c
Member of the Pre-School Learning Alliance
Annual Report and Financial Statements 2024 - 2025
Registered Charity Number: 1033527
Our Lady of the Wayside Pre-School
Annual Report and Financial Statements
2024/2025
| Trust particulars | 1 |
|---|---|
| Trustee’s Annual Report | 2 – 4 |
| (including Financial Review & Review of Major Risks) | |
| Statement of Financial Activities | 5 |
| Bank Reconciliation | 6 |
| Balance Sheet | 7 |
| Independent Examiner’s Report | 8 |
Registered Charity No: 1033527
Our Lady of the Wayside Pre-School
Year ended 31[st] August 2025
Trustees and Officers
Stuart Kirk Chairperson / Trustee Stuart Kirk Treasurer/Trustee (overseeing the work of the Finance Officer) Helen Jordan Vice-Chairperson/Trustee Anne Sharkey Secretary/Trustee
Committee Members :
Claire Delaney, Laura McGovern.
Independent Examiner
Kevin Perfect
Bank
HSBC Plc 275 Stratford Road Shirley, Solihull B90 3AP
Headquarters
Our Lady of the Wayside Parish Hall 566 Stratford Road Shirley, Solihull B90 4AY
Telephone Number: 07474 743744 Email Address: ourladyofthewaysidepreschool@gmail.com Website: OLOWPreschool.com Twitter #OLOWPre Facebook OLOWPreschool Ofsted Registration Number: 250105
Member of the Early Years Alliance (previously known as the Pre-School Learning Alliance)
Employers' Liability Insurers: Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance plc
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Registered Charity No: 1033527
Our Lady of the Wayside Pre-School
Trustee’s Annual Report
Year End 31[st] August 2025
Structure, Governance & Management
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Pre-School Learning Alliance Constitution adopted 24[th] June 1993 and amended 17[th] July 2011.
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Constituted by a committee of at least 6 officers.
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All committee members are elected during the Annual General Meeting by parents and guardians of children attending the Pre-School. (Last AGM Monday 2nd December 2024 7.00pm in person).
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An enhanced DBS check (formally known as CRB) is undertaken for all new trustees, officers, staff, students and volunteers. Staff now register for the update service, when their DBS is due for renewal and it is our Pre-School Manager’s responsibility to check that they are up to date and in order.
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In addition to this all Committee members must register for the update service and complete an EY2 online with Ofsted.
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In line with Ofsted policies and procedures our elected Pre-School Manager, Ann Marie Brady is now the Nominated Person for our setting and this is registered with Ofsted. They are notified of any changes in circumstances immediately.
Objectives and Activities of our Group (Public Benefit):
Our objective is to enhance the development and education of children under statutory school age by encouraging parents/carers to understand and provide for the needs of their children through community groups.
Our aim is to provide a happy environment in which the children feel safe and secure. Children should be able to learn, discover and experiment through play and structured learning. At all times the children will be encouraged to develop their skills to their full potential in all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum (including changes which came into force from 1[st] September 2021 and 4[th] September 2023).
All families are welcomed and respected for their ethnicity, culture or religion, home language, family background, special educational needs, disability, gender or ability.
Achievements and Performance:
- We have experienced reduced admission numbers and a reduction in the number of sessions each children attended each week, in part due to cost of living rises but also due to our opening hours, with many parents seeking settings with longer opening hours. This had a negative impact upon our income. We are unable to increase our opening hours due to the use of the Parish Hall by other hall users.
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Registered Charity No: 1033527
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Funding for funded 3 and 4 year olds Increased from 1[st] April 2025 by 2.57%, 13p per hour whilst funding for 2 year olds increased by 3.4%, 26p per hour. This was not in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) which rose by 3.8% in the 12 months up to July 2025 or Minimum Wage increases which stood at 6.73% for workers age 23 and over, affecting all of our Pre-School workforce.
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Our team have continued to complete online training packages via Educare to keep their knowledge current. This training has included Safeguarding, Prevent Duty, Getting to Grips with EYFS, Infection Protection & Control and First to name a few.
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Our latest Ofsted inspection was on 18[th] April 2023 and we were all very pleased with our Good rating. The full report can be read: https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50219282
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We did not receive any donations/grants during 2024/25 but will continue to apply for external funding to buy new equipment and resources to engage our Pre-School children, encouraging them to learn through play. We did raise £542 through a school raffle and sale of photographs.
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Our occupancy rate for 2024/25 averaged 51.4%, which was a 19.9% decrease with the occupancy in 2023/24.
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We have a blend of Nursery age and Pre-School age children. During 2023/24 30% of our children were of Nursery age an increase of 15% yoy.
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We continue to work closely with the local Family Information Service to support families who meet the government’s criteria for 2 year old funding.
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We also continue to support families who are not eligible for SMBC funding, but are experiencing financial difficulties, which would mean without our support their children would be unable to attend our Pre-School.
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Our electronic journals which were launched in January 2019, have proved successful and promote our partnership with parents, who have immediate access to their child’s learning. In addition they are able to contribute, by leaving comments and also upload their own observations from home. New features and functionality are added to increase interaction each year. This enables us to engage in conversations with children about their lives outside of Pre-School; particularly beneficial to encourage communication skills.
