and progression.

Unfortunately, this comes at time when the importance of adapting and changing to meet the changing needs of the families the preschool serves has never been greater. I firmly believe that Woodborough Village Preschool should be the default choice for early years childcare in the village and surrounding areas. The children are an absolute delight, WFS are fully vested in the preschool’s success, our manager brings vision and a fresh approach and our new staff members help complete a wonderful team of individuals who can deliver the quality childcare that parents and carers expect, as well as a seamless transition into school (whether that’s WFS or elsewhere)

We are privileged to be based in such a big open setting within the heart of the village, and with the park, woods, and fields right on our doorstep, activities such as forest school integrate seamlessly into the children’s experience in the preschool.

The last year has undoubtably been tough, but the hard work means we now have solid foundations in place; if we can continue with the same drive and ambition, Woodborough Village Preschool has the potential to once again be the first choice for parents looking for a caring, nurturing environment into which they entrust the care of their children.

Financial Review

There are three main sources of funds for Woodborough Village Pre-school:

1. Funding payments received from Nottinghamshire County Council for early years places (NEF – Nursery Education Funding).

2. Fees paid by the parents/carers at a rate set by the pre-school.

3. Money given by parents and others as part of fundraising initiatives for the preschool.

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Money received by the pre-school is spent on resources (including staffing) for the use of the children attending the pre-school setting.

The charity does not have surplus funds to invest.

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

We have ensured that we hold sufficient funds to support cashflow and to cover any redundancy payments and relocation fees should they be required.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

During the reporting year the charity did not have any funds in deficit.

Notes to the accounts

• These accounts are prepared on a receipts and payments basis with all revenues and expenses shown on a cash basis.

• The charity has three accounts: an unrestricted Treasurers Account, a Fundraising Account, and a Reserve Account.

• The Fundraising Account is an unrestricted fund. Bank interest is given on the Fundraising Account and allocated there.

• No re-numeration was paid to any trustee during the accounting year.

Signed:

Dated: 15 March 2023

Mr T. Zinsaz Chairman

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Woodborough Village Preschool for the year ended 31 August 2022 Receipts and Payments Accounts

RECEIPTS Donations, JRS Grant Fees Fund Raising Fees paid by Notts County Council Interest recieved Vouchers Sundry Income HMRC PAYE refund Total Receipts PAYMENTS Advertising CRB Checks Parties Equipment & Books Consumables Agent Fees Food Drink etc Fund Raising PAYE Subscriptions & Insurance Ink & Paper Other Office Costs Rent Sundries Telephone, Internet & Postage Training Uniform Pension contribution Wages Total Payments Surplus for the period Add:Cash Funds b/f Cash funds as at 31 Aug 2022		Unrestricted Funds 27 23,361 299 53,396 9 6,471 240 3,784 87,588 254 132 821 2,132 1,206 6,052 1,756 52 5,429 1,694 789 49 14,357 209 747 198 0 2,721 75,941 114,539 -26,951 160,898 133,947		Year ended 31 August 2022 Total Funds 27 23,361 299 53,396 9 6,471 240 3,784 87,588 254 132 821 2,132 1,206 6,052 1,756 52 5,429 1,694 789 49 14,357 209 747 198 0 2,721 75,941 114,539 -26,951 160,898 133,947		Year ended 31 August 2021 Total Funds 1,892 19,150 341 85,140 8 7,547 709 0 114,788 352 667 519 2,236 1,729 2,371 1,280 24 1,272 1,804 488 41 12,067 583 794 854 448 2,242 88,132 117,902 -3,115 164,013 160,898

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Woodborough Village Preschool for the year ended 31 August 2022

Statement of Assets as at 31 August 2021

CASH FUNDS Lloyds Bank - Treasurers Account Lloyds Bank - Business Instant Account Lloyds Bank - Business Instant Account No 2 Cash Total Funds		Unrestricted Funds 48,669 83,884 1,184 210 133,947		Year ended 31 August 2022 Total Funds 48,669 83,884 1,184 210 133,947		Year ended 31 August 2021 Total Funds 75,491 83,876 1,184 347 160,898

Approved by the Trustees and signed on the Trustees' behalf by:

Mr T. Zinsaz - Chair

Mrs. K. K. Purawal - Treasurer

Dated: 15 March 2023

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Woodborough Village Preschool for the year ended 31 August 2022

Independent examiner's report to the trustees of Woodborough Village Preschool

I report on the accounts of the Trust for the period ended 31 August 2022 , which are set out on pages 8 to 9.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144(2) of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011 Act;

to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act; and

to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.

Basis of independent examiner's report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a 'true and fair view' and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent examiner's statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

• (1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements: to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the 2011 Act; and to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 Act

have not been met; or

(2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

• A. Hodges FCIB PM.Dip

1 Buckland Drive Woodborough Nottinghamshire NG14 6EU

Dated: 15 March 2023

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