2020-07-31-accounts - Ashurstwood Community Pre-School

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Annual General Meeting 2019-20

Minutes (AGM) 23/11/2020

1. Welcome and introduction

2. Apologies – Lois Bradnam LB, Wendy Ward WW, Helen Buck HB Present : Claire Shuttleworth CS, Lauryn Page LP, Kate Coffey KC, Kelly Phillips KP, Megan Tester MT, Harriet Crocker HC, Angela Poole AP, Lisa Hobby LH, Alice Down AD, Agnes Rogers AR, Georgie Bushall GB,

3. Declaration of interest – none

4. Approval of last minutes from AGM – all approved Proposed by KP, seconded by HC

5. Chairs report

Ashurst Wood Community Pre-school - Chair’s Report to AGM November 2020

What a year!

At the start of the academic year 2019 all staff were retained, future admission looked good, finances were as usual exceptionally well managed, and we hadn’t even heard of Covid-19 and social distancing.

March 2020 came the first national lockdown and we closed our doors.

The staff were extremely supportive and loyal, agreeing to be furloughed or working from home to continue communication with parents and children in innovative ways including video storytelling, sending birthday messages, maintaining communication via Tapestry and sharing activities to do at home.

In June 2020 we re-opened operating with two bubbles and numbers began to pick up especially for those due to start school.

Despite restrictions for early years settings claiming under the job retention scheme and no income other than the free entitlement funding we avoided the need to use our contingency funds.

The start of a new academic year (September 2020) all the staff returned to pre-school to welcome new and existing children and attendance returned to near normal for an Autumn term.

The committee officers (Harri, Megan and myself) agreed to stay on despite our children moving on to the primary school, but Harri (Treasurer) and Megan (Secretary) will be standing down at the AGM. In addition, our other committee members have either emigrated or no longer have children in the pre-school. We are therefore seeking to elect new family and associate members to help run and fundraise for our lovely pre-school.

As a non-profit-making charity and we try to keep our fees low to be accessible to all in the community. Due to Covid-19 we have been unable to hold many of our fundraising events, this includes one of our biggest fundraisers the Village Christmas Market. We welcome fundraising ideas and support.

Thank you to

Harri, Megan, Jackie Edwards and Dana

Mrs Hobby for her continued support and all the school staff

Peter Bartlett for 6 years of maintaining the website and Georgie for her work to update the website following a change of platform.

The Staff who went above and beyond their job descriptions including painting, decorating, gardening and laying paving and roping in partners to help.

Nisa for continuing to nominate us to receive donations from Making a Difference Locally (MADL)

Andy Crocker for relaying the astro-turf.

I’m looking forward to a new year of fresh ideas for fundraising all being well, fingers crossed and the pre-school continuing to thrive.

Kelly Phillips (Chair)

6. Managers’ Report (AP)

Ashurst Wood Community Pre-school

AGM Managers Report 2019-2020 23 November 2020

In September 2019 we started back with 31 children attending and retained all staff members.

Our general planning was based on half termly themes from traditional tales to water. Individual planning was based on each child’s interests and development stage and their key person designs activities to extend their learning. In addition, we celebrated festivals and awareness events throughout the year. For Halloween we held a craft party for parents and children, we entered the village scarecrow festival, we celebrated Diwali, Christmas, the Chinese New Year, Storytelling week, Road Safety Week, Safer Internet Day, Valentine’s Day. We invited parents to watch “Our First Nativity” which actually was our first nativity performance. Unfortunately, we had to cancel our Mother’s Day and Easter events due to the coronavirus.

We moved away from whole group circle-time to provide daily key person opportunities in small groups and additional small group time with activities based on ability.

In March the government announced the closing of schools and early year’s settings for all but critical workers due to Covid-19. Every parent was emailed to gauge the number of critical workers and their needs. We made the hard decision to close but offered our services to the primary school and other settings in the local area.

The staff were very accommodating and agreed to be furloughed or work from home to maintain links with parents and children.

When we knew we were able to reopen, the staff worked exceptionally hard to get the preschool ready, rearranging the room into two bubbles, clearing soft furnishings, cleaning and establishing two outside areas.

We reopened on the 8[th] June, initially with limited numbers. Many parents were concerned that there would be a sterile environment and that staff would be wearing masks and socially distancing. We reassured parents with photos of the pre-school and met with parents in the outside areas. By the end of term, the majority of children had returned. Ashurst Wood Reception class teachers visited the children in the outside areas and we even managed outside graduation ceremonies.

