Redbourn Methodist Church Hall, North Common, Redbourn, Herts. AL37BU
Annual General Meeting
21 October 2021
Minutes
1) Apologies and Attendance
The following were in attendance:
Shirley Hayman, Lorraine Hobbs, Kelly Corrigan, Bianca Pantea, Caroline Perry, Jen Henderson, Richard Thomson, Jeanette Burden.
Michelle Morley, Jo Minchin, Susie, Kate Graham. Joanna Morris via zoom.
2) Chair’s report
Shirley tabled her report as ~~Cch~~ airperson, which is attached as an Appendix to these minutes. See Appendix A.
3) Treasurer’s report
Jeanette tabled her report as treasurer and discussed the financial results for the year. The report is attached as Appendix B.
The accounts were unanimously approved by the Commitee.
4)Leader’s report
Lorraine tabled her report as Pre-school Leader, which is attached as Appendix C to these minutes.
5) Minutes from last year’s AGM.
Minutes from last year’s AGM were signed off as a true an accurate record.
6)Election of Committee for 2021/2022
Chairperson
Shirley agreed to continue as Chairperson.
Treasurer
Jeanette Burden asked to step down as ~~Ttr~~ easurer. Richard Thomson elected as the new ~~Ttr~~ easurer and a Trustee.
Secretary
Kate Graham elected as S ~~se~~ cretary and a Trustee.
Fundraising
Jo Minchin elected as fundraising lead. Kate and Susie will assist lead.
7) General items for discussion
Pupil numbers
Here are the termly numbers (Aut, Spr, Sum)
Monday - 19, 23, 24 Tuesday - 20, 25, 25 Wednesday - 19, 26, 26 Thursday - 23, 26, 25 Friday - 17, 21, 21
Staffing
Bianca Pantea appointed as the new pre-school practitioner. Francesca Warren has resigned, and Joanna advertised for a new practitioner.
Fundraising ideas
Kate to speak to Colin - mention the preschool for a quiz night fundraising.
AOB
Keeping up our profile – Shirley to speak to Lorraine re looking into taking over the preschool Facebook page. Jeanette suggested perhaps speaking to the church about having a permanent ‘Redbourn Preschool’ sign outside the church.
10) Next Committee meeting – TBC
APPENDICES
Appendix A
Chairs AGM Report 22nd October 2021
Welcome to everyone and thank you for coming to the AGM for Redbourn Pre-School. This is my first Chair's Report having taken over from Alex Colville this time last year.
We have had our committee meetings via Zoom this past year and this is in fact our first, face-to-face meeting for this year. Thank you to Joanna for arranging the venue.
We have inevitably seen lots of changes over the last year.
Staffing
In terms of staffing; Eli the former Deputy Leader chose not to return after her maternity leave. Kelly has now, with Lorraine’s support, stepped up to the role of Deputy and we wish her all the best as she fulfi ~~ll~~ s this important role.
After an impressive interview and references, Bianca joined the team as the new practitioner we needed, to help us maintain ratios with the increased demand for places as we came out of lock downs. I would like to welcome Bianca and say that I am delighted with the feedback I have had from the team so far, about how well she is fitting in and about the new ideas she is bringing to the Pre-School.
Francesca has now officially resigned feeling that she is not able to work in this sector currently for personal reasons. I would like to thank Francesca for her work in the Pre-School.
My thanks and congratulations go to Lorraine, Kelly, Caroline and Jen who have continued to support the children and keep the Pre-School physically open and running over the past year.
I also want to thank Joanna our administrator for her ability to work effectively and sensitively on the wide range of tasks and responsibilities she has been given over this year.
I would like us to develop a closer and more open relationship with our landlords; The Methodist Church during 2021/22 and urge all staff and trustees to seek to play their part in this.
Finally, we are all indebted to Jeanette for her work as the Treasurer over the last few years. She has certainly helped the Pre-School to get through covid and been a sounding board for me and Joanna. She has given of her time to help in matters far wider than that of the official treasurer role. Let it be recorded in this report that the Pre-School is indebted to her for her wide knowledge and skills.
Covid 19
The Pre-School has emerged from Covid restrictions relatively unscathed. The numbers of applications for places remains healthy. We must focus on keeping up our presence in the village through advertising, word of mouth and activities where families are involved. The Pre-School has benefited from additional financial support from parents in the form of an Amazon Wish List, notably providing additional PPE resources to cope with the pandemic, as well as art and craft materials.
The parents were also invited to make financial donations across the past year whilst opportunities for fundraising were minimal. As Chair, I plan to invite parents to continue to make donations in the coming year, and I’d like to thank all those of you that supported us in this way last academic year.
Complaints
We had one complaint this year in which I became involved. All the documentation has been carefully recorded and stored. The matter is now resolved.
Tapestry
I am delighted to report that the Pre-School is now making use of an online learning journal. This enables the staff to send observations, photos, videos and messages to the parents and carers about the children's days in Pre-School. There were some initial set up costs and there will be an ongoing subscription charge, but Lorraine has managed the introduction of this tool well, researching various costings before committing to anything.
Well done to Lorraine, and I hope the staff will make good use of this tool. There is also a revised EYFS framework which has become statutory this academic year and Lorraine and Kelly are researching and leading the staff team to deliver the care and education in accordance with this framework.
Training opportunities for the staff team are vital in order to increase further the quality of education and to keep the staff motivated and fresh.
New Committee
We need to propose and second the members of this coming year's committee. Chair- Shirley Hayman to continue unless anyone else wishes to stand for this role. Treasurer - Richard Thom ~~ps~~ on, proposed by Shirley Hayman Secretary - tbc
Sadly, the parent fundraising committee were not able to run our normal fundraising initiatives ~~d~~ ue to Covid restrictions. This is a situation we would very much like to and indeed need to change for this
coming year 2021/22.
