West End Pre-School
’ - Managers Report 2019 2020
Good evening and thank you all for coming.
My name is Lesley Hicks, I have been working here at West End since 2014 and I have been working in the early year’s sector for 25 years. I started as supply staff in a University day nursery and over the years have held many roles. Prior to joining West End pre-school, I worked as a Development officer in an advisory capacity, commissioned by the local authority’s Services for young children to support early years’ settings in all aspects of the Early years Foundation stage and Lucy and I worked in the same team.
I am passionate about improving the outcomes for children and to be able to give them an early year’s experience that is filled with ‘awe and wonder’ which will hopefully help them to have a zest for learning more and set them on the road to lifelong learning. When I first started, I aspired to instill my passion into the team and together we moved forward make changes to enhance our quality of practice which ultimately resulted in us receiving an outstanding Ofsted judgement in January 2018.
This year has been a difficult time for all of us and never in our wildest dreams did we think that the world would be facing a global pandemic. It has been particularly difficult time for early years, the sector forgotten by the government and the poor relation in education. We went into lockdown at the end of March and at that time we had no idea how long this would be, and so I had to think how we could continue to employ staff and how we could support children’s learning whilst at home. I am very pleased to say that we managed to keep all our staff employed during lockdown and we were able to tap into the furlough scheme for some staff who were in the ‘shielding’ category. I am also very pleased to say that we were able to support and continue children’s learning whilst they were at home, the staff provided weekly stories, singing and many activities for the children. We have received some lovely feed back from parents during this time.
We received notification that all educational establishments were to reopen in June, and at the 11[th] hour the government released the guidance so that we could prepare and put a system of controls and procedures in place to ensure that we were compliant and that our environment was a safe place for children and staff to return to. This was a daunting task for early year’s providers and many of us felt alone and let down by our local authorities who at the time gave very little support.
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West End Pre-School
We were able to open in June for 16 children who were due to leave us in July to go to school. Unfortunately, our opening was delayed by a week due to a break in at the pre-school and a mindless act of vandalism. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Elizabeth Flynn, a former parent who set up a ‘go fund me’ page and to all those who contributed to it. Approximately £1600 was raised and with this money we were able to complete the repairs, redecorate the pre-school, have it deep cleaned, change the locks and we are also in the process of purchasing a new shed.
Despite this set back, the team dusted themselves off and were determined to give the children a good send off. I felt it was especially important for these children to come together again, with their friends and the staff so that the children could finish their pre-school experience in a positive way. We formed 3 ‘bubbles’ and spent most of the time outside as the weather was kind to us. The staff provided activities and experiences within their bubbles and those activities continued to cover the EYFS curriculum.
So, it goes without saying that I give my thanks to my staff team because without their resilience, commitment and support we would not be where we are today. They ensure the children are at the heart of everything we do here at the pre-school. Without the commitment of the staff we would not have been able to remain open.
I would like to thank Lucy, as lead practitioner Lucy compliments me in my role as Manager. Once a setting has received the ‘outstanding’ accolade it is extremely important that we maintain our practice and continue to reflect and make enhancements to improve outcomes for the children and this is equally or even more difficult in achieving outstanding in the first place. This year has made it extremely difficult for us to ensure that we are maintaining high quality practice, especially when we have to maintain a high standard of cleaning every day and look to providing our curriculum outdoors.
During lockdown Lucy and I, with the support of Teresa participated in an online ‘Impact challenge’, this gave us the opportunity to drill down and really think about what we do at West End Pre-school, why we do it, what the impact is for the children and what next. This led to us looking at participating in a Accreditation scheme, as a team we decided this will help us to continue to reflect and improve on our practice and it would be a great tool to share with Ofsted when the time comes.
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West End Pre-School
We started by looking at our core values and what our vision for the pre-school is, we decided that we wanted to use more open ended, natural resources, recycle wherever we could to reduce our use of plastic and replace the use of ‘toys’ and try to introduce resources that represent real life both past and present. We have had to reflect and review our outdoor area as this is where at the moment the children are spending the most of their day. Being outside in the fresh air means that children are generally healthier and free from the germs that can be spread inside where the ventilation is restricted. It boosts their immune system and even in the winter can increase their vitamin D levels. Children display more positive behavior outside as they play together with open ended resources and are not so focused on wanting the ‘Thomas’ train that another child has. They can be active, creative and think critically as they use their imaginations in their play.