The primary school gave us permission to use the grassed area at the front of the school. This area made a huge difference to outdoor play and learning, providing us with natural grass, trees and shrubs, slopes, and much needed shade in the summer months. In the summer holiday the area was enclosed with wooden fencing making it safe and secure and a real asset to the pre-school.

We continued to keep in touch with families who didn’t return and we liaised with the teachers at the five other primary schools to ensure smooth transitions to school.

Joanne managed to complete her Level 2 childcare qualification during lockdown and Shannon used her time to continue her studies for a Level 5 Foundation Degree. All staff continued to undertake on-line courses for their continuous professional development.

Before re-opening we held show-arounds for prospective families and settling sessions for new starters.

This September we welcomed back returning children and despite parents not coming inside the pre-school the new starters settled quickly (well most of them).

The staff have worked incredibly hard to create a safe and nurturing environment whilst maintaining high standards of cleanliness. They focused on supporting the children’s emotional wellbeing and resilience, building strong bonds with their key children and maintaining communication with parents despite government advise to not allow parents into the building. Throughout the pandemic we continued to comply with the requirements of the EYFS to provide high quality care and learning opportunities.

We continue to be regarded as an outstanding setting attracting new starters through recommendation and have limited spaces available for this academic year (see Admissions Report).

It has been a challenging year for all of us, including the children - they have been our little heroes.

I would like to thank the staff, committee and all parents for their continuing support.

Angela Poole Manager

7. Treasures Report (HC)

Ashurst Wood Community Pre-school Report to AGM

Treasurers Report 2019-2020

Well the end of an interesting if not strange academic year and possibly the quickest one yet!

We started the year with £27089.62 in the main account, £56194.10 in the contingency account and the BT bills account had £1335.43. We maintained all staff this year and Shannon has started her Level 5 through funding from the Lakehouse lasting legacy.

We also had a very minimal debt from the previous year which was then squared up in the autumn term. Invoices were issued and some have been transferred over to the new academic year the majority of those has been due to the pandemic and people’s jobs being held or made redundant. However, they are in process for this year and payments are being made, we are a community preschool and we try to accommodate and work to ensure everyone’s best interests are covered. We had 2 year funded children this year again and also still had children attending using the full 30 hours or a split of these within the setting, with a couple of slight hick ups where codes weren’t correctly updated and unfortunately we had to invoice hours until the next term where the code was eligible again.

The year ended with £96427.87 for income and the expenses were £99015.27. Slightly higher expenditure than previous years however we are a non-profit making charity and with the previous year’s having had a profit this is what we would expect. The final accounts will go to the accountant, hopefully Mr Robert Agates will do the honours again and once completed will be available on the charity commission. Thank you for doing the previous years. Should anyone want to have a more in depth look at the figures or any questions please do ask.

The autumn term saw the usual boiler service expense, lease payment to West Sussex County Council and this year we needed to update the key-pad for the door entry as it had got wires missing/worn. We also switched from our usual insurance provider to dot2dot as they are one of the leading insurers for preschools and those that are timber framed building construction.

Moving into the Spring term we put away £9500.00 to the contingency account, possibly aware of things to come! £6000 of this money then was subsequently moved into the “BT bills” accounts and renamed “redundancy monies”. The total needed for this account was calculated using the government calculator available online, moving forward this will need to be updated on an annual basis. We had a couple of children that were eligible to receive a DAF (Disability Access Fund) payment which we put towards the purchase of a touchscreen, the hope was that we would get another part of the DAF in the next financial year, however Covid19 happened and we were just really fortunate that West Sussex honoured the funding payments for the hours that should have been attended. So out of the money that was put into contingency a further £1600 was used to cover the touchscreen cost.

The preschool also invested in a dishwasher which has been helpful with the Pandemic as we can wash some of the plastic toys in there on a rotation helping with the need to now make sure that things are deep cleaned. Also helps with time for staff at the end of the day when there was a large amount of plates and cups to be cleaned away.

We invested in some new trikes for the garden with monies that had previously been raised through the previous summer terms sponsored walk which the children all love. Then we saw ourselves having to shut our doors due to Coronavirus (Covid-19) being declared as a pandemic and the country going into lockdown. We could open for key worker families, after going through the children on the role we found that actually the children that were from key worker parents had younger siblings which we couldn’t accommodate as below 2 years; so that meant decision made we would shut until further notice.

Many conversations were had between Angela and Claire as to the staff, wages and who would we furlough through the government scheme that was set up. The decision was made that we would continue to honour the staff their wages as depending on how long the lockdown lasted we would possibly be back in again.

