Sept 2020 to July 2021
Playlanders Annual Report
The last year has been a very challenging one because of the Covid pandemic, and has meant a great deal of thought and effort from staff to find a way to change many of our basic practices, to accommodate the necessary restrictions to avoid spreading infection yet still offer an open and friendly service to all our families.
We have remained open for the whole year, managed to welcome new families and their children in something close to our usual open and relaxed way, spent part of the year working in closed ‘bubbles’, cleaned endlessly, followed all the rules (and the constant changes to those rules) that came from Government, added a bit of our own common sense, had no cases of Covid, stayed sane, and yet still managed to offer a happy learning environment to all our children. I have to say that the children adapted quicker than a lot of the adults. They accept coming in alone, regular washing, and use of hand sanitiser as normal, and the ‘magic machine’ (the automatic hand sanitiser in the lobby) has become a regular - and much enjoyed - part of playgroup life!
One highlight of our year was our Art project with the older children. Because of the Covid restrictions we were not able to go out and visit places and do all our usual exciting things, but that didn’t stop us. We worked closely (but remotely) with the Fitzwilliam Museum over the year, and one of the things that the Museum sent us were postcard reproductions of the some of the paintings in their gallery. We used these as the basis of our project and the children chose the ones they liked the best to work with. We looked at the paintings in detail, made some huge representations of our favourite one on the floor of the Hall – so big that you had to go up a ladder to see it properly - and began to understand the process of background and details. The children then painted their own canvasses with their version of their favourite painting. Finally we had an Art Exhibition! We invited staff from the Museum to come and - safely – view our work. The children helped arrange their paintings around the walls, like in a real Art Gallery, and 2 staff came, suitably masked and staying distant, and viewed the Exhibition. The children were then given certificates for their art work. It was lovely to hear the children talking about themselves as ‘artists’! Then, once the lockdown rules began to be relaxed, we took the children to see the ‘real’ paintings at the Fitzwilliam, and they were very excited when they found ‘their’ painting. We had been the Fitzwilliam Playgroup in Residence in 2019/20, but our Residency had been cut short by the pandemic, and we were in fact the last group of any kind to visit the Museum in March 2020. Apparently we were also the first group of any kind to visit after the rules were relaxed in 2021!
During the year we supported one child with extra needs and – unusually – only 4 children with English as an additional language. We even managed to have Transition meetings (virtual ones, or lengthy phone calls) with the schools that the children were moving on to at the end of the year. We said goodbye to 11 children moving on to school, some of whom had been with us for almost 3 years, and just one child moving to another nursery. We even managed to still have a visit from Father Christmas, who – of course – couldn’t come in because he is old so very susceptible to the virus, but he left us a sack of toys and waved to the children through the lobby doors.
We would like to thank all the parents for understanding all the changes we had to make, and accepting them so readily, and my personal thanks too to all my staff, who found a way round every difficulty, took on extra cleaning and planning and zoom meetings and lots of other things, yet did it all just as cheerfully as ever.
2020/21 has been challenging and very busy, but as always has been rewarding too. We have even decided that some of the changes forced on us by the pandemic – such as the change to the days that we are open – are actually good ones, and we will be keeping them!
Playlanders Playgroup and Pre-school, St George’s Church Hall, Chesterfield Road, CAMBRIDGE CB4 1LN Tel 01223 420954 playlanders@btinternet.com .
Registered Charity No 1032287 playlanders.org.uk
Accounts for the period Sept 2020 to August 2021
| Receipts Government Funding Fees Fundraising income Donations Repayment of course fees Outings Income Training Bursaries Transfer from Contingency Fund Milk refund Total receipts |
43023.59 8657.00 888.26 1040.00 120.00 0 0 0 0 53638.85 |
|---|---|
| Payments Salaries Rent Miscellaneous Office costs Fundraising expenses Training Toys Art materials Resources and equipment Cambridgeshire Early Years membership Milk expenditure Ofsted fees (deferred by Ofsted to Sept ) PLA Insurance Outings expenses Publicity Exceptional: transfer to Contingency Fund fees refund Total payments Starting balance Plus income Less expenditure Closing balance |
33686.51 7255.60 158.20 220.98 397.90 106.50 81.64 418.03 145.07 0 0 50.00 145.00 507.86 0 305.00 3500.00 18.00 46946.79 11718.65 53638.85 46946.79 18410.71* |
|---|---|
*please note that some of this will need to be transferred to our Contingency Fund.
Playlanders Playgroup and Pre-school St George’s Church Hall Chesterfield Road CAMBRIDGE CB4 1LN (01223) 420954
playlanders@btinternet.com www.playlanders.org.uk
Reg charity no 1032287
Correspondence Address
80 Ramsden Square Cambridge CB4 2BL 30[th] August 2021
Independent Examiners Report to the Trustees of Playlanders Playgroup and Preschool.
Respective responsibilities of the Trustees and Examiner
As the Charity’s Trustees you are responsible for the preparation of Accounts: you consider that the audit requirements of section 43(2) of the Charities Act does not apply. It is my responsibility to state, on the basis of procedures specified in the General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners under section 43(7) of the Act, whether particular matters have come to my attention.
Basis of Independent Examiners Report
My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners. 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, consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the accounts.
Independent Examiners Statement
In connection with my examination, no other matter has come to my attention which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements
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to keep accounting records in accordance with section 41 of the Act
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to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records
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to comply with the requirements of the Act
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have not been met.
Emma Louise Lumley Independent Examiner