## Chairs Report to the Trustees of Saplings Pre School For the Financial Year 1[st] September 2021 to 31[st] August 2022 Charity Number: 1038172 ## Autumn Term ## Covid Returning to a situation where most of the Covid restrictions we had lived with for so long had been relaxed was disconcerting and staff were reluctant to let go of some of the familiar safeguards. For them the ‘Personal Responsibility’ mentioned by the Education Minister, in his July press release, suggested that the protocols put in place to protect the staff and children remained relevant. As a result, we were slow to let down our guard and this attitude served us well as despite our caution and being doubly vaccinated all staff members succumbed to the virus at some point during the educational year. Thankfully, the infections were mild and contained to one person at a time, so we were able to maintain staff to children, ratios and the children’s experience of Pre School was uninterrupted. ## Finance Following the trend of recent years, the numbers were low for the winter term and once again we were faced with a financial loss that we knew we would not be able to clawback. It became necessary for us to look at our sustainability in the long term and the Committee came to the sad conclusion that at the current rate of loss, the Nursery would be able to operate for another three years, relying on the contingency fund that we have husbanded for so long to subsidise the costs of running the setting. We raised our prices slightly but did not want to increase the burden on parents more than we had to as historically we have learned that this results in them signing up for less days and does not alleviate the problem which is in fact, low funding levels from Central Government and parental insecurity about the risks of Covid in Educational settings. ## Spring Term ## Language Lessons We decided to broaden the children’s horizons with some Spanish lessons provided by ‘KidsLingo, these sessions were offered to all children and the cost subsidised by Pre School. The take up was good and the children were surprisingly engaged by the idea of counting and singing in another language. ## Caterers We engaged the services of an outside catering company to provide cooked lunches for the children. While this appears to be an extravagance it has proved to be a worthwhile use of funds as we do not require a member of staff to be in the kitchen preparing and clearing up each meal and the children benefit from the extra adult attention. ## Summer Term ## Amazing Weather The unusually hot, sunny weather when we returned from the Easter holidays meant that we spent the whole term in the garden, gazebos provided welcome shade and when it became too much to bear, the air conditioning inside gave some relief. The children had their lunch and snack outside and were treated to quite a few ice lollies to ensure they were hydrated. ## Visitors We discovered some Blue Tits had made their home in the chimney of the tree house, the children spent many hours watching the parent birds fly back and forth with food for their babies, they witnessed the fledglings learning to fly and we were extraordinarily lucky to find that one of the birds was so tame, she would fly down to us to receive food. The children were photographed with the bird perched on their hands and shoulders, which was a wonderful way to interact with nature and provided some incredible learning opportunities. ## Finally A slightly less pleasant end to the term was in the form of a ‘Heads Up’ that we were at the top of the Ofsted hit list, while the team are well trained and experienced, there continues to be an element of fear attached to the inspection process and the staff will not fully relax again until we have been inspected, which could be considered a good thing as it keeps them working at the top of their game! ## Samantha Springle Chair of Committee Totals of income and Expenditure for Saplings Pre School for the year September 2021 |Deposits|||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |Month|Cash|Cheque|Credit TranfeHCC||Totals| |September|||522.58|3039.74|3562.32| |October|||2552.71|2955.00|5507.71| |November|||1381.05|670.26|2051.31| |December|||2590.15|2955.00|5545.15| |January|||2614.33|4873.01|7487.34| |February|||796.29|3119.00|3915.29| |March|||2493.86|3119.00|5612.86| |April|||1422.16|4039.71|5461.87| |May|||1027.93|7143.11|8171.04| |June|||189.25|2035.00|2224.25| |July|||3381.19|2035.00|5416.19| |August|||171.00|1629.25|1800.25| ||||19142.50|37613.08|56755.58| **Balance brought forw** 76,840.53 1 to August 2022 |Debits|||Visa||| |---|---|---|---|---|---| |Wages|Rent|Ofce|Resources a|Other|Total| |4385.52|600.00|14.84|259.30|324.25|5583.91| |4413.22|450.00|136.20|466.23|1305.00|6770.65| |4465.85|660.00|14.20|178.38|168.00|5486.43| |4345.39|426.50|14.20|375.37|90.00|5251.46| |4291.09|540.50|14.20|595.44|353.80|5795.03| |4229.11|450.00|14.20|1094.95|235.00|6023.26| |4414.12||14.20|398.19|59.00|4885.51| |4514.65|277.00|14.20|559.15|263.00|5628.00| |4527.67|600.00|15.95|335.12|63.00|5541.74| |4521.95|0.00|15.30|642.57|1151.36|6331.18| |4407.93|989.00|15.30|363.37|23.00|5798.6| |4346.74|0.00|15.30|339.67|123.000|4824.71| |52863.24|4993.00|298.09|5607.74|4158.41|67920.48| 65,675.63 Balance at Year End agreed at Bank Signed by Jackie Nixon Treasurers Report to the Annual General Meeting of Saplings Pre School Friday 8[th] April 2022 at the Scout Hut, Financial position at the end of the Fiscal Year September 1[st] 2021 – 31[st] August 2022 Balance Brought Forward 76,840.53 Total Income for the year. 56,755.58 A total of 133,596.11 Total expenditure for the Year. 67,920.48 Balance at Bank as of 31[st] August 2022 65,675.63 Representing a loss of 11,165.00 These figures were provided by Mrs Alison Mead and Mrs Wendy Hart and have been verified by our Independent Accounts Manager Mrs Jackie Nixon Signed Mrs Samantha Springle. Chair of Committee Mrs Alison Mead Manager Mrs Wendy Hart Treasurer Mrs Jackie Nixon. Independent Accounts Manager