We had to work out the percentage of the total income from invoiced fees received in February which then gave us an amount that we could furlough up to. We decided to furlough Lauryn, Caroline and Sharon in the first round which would make the most of the amount we could claim up to. We then as a preschool topped up the additional 20% so no staff member was out of pocket. In May came the news that after May half term we could open our doors again keeping in small bubbles. We changed the staff that were furloughed so that Lauryn and Caroline would return as full-time staff members ready for the bubbles to be formed and have Joanne, Holly and Sharon on furlough. Invoices were recalculated for those that were due monies back that had paid or this was taken off once they returned in the summer term.

We were fortunate that the structure and set up described to the parents by Angela meant the initial numbers returning were small but good to be getting back into the swing of things. Those parents that didn’t initially return started to feel more comfortable and possible word of mouth saw a significant amount of children return. We financed the front garden with a new fence at the end of the academic year as having this area proved to be invaluable with having 2 bubbles and ensuring all children had access to outside facilities. It also made it look more secure and easy on the eye as we have used tape at stacks initially! Those that returned and were due to be invoiced we decided as we were receiving government funding for all the children that would usually be in and not all were that we wouldn’t invoice which helped with finances initially for some and also the need for them to be in the setting.

We would like to say a big thank you to the Trigwell family for their generous leavers donation of £500.00.

After a really strange second half of the year and with the relief that West Sussex would still fund our hours at the levels that they would have been had we not we been in a pandemic, and utilising for a 3 month period the furlough scheme, it has meant that actually we haven’t had to break into our contingency fund as possibly would have been expected despite on paper seeming to have over spent. The accounts ended with Main account balance £23628.35, the contingency £58009.88 and the redundancy monies £7417.31.

Well done to all for getting through this last academic year.

Harri Crocker (Treasurer)

8. Admissions Report (CS)

Ashurst Wood Community Pre-school AGM 23.11.2020

Admissions Report 2019/2020

The Preschool started off this academic year with 30 children on the roll, comprising 20 Owls, 8 Owletts and 2 Fledglings across the following split of sessions:

Monday: 18 am, 13 lunch, 12 pm

Tuesday: 18 am, 15 lunch, 10 pm

Wednesday: 17 am, 10 lunch, 9 pm

Thursday: 16 am, 13 Lunch, 8 pm

Friday: 15 am, 12 Lunch, 12 pm

Spring term we started with 33 children as we gained 2 Owletts and a new Fledgling. Taking the sessions to:

Monday: 20 am, 17 Lunch, 15 pm

Tuesday: 19 am, 18 Lunch, 13 pm

Wednesday: 20 am, 17 Lunch, 13 pm

Thursday: 18 am, 13 Lunch, 12 pm

Friday: 17 am, 16 Lunch, 13 pm

Our numbers for the summer term on paper were due to be 39, then a week before the end of the Spring term we were put us into a national lockdown and we saw the Preschool close its doors as we didn't have sufficient key worker children to warrant keeping the preschool building open.

Fortunately after May half term we were given the go ahead to reopen, maintaining the government guidelines, we were so pleased that we were able to create 2 bubbles of children for those last 6 and a half weeks of the term. Each bubble having the same staff members throughout and on the majority of days we had up to 8 in each bubble. So lovely that parents/carers had the confidence in us to be comfortable to let their children return.

So not quite knowing how the new academic year would look in this “new normal”, we have found that despite numbers being a little lower than usual we have still had 24 families return or start in Preschool and as I’m typing this we so far have no space on a Friday and very limited on the other 4 days.

Claire Shuttleworth

Administrator

9. Fundraising Report

We currently do not have an allocated member of the committee heading up fundraising it has been a combined effort with the whole committee pre Covid we managed to hold a stall on the Village Christmas market, we earned funds from Rudolph cards, label planet, easyfundraising and the snack bar was part funded through the donation pot that is held in the Village Nisa store.

10. Election of new Committee members

Alice Down to be Secretary. Proposed by KP, seconded by ET

Georgie Bushall to be Treasurer. Proposed by AD, seconded by ET

Emma Taylor parent. Proposed by GB, seconded by AD

Agnes Rogers parent. Proposed by GB, seconded by AD

Wendy Ward grandparent. Proposed by KP, seconded by AR

Lois Bradnam. Proposed by KP, seconded by AR

Lisa Hobby Head of Ashurst Wood Primary School. Proposed by ET, seconded by AR

Helen Buck awaiting confirmation form and proposal/seconder

11. Resignation of existing Trustees

Confirmation that the resignations were received from Harriet Crocker as Treasurer and Megan Tester as Secretary. Thanks were given for there time and work spent during their time as committee members.