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In April 2016 we offered our staff the opportunity to join our new workplace pension scheme which is operated through NEST (National Employment Savings Trust). The scheme is open to all staff at any time and we currently
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Registered Charity No: 1033527
Financial Review (including reserves policy):
At the end of each financial year, annual accounts are produced in the form of receipts and payments, including a statement of assets and liabilities.
Projections for the coming year are based upon the previous accounts which provide the basis for the annual budget, which is reviewed and updated regularly throughout the year.
A separate reserve account is maintained for contingency purposes, to cover unforeseen events and/or fluctuations in income & expenditure. Following bank interest being applied totalling £228.44 the balance of £12,949.12 was transferred to our treasurer account during the year to help fund everyday running costs.
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Registered Charity No: 1033527
Emergency General Meeting
On 21[st] May 2025 an EGM was held and attended by all trustees and committee members.
Due to a lack of children, mainly because of our inability to offer more than 15 hours a week whilst parents now have access to 30 hours a week funding for all children (introduced in Sept 2025), our latest projections were an occupancy rate of 11.34%.
We were also handed a rental increase of 46% by the church to bring us in line with commercial rental rates. An increase to employers NI costs was estimated to cost the preschool an additional 4.5k per annum from 2025/26.
Our current projected losses were unsustainable and whilst discussions were held to find ways to increase income and to make savings on costs it was decided by a Unanimous vote to close the Pre-School at the end of the Summer 2025 term.
The closing bank balance of £13,236.05 will be exhausted by two Redundancy payments.
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Registered Charity No: 1033527
Our Lady of the Wayside Pre-School
Statement of Financial Activities Year ended 31[st] August 2025
| INCOME Pre-School Fees SMBC Funding Deposits Admin & Registration Fees Donations & Fund Raising Bank Interest Received Pre-School Annual Trip Uniform Sales Sale of Equipment Miscellaneous TOTAL INCOME EXPENDITURE Wages Total Training Rent Resources & Equipment Insurance, Membership, DBS & Phones Catering & Cleaning Fundraising Costs Activities Staff & Childrens Uniform Garden Refurbishment Redundancy Miscellaneous TOTAL EXPENDITURE Surplus/(Deficit) |
2024/25 2023/24 2022/23 £15,096.00 £24,490.23 £22,962.34 £58,117.05 £47,216.16 £45,062.44 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £280.00 £440.00 £750.00 £1,049.63 £622.95 £4,454.10 £228.44 £244.08 £128.72 £0.00 £0.00 £308.00 £257.00 £3,639.94 £428.50 £0.00 £718.44 £0.00 £0.00 £5.00 £91.50 |
|---|---|
| £78,668.06 £73,446.92 £74,475.54 |
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| £74,158.85 £65,050.21 £64,124.83 £195.00 £0.00 £406.45 £3,948.00 £3,510.00 £2,530.00 £1,252.44 £1,129.77 £2,987.89 £949.95 £1,628.79 £1,934.61 £692.42 £792.75 £833.24 £0.00 £64.69 £0.00 £290.00 £600.00 £285.60 £0.00 £517.72 £567.32 £10.35 £5,394.63 £44.77 £0.00 £385.42 £0.00 £240.98 £206.37 £574.01 |
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| £87,132.62 £73,545.07 £74,629.37 |
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| -£8,464.56 -£98.15 -£153.83 |
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Registered Charity No: 1033527
Our Lady of the Wayside Pre-School
Bank Reconciliation
Year Ended 31[st] August 2025
| Business Money Manager Account: Opening Balance 01/09/24 Interest Received Funds Transfers In Funds Transfers Out Closing Balance 31/08/25 Treasurer Account: Opening Balance 01/09/24 Add Receipts Less Payments Cheques written but not presented Cheques 2022/23 processed 2023/24 Funds Transfers In Funds Transfers Out Closing Balance 31/08/24 Summary: Business Money Manager Account Treasurer Account Bank Total |
£12,720.68 £228.44 £0.00 -£12.949.12 |
|---|---|
| £0.00 | |
| £8,979.93 £78,439.62 £87,132.62 £0.00 £0.00 £12,949.12 £0.00 |
|
| £13,236.05 | |
| £0.00 £13,236.05 |
|
| £13,236.05 |
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Registered Charity No: 1033527
Our Lady of the Wayside Pre-School
| Balance Sheet Year Ended 31st August 2025 Current Assets: Cash at Bank & In Hand Debtors Current Liabilities Creditors Net Assets Represented by: General Funds Restricted Funds Approved on behalf of the Trustees: …………………………………… …………… Paul Williams (Finance Officer) Date …………………………………… …………… Stuart Kirk (Chairperson) Date |
2024/25 £13,236.05 - |
|---|---|
| £13,236.05 | |
| £0.00 | |
| £0.00 | |
| £ £13,236.05 £0.00 |
|
| £13,236.05 | |
| …………………. …………………… |
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Registered Charity No: 1033527
Our Lady of the Wayside Pre-School
Independent Examiner’s Report
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Our Lady of the Wayside Pre-School (the Trust) for the year ended 31[st] August 2025.
Respective responsibilities of trustees & examiner
As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’).
Independent examiner’s statement
In the course of my examination, I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
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Accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or
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The accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Signed:
Name: Kevin Perfect ACMA
Relevant Professional Qualification:
Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
Address: 65 Featherstone Crescent, Shirley, Solihull B90 3RJ
Date:
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Registered Charity No: 1033527