## **Parkside Pre-School** Parkside Centre 82 Peel Close London E4 6XQ **Registered charity number: 1031235** ## **Annual Report** ## **1 August 2019 - 31 July 2020** ## **The Pre-School’s aims and activities** : - Parkside Pre-School is based at Parkside Primary School, in purposebuilt self-contained rooms. It has access to an outdoor play area which enables the children to have free flow play throughout the year. We are also remarkably close to a park which is ideal for short visits. - The Pre-School is open every weekday morning from 9.00am to 12.00pm during term time. It is also open for up to 4 afternoons a week until 3.15pm depending on demand for places. A lunch club is available. It is registered to take up to thirty-five children per session between the ages of two and four, with most children moving on to nursery in the September after their third birthday. It operates a waiting list system with children being admitted according to their date of birth. - Parkside Pre-School provides a safe, secure, yet stimulating environment, free from prejudice or discrimination in which all children can discover and explore the world around them and learn from these experiences. At the Pre-School children learn to share and co-operate with other children and adults; work with materials and equipment which may differ from what is available at home. They benefit from the experience of a planned curriculum directed towards the early learning goals. - Activities are planned to meet each child’s individual needs. A settling meeting is held shortly after children start followed by a developmental meeting. Observations on children’s progress are made on a regular basis to monitor what is required for each child. The Pre-School operates a key person system where the children are divided into groups named after animals and allocated a member of staff as their key person. - The Pre-school offers 15-hours of funded childcare for children aged three and over, it is also able to offer funded places to two-year-olds who fulfil the criteria set by the London Borough of Waltham Forest relating to income and additional needs. We work closely with the Nursery at Parkside Primary School in providing 30-hour places for children entitled to this funding. We also have fee paying children. - 1 - - Overall management of the Pre-school is the responsibility of the trustees, who are elected and co-opted in accordance with the terms of the constitution, which was last revised on 27 June 2012, from amongst parents/carers of children at the setting. Our committee have continued in this role, although unable to visit the Pre-school, with frequent phone calls and on-line meetings. - Day to day activity is carried out by paid staff and volunteers. We have eleven qualified part-time staff as well as other volunteers and students gaining work experience. A rota ensures there are at least five or six fully qualified (minimum of level 3) childcare workers each session to care for the children in accordance with the appropriate ratios. Two of the staff are administrators employed for a total of twenty-six hours per week. ## **Costs:** - In the financial year to 31 July 2020 our total expenditure was £129,423. Of this £108,458 went on wages, £3,750 on renting the rooms and the rest on play equipment, training, petty cash, stationery, insurance, internet/phones, groceries, and membership costs etc. ## **Income:** - The Pre-school’s income in 2019/20 was £176,870 with £9,126 raised through fees, £77,430 from FEEE (for 3 and 4-year-olds) and £60,356 from two-year-old funding, the remainder coming from Early Years Pupil Premium, SEND funding and fundraising such as raffles, photo sales, a sponsored bounce and selling handprints. We were fortunate not to suffer any severe effects from the Coronavirus pandemic, despite being physically closed during April and May and having reduced numbers of children in after that. Our public funding continued as normal based on that received during the previous year, and although we experienced a loss of fees and fundraising income, we were able to make savings elsewhere. ## **Reserves:** - It is the policy of the pre-school to maintain a reserve account containing six month’s running expenses which is reviewed annually; it holds approximately £110,000 at present. The money held in the account is to ensure continuity of the Pre-school in times of financial difficulty and enables the management committee to meet its financial obligations in relation to staff salaries/redundancy payments, rent and any other debts. ## **Benefits:** - 2 - - For most children who come to our Pre-school this is their first time away from their parents/carers. By the time they leave to move on to nursery the evidence is clear – from the children’s behaviour, from written reports that are provided for each child and from the feedback provided by parents – that the children have benefited from their time at the Pre-school and can take the next step with confidence. - In the first half of 2020 staff worked hard at maintaining contact with all our children and their families, including those who were not able, or chose not, to be in the setting. We sent out weekly newsletters providing information and activities, whilst key persons were in touch by telephone on a weekly basis and always available for advice. Families of vulnerable children were encouraged to bring them into the Preschool and places were also available for the children of key workers. - In planning the Pre-school’s management and activities each year the trustees keep in mind the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. ## **Achievements:** - In our most recent OFSTED inspection (February 2020) our rating was ‘good’. - Our staff have done a brilliant job during this year, working hard to maintain contact with families who are at home and helping them to provide fun activities for their children and checking on their wellbeing; ensuring that the setting is a safe place for those who do come in and to create as much normality as possible for the children. - We had a new soft play surface and fencing installed in our garden and have had a canopy erected to provide shelter from the rain as well as summer shade. Work has started on other improvements to the garden. - We have continued to employ Casual Pool staff to give us better cover, providing one-to-one support for children with additional needs and more flexibility and to allow permanent staff non-contact time to progress other duties. This also helped when we had staff