12. Any other business .

Looking into possibility of CIO/CIC Temporary adoption of the Constitution

13. Date of next meeting date

To be confirmed

AGM closed at 19.55

ASHURST WOOD COMMUNITY PRE-SCHOOL INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES ON THE ACCOUNTS OF ASHURST WOOD COMMUNITY PRE.SCHOOL We report on the Unts ol the ¢ompany for the year ended 31 July 2020, whh are sel out on page 2 Respectlvg responsibllttlls of tNSto08 and gxamlner The charity's trustees are resFK)nsible for the preparation of Ihe xcounts and consRlw that an audrt Is not required for this year under Section 43121 ol the Charib'es Act 1993 and that an ind8Pgndenl examination 1$ needed. Han9 satisfied ourselves that the Chty is eligie for indeFendenl examin8b"w il is our resp)nsith'lity to.. al examine the Ounts under 'On 43 01 the 1993 Act," bl lo follow the prO¢reS laid down in the general direcb.ons given by the Charity Commisgion under Sect'on 4171 ol the 1993 Act,. and cl to stale whether parb'cuL8r matters have Ca)me to my attents"on. Ba$1$ of Indepondont examinerfs report ()Jr exarnination was carrk8d out in *o)rdance wth the general dire¢b'ons given by the Charity Commisson. An examinab'on indudes a ew ol the ac(xwnting records kept by the charity and a (x)mparison ol the accounts presented wlh those records. 1181so indudes consider8b.on ol ony unusual items or disdosures in the accounts, and seeking explanab.ons from you as trustees conceming any such matters. The pr{edre$ undertaken do not provide all the ewdence that would be required in an audit and (x)nswuenly no opinion is given a5 to whether the gxtsjnts present a true and fair view and the report is limited to those matters sel out in our stalerrenl below. Independent ox8mlngrf$ statsment In connecb'cl) 1h our examination, no matter has come to our attenb"on'. 11 whrh gives us reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirem8nts'. 81 lo keep accounb'ng records In ao))rdance with Section 4101 Ihe 1993 Act,. and bl to prepare accounts which ac¢ord with the accounting records and comply with the &counb'ng requirements ol the 1993 Act have not been mel, or 21 to whith, in our wnion, attention shovld te drawn in order to enable a woper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Rob9rt Agat & Associatos Certlfied Accountants Dated.. 11 DAY QD£I Sgnto$a Southview Road Crowborough East Sus¥ox TN6 1HG

ASHURST WOOD COMMUNITY PRE-SCHOOL INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2020 INCOME EXPENSES WSCC funding Fees Legacy Grants received Fundraising and donations Covid-19 job retention grants received Bank interest received 73,754.53 13,221.10 3,500.00 615.00 2,163.38 4,272 59 30.95 Staff wages Staff pension contributions Rent and rates Electricity, gas and water Refuse collection Snack bar Insurance Stslionery and resources Childrens, entertainment and grfls Training costs DBS checks Fundraising expenses Pur¢ha5e of inleraclive TV Website hosting and updates Telephone Repairs and maintenance Staff entertaining Donation lo Ashursl Wood School Subscriptions and Iicences Net surplus for the year 80.934.84 1379 57 450.00 509.37 105.00 123.78 1.499.89 2.357 50 105.91 2,791.40 115.10 281.60 2,803.10 124.63 687.33 1,494.34 176.92 60.00 695.60 861.67 97,557.55 97,557.55 RECONCILIATION OF CHARITY RESERVES OPENING BALANCES CLOSING BALANCES Cash at bank.. Current aecount IGeneral Fundl Deposit account Iconb'ngency Fund) BT bills account Pety cash in hand Stock in hand - T-shirts Fee and other debtors WSCC funding received in advance Creditors - PAYE & National Insurance Cash at bank. Current account (General Fund) Deposit account Icontingency Fund} BT bills account Pety cash in hand Stock in hand - T-shirts Fee and other debtors WSCC funding received in advance CreditOfS- PAYE & National Insurance 32,940.30 56.189.32 1.335.30 11.43 315.00 488.90 113,124.751 {182.001 23,628.35 58,009.88 7,416.96 74.76 260.00 110,398.78) 1156.00 77,973.50 78,835.17 Nel surplus for the year 861.67 Net deficit for the year 78,835.17 78,835 17