Lucy continues to work diligently in supporting the staff to now embed the vision for the pre-school. She embraces my ideas and works hard to put a plan into fruition, she is an advocate for the outdoors and in the past has taken groups of children to Forest School and heads up the annual growing in the allotment each year. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has robbed us this year of being able to enhance our curriculum with activities such as Forest school, so as we like to think outside the box here at West End, today we have held our own Forest school experience, where the children have toasted marshmallows over a small fire, had hot chocolate and made a wooden tree decoration using a hand drill. The children loved it!
I would also like to thank our most long-standing member of staff Teresa, she is our Deputy lead practitioner, SENco and Admissions officer. Teresa goes over and beyond her duties and supports both me and Lucy in our roles. All the children benefit from Teresa’s expertise and knowledge but more so those children that may have some additional needs, she works tirelessly to get the extra support and funding for them and ensures that they are supported appropriately so that they are included in all aspects of the activities and routine in pre-school. Both Lucy and Teresa are an absolute asset to the team, and we should never underestimate their contribution and value to West End pre-school.
I would also like to thank Lauren, West End preschool’s first ever apprentice and she has done us so proud, I will need to go a long way to finding another apprentice as amazing as Lauren has been. Lauren has recently acquired her level 3 qualification and now holds the title of pre-school practitioner. I am hoping that we can continue to support her in her journey of increasing her knowledge and hope that she will enrol for a foundation degree in early years.
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West End Pre-School
I would like to thank Julie who is also currently training for her level 3 qualification, sadly her course has been interrupted because of Covid-19, hopefully she will finish the remainder of her course soon, Julie is a key person to some of our very little children and she has built attachments with them and provides the care and nurturing these young children need when they first start with us.
I would also like to thank Zoe who has been with us for 3 years and although Zoe is now a bank member of staff, she is an established and valuable team member. Zoe has brought a wealth of experience to the pre-school, she continues to inspire other staff with ideas for activities and give them advice about how they can teach those activities, Zoe is promotes outdoor learning and is a strong believer of the vision of the pre-school and the curiosity approach ethos.
A big thank you also to Heather, who is a bank member of staff and currently comes in twice a week to support a child and to help us with our enhanced cleaning schedule, she often drops everything to come in and help when she receives a begging text from me. Both these ladies are valuable to the team and it takes a special kind of person to be able to come into preschool and just get on with things. They are the under-pinning support a setting need.
I would like to welcome Caroline our newest member of staff, Caroline joined us in January 2020 and sadly we went into lockdown at the end of March, however she has slotted into our team nicely and has been working very hard to get on board with how we work here at West End. Caroline has her level 3 qualification and worked previously in a day nursery. Caroline is also a key person to a group of children.
Committee
This has been a strange year for the committee, having to suspend all the fundraising activities they had planned for the pre-school. However I would like to say thank you to all the committee, those who are standing down and those who are signing up for another year, on behalf of myself and all the staff we would very much like to thank them for their support, commitment and consistently championing the pre-school out in the community. I would like to say thank you to David Riggs, Louise Le Moignan, and Heather Brown who are the officers of the committee and have specific responsibilities. A very big thank you to Gemma Nolan, our vice chair who has supported me in my role as Manager of the pre-school over
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the past year, in particular with supporting me with the break in, the planning for reopening the pre-school, I couldn’t of done it without you. Thank you
Thank you also to Sarah taking the lead on fundraising, I appreciate that we haven’t been able to fundraise as we had hoped but together in the short period we were open we have raised £726.93 plus £160.00 for entering the carnival. Much of this money was invested back into the pre-school to provide, equipment, resources and experiences for the children such as the pirate ship, story pegs, living eggs and the nativity production experiences.
A lot of work goes on behind the scenes by the committee- Charity Commission returns, Policy reviews, fundraising etc. and without you all, there would not be a Pre-School, your time and commitment are so very much appreciated!
We are looking to welcome anyone who would like to be a member of the committee, to help with fund raising, marketing or our website. In order to keep the pre-school open and running and to meet the requirements of our Constitution and the Charities commission we must have a minimum of 5 members of which 60% need to be parents.