absences due to increased sickness and the need to self-isolate. - We continued to celebrate other special days such as Chinese New Year, St Patrick’s Day, Diwali, Valentine’s Day, Shrove Tuesday and become involved in World Book Day, Christmas Jumper Day, Beep Beep Day, and Comic Relief both for children who were in the setting and those at home. - Our Lunch Club continues to be highly successful. We run it as a social occasion, where we develop the children’s independence and - 3 - healthy eating. We also have yoga sessions and encourage an interest in recycling. - We have discovered many new ways of working which have enabled us to keep on working safely, whilst continuing in our normal roles and even acquiring new expertise. Staff have been able to undertake a substantial amount of remote training during the year. ## **Future plans:** - We normally hold a party for all the children at the end of each term. At Christmas, the children were entertained by Mr Wiggle, however the spring party was cancelled, and the summer party was only for those children who were attending the Pre-school at that time. Many of our other visitors and activities had to be cancelled but we look forward to getting back to normal. - It has been disappointing to be unable to welcome families into our setting and we are so much looking forward to being able to re-instate our parent/carer workshops and other events that we usually hold throughout the year. We will continue to review our risk assessment and take all possible precautions so that our Pre-school remains a safe place and we are to welcome visitors back as soon as this becomes advisable. - It has been disappointing that since March our book lending scheme has had to cease and that we have been unable to send home puzzles and topic boxes for families. We are looking forward to revitalising this. - We are committed to maintaining the high standards shown in our OFSTED inspection and are working towards achieving this again when next inspected. - We will continue to extend our use of Tapestry (e-learning journal) as staff become more proficient. This will enable us to compare the progress of different cohorts. We will also encourage all parents to become fully involved with it, assisting them where necessary. We will continue to purchase additional tablets to make the process easier for staff. - Staff are committed to training to refresh and develop their skills. Courses have been identified for next year which include Makaton, First Aid, Working with Two-year-olds, Special Educational Needs, Trauma Informed Training, Dental Health and Prevent. - The Pre-School continues to keep up with new developments in childcare through its membership of the Early Years Alliance. We liaise with the Nursery and the Primary School, where we are based, to - 4 - strengthen links and attend regular meetings with other local Preschools. - We will continue to review the operation of the Pre-school including timetable, room layout, staff training to best suit the needs of our children and maintain the safety of our children and staff. - We have created a Website to provide information to prospective and existing parents and will be developing this further. - There is more work needed to refresh our garden and we are gradually implementing our ideas for fresh planting, an outdoor music area, water play and a bug hotel. The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees: Amanda Hooker Trustee of Parkside Pre-School Date: 15 April 2021 - 5 - Parkside Pre School Register8d Ch8ritynumb6r 1031235 Accounts to 31 st July 2020 2020 2019 Incom• 9,126 60,356 77,430 2.460 1,375 24.101 1,702 122 9.051 4e.563 74,586 2 year old funding 3 4 year old fundlng OAF Grant Sp8cl81 Neod$ FundlThJ EYPP Inter881 Qonaiion Oth8r Fund Flai$ln J (nell Unlform 8818$ In811 5.000 4,912 1,066 149 50 51 291 1,400 Tolèl Income 17e870 142 839 Exp•nill¢ur• Bulldlng Work Wo9e6, Ers's Nl and pon•lon c¢niribulions Stgtt IrBlnlng Vayroii costs ind DLI¥ ¢hO¢k• SEND R?nt 1n4uron¢• •y Equlpment Eypp ome• •quipm•nt and $laii¢)nary Talèphone and Internet Covid related cl88nlng and PPE Grocerles MI￿&1490•¢u8 7,838 108.458 1,876 ¥iJ 1.830 110.3 559 26 981 15,5W 1.198 820 3,750 1,261 2,045 1,098 447 677 244 707 277 1,391 Totll Exp•nOllur• 129 423 135 220 IDèfi¢ilysur￿u¥ fer YeAr 47.447 7,819 Surplu8 brought forward 155,784 148.165 Surplu8 earrNid tornord 203, 155784 R•pr•8onted by esnk CaBh 210,157 18 210,175 174.158 174,258 7.74e 567 118,3961 8.391 155.784 Dobtorslarxruod Inrxjm Sto¢k of unllorm$ al ￿&t Creditor Holidoy Poy du• 920 17,8641 Approved and $igned by Tr•asur¢r Print name Dato Print narne Dal? Ji /3/Jcal Icli 111 ,M ( &L%'vCrLNI goi'c4izJll CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examinerfs Report Report to the trusteesl members of On accounts for the year ended Charity no {rf any) 31 4L)uY302c) i03[245 Set out on pages I report to the tnjstees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity Iyhe Trust"} for the year ended Responsibilities and basis of report As the chariws tnjstees. you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (-the Act-). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried 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(5Xb) of the Act Independent charivs gross income exceeded £250.000 and l am qualffied to examinerfs statement undertake the examination by being a qualified member ot [insert name of applicable listed bodyl]. Delete [ J rfnot applicable. I have compteted my examination. I confimi that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disdosed below ") whith gives me cause to believe that in. any material respect: the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Chartbes Act" or the a￿Ounts did not a￿￿rd with the accounting records" or the accounts did not comply vrith the applicable requirements conceming the form and Content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulab'ons 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a Irue and fairf view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no con nd have come across no other matters in connection with the examin n to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enabl a proper derstanding of the accounts to be reached. the wo in the brackets rfthey do not apply. . Please d Signed: Date: Iq Name: Relevant professional qualification{s} or body IER Oct 2018 (if any): Address: Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: dIre￿lonS and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose. IER Oct 2018