As a charity, we rely on raising money to enhance our offering for the children and the parent-led fundraising committee is a key part of this. We are desperately seeking new volunteers to help organise events and suggest ways in which we can raise funds. This is vital in order to keep our fees as reasonable as they are. If you think you can help with this please speak to Lorraine, myself or Joanna.
We start this new academic year with encouraging numbers of pupils wanting spaces as well as the need for another practitioner to meet these growing numbers. We also need a new secretary to the committee.
I sincerely hope that we will all be able to work well together to keep the children safe, happy and learning. Our focus needs to be to encourage the current parent body to be interested in and indeed involved in fun activities to support and promote the village Pre-School and for the staff team to feel both fulfilled and motivated in their roles.
Shirley-Anne Hayman. Chair.
Appendix B
Treasurers Report Accounts for the Year ended 31[st] July 2021
The Accounts for the last academic year have now been audited by Adam Clark. They will need approval by the committee and should be filed with the Charity Commission by 31 May 2022.
The accounts show a surplus of £1784, which is mainly due to the generosity of parents and one-of donations.
Fundraising activities have been purely in house this year, organised by the staff, as access to the school has been restricted due to covid guidelines. £1950 has been raised, an increase £1311 over last year which is a tribute to the efforts and ingenuity of the staff. Money has been raised by the sale of Mugs, Christmas cards, photographs, and uniform in addition to monies raised form the disposal of used clothing and textiles.
Due to maternity leave and increasing pupil numbers we employed an additional member of staff to provide cover which enabled the preschool to accommodate increased pupil numbers. All staff were fully paid during the furlough period and as a result, salary increases have been delayed until later this year.
2021-2022
FEES
The fee structure is now under constant review to cover increases in the minimum wage and any increases in the rent payable under the terms our lease. Fees will be increased to a level very much in line with other preschools in the area.
Challenges
As in previous years, the main challenge faced is to maintain and increase pupil numbers by promoting the school at every opportunity. Expenditure must be kept inline with income to maintain the reserve position.
Managing these Challenges
The Preschool has ample funds in reserve and coupled with effective management of staff and other costs the low number of pupils in the early stages of each academic year, should not pose a problem.
This does not call for complacency, the preschool should be run in an efficient manner and funds need to be raised in order to improve and update the equipment and the level of service offered and every opportunity should be taken to raise the schools profile within the community in the coming year.
Appendix C
Managers report September 2020 – September 2021
We returned on September 3[rd] and welcomed lots of new children. We have covered a variety of topics over the year including This is me, transport, Autumn and animals to name a few.
We put on a Christmas concert in December which we recorded and sent to our parents and had a visit from Santa plus a Christmas party which was enjoyed by all. The children made Christmas cards and tea towels to raise money for the preschool.
Eli decided she would not be returning after her maternity leave, we wish her well for the future and Kelly became our permanent Deputy.
The staff have continued throughout the year to complete many noodle courses to support their professional development.
I have completed Senco clusters and courses that Herts for learning have delivered on the New EYFS , Tapestry and improving outcomes for children and emotional wellbeing and behaviour. Kelly has also attended improving outcomes and emotional wellbeing and behaviour.
We made portraits of the children to put on mugs which proved very popular.
The children enjoyed taking part in our sponsored sports day and again we recorded it for our parents to watch. We raised over £1,000 which we were thrilled with.
We had a group photo taken at the end of term for the parents to buy and we took part in bags for schools to raise money.
We welcomed Bianca to the team in September 2021 and she is proving to be a great asset to the preschool.
We said goodbye to Francesca in July and would like to wish her well in the future.
In September we began using tapestry an online learning programme which the parents have given positive feedback.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff for all their hard work over the past year, it is lovely to have such a great team. I would also like to thank the committee particularly Shirley for her continued support to the preschool.
Lorraine
Redbourn Pre-School
Income and Expenditure Account
For the year ended 31 July 2021
| Description | 2021 | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | ||
| Income | |||
| Fees | 31,750 | 26,060 | |
| Grants and donations | 39,589 | 31,700 | |
| Fundraising | 1,950 | 639 | |
| Milk refund | |||
| Sundries | 0 | 0 | |
| Interest | 3 | 170 | |
| 73,291 | 58,570 | ||
| Expenditure | |||
| Wages | 57,593 | 47,080 | |
| Training | 320 | 293 | |
| Equipment / Sundries | 3,917 | 3,368 | |
| Rent | 8,483 | 7,678 | |
| Milk | |||
| Advertising | 105 | 0 | |
| Insurance and DBS fees | 994 | 929 | |
| Gifts | 97 | 200 | |
| 71,507 | 59,548 | ||
| Profit/ (loss) for theperiod | 1,784 | (979) |
Balance Sheet
As at 31 July 2021
| Description | 2021 | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | ||
| Current assets | |||
| Bank current account | 1117 | 1110 | |
| Deposit account | 30389 | 28636 | |
| Petty cash | 111 | 87 | |
| Debtors | |||
| 31,617 | 29,833 | ||
| Current liabilities | |||
| Creditors | |||
| Net current assets/ (liabilities) | 31,617 | 29,833 | |
| Reserves | |||
| Balance brought forward | 29,833 | 30,812 | |
| Profit / (loss) for the period | 1,784 | (979) | |
| 31,618 | 29,833 |
The accounts were approved by the Committee on: 21 October 2021
Richard Thomson Treasurer (Trustee)
Shirley Anne Hayman Chairperson (Trustee)