Finance Report
The accounts for 2019-20 have been audited by Beverley du Crow, Treasurer of the Hilldene and our thanks go again to her. The report back from the auditor was signed as a true reflection of our income and expenditure for the year 2019/20. Copies of the accounts /budgets are available on request.
Financially the impact of Covid 19 for us as a pre-school has been significant, having to purchase extra equipment, such as sun umbrella’s, cleaning products, antibacterial machine, staff wages, purchase of PPE, engaging an external cleaner and a loss of revenue from fees.
Although the written report shows a small profit, we need to take off £4590.09 which was advanced Autumn term EYE funding, so this means that overall we made a loss of £2615.74
Budgets wise – wages came in on target and this was due to being able to tap into the furlough scheme. The percentage increase again to the workplace pension, and an additional member of staff joining the scheme meant that we came in over
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West End Pre-School
budget. Our material costs were enhanced greatly due to the extra equipment and resources needed to be able to re-open and have children and staff working in three ‘bubble’s. Fees and Funding were lower than expected, due to our fee paying children being away from pre-school from March 2020 – September 2020, and the children due to start with us after Easter either delayed their start dates or chose to keep their children at home for the time being.
A loss is never great but due to a very significant profit made last year the impact of that loss can be carried this year, however we must continue to ensure that we are sustainable for the future, which is quite unpredictable at this time, numbers for September 2021 are lower than previous years so it is important that we continue to market and champion the pre-school in the wider community.
So just to recap, this new financial year will, as always, be a challenge to ensure we keep within our overall budget without exceeding it too much! As a Charity, we need to ensure that we are financially sustainable, and any profits made after this is fed back into the preschool to help with future sustainability, staff training, resources and equipment for the benefit of improving the outcomes for the children.
Provisional 2020 / 2021 forecasts and budgets will be drawn up, and these budgets will be ready to be reviewed and agreed at the first committee meeting after the AGM.
Conclusion
I would like to reiterate my conclusion from last year’s AGM by reading you the definition of Resilience.
Resilience ‘ the capacity to recover from difficulties and toughness’
I really feel that this definition is specific to West End pre-school, and many early years providers at this current time. This year has meant that we have had to face many adversities, however through the spirit, resistance, teamwork, passion, and loyalty of the team, West End pre-school has demonstrated that we have ability to bounce back and be bigger and better and continue to be an OUTSTANDING setting.
West End Pre-School will continue to thrive, develop, and improve thanks to an exceptionally dedicated and enthusiastic team of Staff, Committee and our Parents and families. We are honored currently to have such a wonderful group of parents who make up our Committee and who willingly give up their precious time for the benefit of the Pre-School – A big thank you!! I would like to now hand over to Lucy.
Nov 2018
West End Pre-school 5th Nov 2018
CONklTrENTIAL enditure Wages GraRt Pa}ToII PLision In'.2nd Revcnue 79102.85 559.08 2275.86 5424.22 3416.16 14480.10 43005.13 394.00 436.00 774.94 493.44 943.94 962.00 5506.41 718.61 48.00 43.17 Incotr. 99080.?8 300.00 3636.23 fr-- Seiicecare JRS 119.60 Tkn= 2nd allnutl subscription Phot05 Donation Mis¢ LbershIp 2378_58 192.96 50.00 168.76 58.00 SwtaLTce shins Inier¢sr F und raising 19.£0 437.14 -L:-Y..: ?rrse(l Fl CaTr.ii"al F4 Raffles F3 Misc F9 348.04 Tape51ry 127.20 SubTotg1 BalsDce5 at Bank CIF sai.ings I Sal'ings 2 Current Dcbii Card l-otal 104479.62 19507.21 2090.14 23332.75 49.38 149459.10 2211112020 1ncoTne and Pagc 2 of 2 I. Scpt¢mber 2018-31° Augllst 2019
sTI CONFIDLX AI Income and Expenditure Account I September 2019 -31 August 2020 examined these Income & Expenditure JllTS f or the above period and in my opinion -ey represent a true and f air view of the -ncial position of W2st End Pre-school. 2018-19