Fazeley Pre-school Annual Report Year ending - December 31[st] 2021
Welcome
Good evening and welcome.
On behalf of the staff and committee we would like to thank you all for taking the time to attend our Annual General Meeting tonight.
It is our pleasure to present to you the Pre-school Annual Report for 2021 and to inform you it has been another successful year for Fazeley Pre-school despite the ongoing disruption of COVID19
Admissions
In July, 21 children left us to join their new schools and at the start of the new school year in September we welcomed 24 new children, taking this year’s cohort to 28. The 30-hour funding continues to have an impact on the number of children we can accommodate at Pre-school with lots more families accessing the extra hours available to them. This continues to have a knock-on effect for 2-year old’s as we now only have limited places to accommodate them. It is less likely that children can attend for 2 years now and more likely that they will only be with us for the year before they go to school. In fact, we were oversubscribed this year which meant we did have to turn some children away. Numbers are looking good for September 2022, but it is an ongoing concern that the 30-hour funding will have future financial and admissions implications for us. We do have a strong reputation within the community and a lot of our enquires for places are not only from local residents but are also from outside our area. In fact, a lot of enquires for places come from word-of-mouth recommendations which is extremely flattering.
Staff
We are extremely lucky at our Pre-school to have such dedicated, committed, and experienced staff who go well beyond their remit, working together as a team for the best interests of the children in their care. They work many unpaid hours, making Pre-school a fun and stimulating place for the children to play and learn every day. We are immensely proud of our brilliant, supportive team! We are sure that you will agree that all the staff members work so hard to make sure that your children’s time at Fazeley Pre-school is special and have again this year, under difficult circumstances, gone above and beyond to make sure that the children were not only in a learning rich environment but were kept safe.
We also hope that you and your child/children will look back upon their time with us with fond memories of great warmth, care, and support. We really appreciate the huge amount of work that often goes un-noticed by others to make our Pre-school special and we would not have such a good reputation is it was not for such a hardworking team. Altogether we have a team of seven with staff having a wealth of experience between them.
Unfortunately, Sian left us in October to pursue a new career so we would like to wish her well with that. Sian has been kept on as bank staff so we can call on her if we need to. Amie joined us in November and has already become an integral part of the team, welcome Amie.
Sadly, it is Tracey’s last week at Pre-school this week. We are extremely sad to be losing Tracey as she has worked at Pre-school for many years, again we all wish her well for the future.
Our newest member of staff, Jemma, starts with us next week, so we extend a warm welcome to her.
Staff are professionally qualified or working towards a qualification and have years of years of experience between them.
Training
Unfortunately, the days of subsidised training have gone with budgets from Staffordshire Education Authority cut drastically over the past few years. Because of this we must budget to pay for training ourselves and must be creative in the way in which we access different types of training. Staff have completed numerous on-line training modules, webinar training and when staff do get the chance to attend face to face training, they cascade this training to their colleagues. As a legal requirement, staff have all had to update core training regularly which includes Paediatric First
Fazeley Pre-school Annual Report Year ending - December 31[st] 2021
Aid training, Food Safety training and Safeguarding training, all of which has had to be paid for. All this core training must be updated every 3 years.
Laura is now several months into her CACHE level 3 Early Educator course which she is really enjoying.
Rachel as our SENDCO attends SEND update sessions and cluster group training every term and has recently completed a four-day communication and language assessment course.
Staff all have regular supervision meetings and appraisals and are actively encouraged to develop their skills and knowledge through mentoring and on-going training.
Fundraising
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our fundraising at Pre-school during the past 12 months. Whether that contribution has been time, money, expertise or as a support to our fundraising events, it is most welcome. Without donations or fundraising, Fazeley Pre-school would not be able to operate. As a charity run group, we rely on fundraising to buy all those extras we would not be able to afford. Fundraising again this year has taken a knock because of the ongoing pandemic although we did manage to go ahead with our biggest fundraiser this year, our sponsored FUNFIT challenge which made £773.00.
Other fundraising events included an Easter Egg Raffle, Smartie challenge and our Christmas Hamper Draw.
We are into the third year of asking parents to support us with the voluntary additional fee charge for all the extras that our funding from SCC does not cover such as snack, craft & art resources, sundries, dance lessons etc. We are so grateful that parents have understood why we had to introduce this and for their on-going support in paying this charge which this year was set at 50p per hour. This is helping to keep our group financially viable. This year again we have needed to spend an awful lot of money on cleaning and santising products, so we are always grateful when generous parents donate supplies when needed too.
Our Pre-school is also signed up to The Giving Machine and parents can help us by using this to create commission for our Pre-school. We were able to go ahead with Graduation photos and photos in September from Lumiere which we get commission from sales.
