## **Parkside Pre-School** ## 82 Peel Close London E4 6XQ **Registered charity number: 1031235** ## **Annual Report 1 August 2020 - 31 July 2021** **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 times. 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. - Overall management of the Pre-school is the responsibility of the trustees, who are elected and co-opted in accordance with the terms of - 1 - the constitution, which was last revised on 27 June 2012, from amongst parents/carers of children at the setting. - 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 2021 our total expenditure was £148,157. Of this £122,117 went on wages, £15,000 on renting the rooms and the rest on play equipment, training, stationery, insurance, internet/phones, groceries, and membership costs etc. ## **Income:** - The Pre-school’s income in 2020/21 was £187,898 with £5,944 raised through fees, £93,595 from FEEE (for 3 and 4-year-olds) and £57,327 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. ## **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 £112,000 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:** - 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 and their new settings – that the children have benefited from their time at the Pre-school and can take the next step with confidence. - 2 - - 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’. - Thanks to the efforts made by the staff to ensure that the setting has remained a safe place during Covid-19, and the co-operation of all our families, the Pre-school has been able to remain open during the year, with just a short closure in December 2020. We have gradually built back our numbers to normal and are currently at maximum capactity. - Our staff have done a brilliant job during this year, working hard to maintain contact with families who might have had to be at home selfisolating and helping them to provide fun activities for their children and checking on their wellbeing; ensuring that the setting is a safe place and to create as much normality as possible for the children. - We have been able to continue to provide additional support to children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and have also been mindful of the impact of the lockdown on young children and put measures in place to remedy this. - We have continued to employ Casual Pool staff to give us better cover, providing one-to-one support for children with additional needs, 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 special days such as Chinese New Year, St Patrick’s Day, Diwali, Valentine’s Day, Shrove Tuesday, Mother’s Day and become involved in World Book Day, Christmas Jumper Day, Beep Beep Day, and Comic Relief . - Our Lunch Club continues to be highly successful. We run it as a social occasion, where we develop the children’s independence and healthy eating. We also have yoga sessions and encourage an interest in recycling. ## **Future plans:** - We normally hold a party for all the children at the end of each term but were unable to do this during 2020/21. However, we had our normal Christmas party in December 2021 and are looking forward to Easter. - 3 - Many of our visitors and other activities had to be cancelled or conducted remotely, but we look forward to getting back to normal. - It was disappointing to still be unable to welcome families into our setting in the normal way, although we made effective use of our garden, and we are so much looking forward to being able to re-instate our parent/carer workshops and all the 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 able to welcome visitors. - It was disappointing that due to the pandemic our book lending scheme had to be paused but this has now restarted. We will also be starting to send home puzzles and topic boxes for families. - 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). 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. - Staff are committed to training to refresh and develop their skills. Courses have been identified for next year which include Safeguarding, First Aid, Special Educational Needs, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Making Sense of Autism, Dental Health, Observation and Assessment, Incel Ideology, Premises Statutory Compliance, Building on Success, 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 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. - 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. - During 2021/22 we have booked the Sing our Story programme with Groundswell Arts, who work with a number of families on creating personalised songs. They also provide training for staff. - 4 - 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: 28 March 2022 - 5 - Parkside Pre School R8gisl8r8d Charity numtror 1031235 Accounts to 31st July 2021 2021 2020 In¢omg F90S 2 year 01¢ fundlng 3 and 4 year dd lundlng DAF Grant Spgcial Needs Fundlng EYPP nterest 5,944 57,327 93,595 9.126 60,356 77,430 2,460 1,375 24,101 1.702 122 51 291 11441 3,093 23,628 461 1,488 14 2,202 166 Fund Raislno Ing¢1 Unrfomi $al6s Inetl Total Incotne 187,898 176.870 Expendlture euildlny Work 320 W8oes. Eis'8 Nl and pen61on contrlb 122,117 Stoff trqining 978 Payroll c08t8 and DBS check8 621 R8nl 15.000 Insurance 1,387 Play Equlpment 2.803 Offi¢8 equlwnent hnd Stotlonary 1.877 Telephone and Snlemet 1.230 Covld rg1818d cl8oninG and PPE 405 Grocerles Mi8C811anaou8 7,838 108,458 1,876 973 3.750 1,251 2.045 1.098 508 677 244 707 1.728 Total Expondlture 148 157 129,423 IDèfi¢itllSurplu8 for Year 39,741 47.447 Surplus brc¥Jght fortvgrd 2C3,231 I￿,784 Surplu8 carried fofWBré R•pr••anted by Bank Cash 245,263 2,069 247,332 210,157 18 210,175 Stock of unlforms al c￿1 CreditOT8 Holid8y Pay du8 640 920 17,8641 03,231 Approved and Jigned by Ch Treasurer Prirkt name Print nam Dalè q/ia/ao&/ CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALE5 Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examinerfs Report Report to the trusteesl members of PARH4 Ipf Pkc On accounts for the year ended j5k J ULY 2021 Charity no {if any 1031235 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above chartty {￿he Trusf) for the year ended Responsibilities and basis of report As the chartvs trustees. you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordano with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 {'the Act.). I report in respect of my exarnination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 ofthe 2011 Act and in carying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. Independent examinerfs statement I have completed my examinat"on. I confimi that no material matters have come to my attention in connection wrf(h the examination (other than that disclosed below") which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect the accounting records were not kept in accordan￿ with section 130 of the Charrties Act- or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records" or the accounts did not comply wth the applicable requirements con￿mIng the forni and content of accounts set out in the Chartties {Accounts and Reports} Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ttrue and fair, view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection wrth the examina on to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enabl proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. the brackets rfthey not apply. . Please dele Signed: Date: Name: rl *Z£ Relevant professional qualiflcation(s} or body ALA 6R IER Oct 2018 (rf any): Address: ktL-Th7yk7Q@ TXJ 21 OLX Section B Disclosure Only complete rf the examiner needs to highlight material malters of COn￿M (S￿ CC32. Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any Ètems that the examiner wishes to disclose. IER Oct 2018