We had a donation from Midland Express, M6 toll of £1000.00 after we were nominated by Shaun Brown, one of our parents and a £500.00 donation from the ASDA Foundation, both of which we are extremely grateful for.
All money raised is used to replace or buy new equipment and the ongoing maintenance of our outdoor area.
Again, thank you to everyone who helps with our fundraising efforts
Links with Parents
Links with parents has proved to be difficult again as COVID restrictions have stopped most of our stay & play sessions and face to face meetings with parents which have always been important to us.
In June we had to hold our new cohort visits outside for safety reasons for the second consecutive year. We have always prided ourselves with the relationships we form with parents, but it is hard when we only see them at drop of and collection.
Mother’s Day celebrations and our Easter Bonnet Parade were filmed so we could share the children singing and dancing and parading in their hats around the garden with parents.
As the year progressed and restrictions lifted a little, we were able to invite parents to join us in the garden for a joint Sports Day and Graduation Ceremony so we could celebrate the end of the school year together and we did manage to hold some outdoor stay & play sessions in the garden in November for our new cohort which we got some great comments for.
Our usual Christmas Concert in church was put on hold for a second year but we were able to invite a limited number of parents in to see the children perform some songs around the Christmas tree.
Fazeley Pre-school Annual Report Year ending - December 31[st] 2021
Parents are kept informed of news and given regular information via Newsletters, email, face book and Google Classroom as platforms for communication.
As mentioned, our Facebook page and email keep everyone informed about all aspects of Pre-school life, forthcoming events, and news. Paula also posts photos of the children on the photo blog, giving a snapshot of what the children are doing at Pre-school.
Laura set up a setting Instagram account and this has proved very popular, again, giving a snapshot of what the children are doing on a daily basis.
We would just like to say that communication with our parents is essential, so it has been a struggle for both parties this year. You are important to us - we are all part of a big team working together and supporting each other to make sure that the children reach their full potential, so thank you for the part that you play in that too.
Outdoor Play/ Garden
Our outdoor area has been used on a daily basis, we spend as much time as we can outdoors and it has been, in our opinion one of the main reasons why we have had so few infections. It is very safe being outside!
The children love being outdoors, and our garden provides them with lots of activities to keep them active and busy whilst enjoying the elements and fresh air and of course this year, helping to keep us all safe. They can choose to play with planned activities on the patio area, in the sand pit or mud kitchen as well as experiencing activities such as planting, looking for birds and bugs or challenging themselves with physical activities such as scaling our climbing wall or doing somersaults on our new gym bar. We cannot emphasis enough the value of outdoor play and we are so lucky to have such a wonderful facility for the children to use. The garden is a big area to maintain so we must say thank you to everyone who helps maintain the garden. Phil has not been able to do much gardening again this year but continues to do the general maintenance so thank you Phil.
It also takes a lot of money to maintain our outdoor area. Sand to fill the sand pit and just topping up the bark this year cost £500.00. This coming year we will need to replace sand, bark, and gravel, renew all the edging and repair fence posts
Special Events
This section is usually full of all the lovely events we have had during the year, so it makes us sad to list the few events that we have been able to stage this year.
As mentioned above we did have a Mother’s Day and Easter Bonnet celebration, although these were held behind closed doors because of COVID
We did manage to have a lovely joint Graduation Ceremony & Sports Day event for our children in July which was a bonus. It was a very emotional despite the reduced number of people able to attend.
On the last day of the school year, we had our end of year Pirate Party which is always a great fun event which of course all the children enjoyed.
For this new cohort we have had a Stay & Play session in the garden, held our Songs around the Tree event and a Christmas Party at the end of term which was great success with lots of dancing and party games.
Let us hope that we can get back to normal soon and be able to re-instate our usual annual events for everyone to enjoy
Fazeley Pre-school Annual Report Year ending - December 31[st] 2021
Transitions & Links with Schools
Most of our children move on to Millfield school and we continue to have strong links with them. We hope that this partnership continues to ensure the smooth transition of our pupils. We want all our children to have a smooth transition to school and we work hard to make sure that this happens, so we invite teachers from all prospective schools to visit us here at Pre-school to make sure that relevant information is passed on and that they have the chance to meet the children.
Revised EYFS
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework has recently been revised (September 2021)
Lots of things within the framework stayed the same but there were some significant changes such as staff spending less time on large amounts of written observations and assessments for evidence collection. This means we can spend more time supporting and engaging with the children and helping them directly with their learning and developmental needs. This is music to our ears and what we have been striving to do for a long time.
Staff can spend more quality time with children, teaching, scaffolding, and supporting their learning instead of writing up endless observations and reports.
Children are no longer assessed against statements from an age band category. Instead, staff can use their experience and knowledge of child development to monitor if a child’s learning and development is on track for their age.
The early learning goals at the end of reception have been changed to become more clear and easier to understand. Staff will use their judgements to assess if the children have met these goals at the end of the EYFS to inform parents and carers.
There is an emphasis on improving children’s language and vocabulary through increasing opportunities for conversations, reading of a wide range of books and holding discussions around activities in other areas of learning.
Safeguarding and welfare of children is obviously still a priority, with the added mention of teaching children about the importance of good oral health and how to keep teeth clean and healthy.
We have been given the autonomy to plan a curriculum that reflects the needs and interests of our children and our Pre-school so although you won’t see lots of paper evidence about what your child is doing at Pre-school rest assured your child is being given lots of opportunities to learn across all seven areas of learning and is being taught by experienced practitioners in a rich and enabling environment.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it has again been a difficult and worrying year for everyone but thanks to our wonderful staff and us all working together and supporting each other through this crisis, Pre-school has managed to still have a successful year.
We would like to thank you once again for attending tonight and to thank the outgoing committee for their support over the past year. We do have to elect a new committee tonight; our Pre-school is vital to the community, and we want it to continue to be successful. We would ask you to think about joining our committee, without one, Pre-school cannot operate.
Lastly and most importantly we would like to thank the children for making our place of work so rewarding, enjoyable, challenging, and different every day and to thank you as parents for choosing our Pre-school for your child. We hope to continue and grow and to provide the children with what we feel, is a fantastic start to their education.
Paula Thompson Maria Harborow
Pre-school Manager Chairperson
FAZELEY PRE-SCHOOL FINANCIAL STATEMEiYf FOR THE YEIIR ENDED ST 31 DECEMBER 2021 RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS Reeei Fees Re¢eiv Staffordshir¢ C.C. 2020 10,761.52 81,145.17 720.09 2020 71,491.16 2,896.05 1,087.19 50.00 482.05 8,240.00 787.70 321.49 743.98 275.39 1,920.43 309.66 348.06 2021 73.206.62 2,949.47 1,087.19 50.00 543.03 8240.00 1,477.50 421.44 764.95 337.11 5,044.94 874.79 363.54 3,636.82 294.76 964.22 12.891.00 Wages 80.722.36 tnland Revenue I,1.90 Insurance 1,505.00 Of5tedlA1Ted1tsli0n 75.00 Feeslsubscriptions 773.50 Rent 937.06 Ststionary/Prinling (Al.} Refreshments 143.(K) Gardcning TelcphonelPostsge ResoUrceulp. CclebralioDs Donations Sale of PhotostDVD's Funfit Fund Raising Sweatshirts Commission 684.11 l30.00 40.05 HeaVLigbt TTainings Swthy Expenses 499.60 1,175.28 TAL £93 480.94 OTAL 28.04 £100 56J8 resented 2020 2021 Excess of Receipts over Payments Balances as at beginning of the year 2.852.90 (1247.56) 40 574.4 Balance It end of year 74. £39 26.90 STATFMENT OF ASSETS AT 31# DECEMBER 2021 2020 40221.38 353.08 74.46 2021 38,787.89 539.01 26.90 Bank Current Account Cash in hand TOTAL ASSETS £39
INDEPEIYDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT TO THE COMMETTEE OF FAZELEY PRE -SCHOOL I report on the accounts of the Fazeley Pre-school for year e]ed 31" Decem1r 2021 wbich is set out on the attached page. Res ctive As the charity's cornmittee you are res1)IC for the PTepar&ion of the &¢counts" you consider that the audit requirement of section 43{2) of the Charities Act 1993 (the Act) does uot apply. It is my responsibility to state, on the basis of procedures specified in the General Directio8 given by thc Charity Commissioners under Section 43 (7) (b) of the ACL whether particular matlws bave com¢ to njy atfrntion. Basis of Ind dent ExaD)ineVs StstemenL My examination was carri¢d out in accordatte with th¢ General Directions given by the Clwity 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 ID the accounts, and seeking explanations from you as ttvstees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audiL and consequently I do not expre&8 an audit opinion on the view giv¢n by the accounts. ua]ified slalemenL In conne£tion with my examinatio no matter has tome to my attentioo:. (i) Vhich gives reasonable cause to lieve that in any mafrrial respect the requirements to keep acwunting records in )rdat with section 41 of the Act: and to prepare accounts which rd with the accounting records and to comply with the aoUnting requiretpents of the Act have not been met: or (2) to whicK in my opinion, attention slK)uld be dra in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Carol Graham Treetops, 82 Reindeer Road Fazeley, Tamwortk Staffs. B78 3SP. January 2022