## St Marks Pre-School Charity Trustees Report |Charity name:|St Marks Pre-School| |---|---| |Charity registration number: 1047426|| |From:|01/09/2019| |To:|31/08/2020| |Address:|St Marks Pre-School| ||Somerset Road| ||Salisbury| ||SP1 3BL| |Trustees:|Sam Williams (Chair)| ||Shelley Cox (Vice Chair)| ||Tony Schendel (Treasurer)| Page **1** of **11** |Contents|Contents| |---|---| |1|Background..........................................................................................................................3| ||1.1
Introduction...................................................................................................................3| ||1.2
Our Aims and Objectives...............................................................................................3| |2|Summary of Annual General Meeting Minutes.....................................................................4| ||2.1
Introduction...................................................................................................................4| ||2.2
Minutes from 2019 AGM................................................................................................4| ||2.3
Chair’s Report................................................................................................................4| ||2.4
Treasurer’s Report..........................................................................................................5| ||2.5
Staf Representative’s Report........................................................................................5| ||2.5.1
The Practitioner Team..............................................................................................5| ||2.5.2
Changes in the Team...............................................................................................6| ||2.5.3
Bank Staf................................................................................................................6| ||2.5.4
Practitioner Training................................................................................................6| ||2.5.5
Working at the Pre-School During the Pandemic.....................................................6| ||2.5.6
Rachel Thanked the Practitioner Team....................................................................6| ||2.6
Pre-School Manager’s Report.........................................................................................6| ||2.7
Adoption of Acceptance of Accounts..............................................................................7| ||2.8
Adoption of Acceptance of Policies & Procedures..........................................................8| ||2.9
Members of the New Committee...................................................................................8| ||2.10 Any Other Business........................................................................................................8| ||2.10.1
Upcoming Finances:................................................................................................8| ||2.11 Date of the Next AGM....................................................................................................8| |3|Intentions for the Future......................................................................................................8| |4|Training................................................................................................................................ 9| |5|Achievements and Performance..........................................................................................9| |6|Financial Review...................................................................................................................9| |7|Confdentiality and Safeguarding Details.............................................................................9| |8|Appendix............................................................................................................................ 10| |9|Declarations.......................................................................................................................10| ## 1 Background Page **2** of **11** 1.1 Introduction The Committee of The St Marks Pre-School Charity present their annual report and audited accounts for the year ended 31 August 2020 and confirm they comply with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011, the trust deed and the Charities SORP. St Marks Pre-School is registered with OFSTED (reg.no.1047426) and is a member of the PreSchool Learning Alliance. The Pre-School has a childcare protection policy in place which includes carrying out Criminal Records Bureau checks for new and existing members of staff. These checks are carried out every 3 years in line with Wiltshire requirements. All trustees give their time voluntarily and received no remuneration or benefits. The Pre-School is on the same site as the schools within the Somerset Road Education Trust. We are therefore a feeder pre-school to Wyndham Park Infants School with very successful links to enable our pre-school children to have a smooth transition on to the next part of their education. At St. Marks Pre-School, we are passionate about helping children to become confident, independent learners with a can-do attitude, who are ready for the next stage of their education. With two separate classrooms for children aged 2-3 and 3-4 and an enormous amount of space outside too, our children benefit from an outdoor classroom, a large playground and a garden complete with raised beds to grow vegetables, fruit trees, a bug hotel and much more. We also run programmes of activities for the children run by local providers, including music, storytelling, dance, and sports classes. St Marks Pre-school is staffed by a highly experienced, qualified practitioner team of full and part-time staff. The permanent team predominantly hold level 3 early years qualifications with practitioners on the management team holding degree level qualifications. The preschool maintains a programme of continuous professional development for all practitioners. The pre-school employs a consistent team of Bank staff and, as appropriate Support Workers to facilitate the inclusion of children with additional needs. The pre-school committee and practitioner team are supported by a part-time Administrator. We are proud to say that we have an excellent level of staff retention at St Marks Pre-school. ## 1.2 Our Aims and Objectives We aim to provide a first-class education to boys and girls from the ages of 2 to 4. We seek to provide a structured educational environment that develops our children’ capabilities, competences and skills. We promote the academic, moral and physical development of our children through our academic curriculum, sporting and other activities. We provide an educational environment where each student can develop and fulfil his or her potential, building their self-confidence. In so doing, we prepare our children for the next stages of the education. Our objectives are set to reflect our educational aims and the ethos of the School. It is important to us that we maintain and enhance the academic success of the School. This objective is, however, set in the context of the broader goals we set for the School and its children. Our key objectives for the year included: - to broaden our academic curriculum Page **3** of **11** - to bolster and improve our parental involvement in both fund-raising, and family activity days, such as the garden and grounds maintenance days - to enhance and improve the early years provision for children - to develop our professional links with Wyndham Park to continue to enable the smooth transition for children who move there to continue their education - to play our part in the life of our local community through our community access and service programmes. ## 2 Summary of Annual General Meeting Minutes ## 2.1 Introduction The AGM was held on Thursday 8[th] October 2020, conducted over Zoom due to Covid-19 restrictions. Sam welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced the Committee Trustees to everyone. ## 2.2 Minutes from 2019 AGM Proposed by Sam; seconded by Tony. ## 2.3 Chair’s Report Sam delivered the Chair’s report. Hello and welcome to our pre-school AGM. Thank you for attending albeit in a virtual way. I would like to start with thanking everyone here at pre-school for all of their hard work over the last academic year in providing a happy, friendly, safe, loving environment where the children are encouraged to become confident learners ready for their next steps of their education. The two room leaders, Sharon and Merri, do a fantastic job of planning fun and engaging activities for the children to cover all aspects of the Early Years Foundation Stage which the highly experienced practitioners in each room help to carry out with the children. It has been quite a different year since Shelley and I took over as Vice Chair and Chair last year. Our first fundraising event of the academic year was our Christmas Bazaar where we raised over £500 where we held the bazaar on a Sunday afternoon with external stall holders taking part. This was a great success. Shelley and I also held a lucky dip stand at Wyndham Park Christmas Bazaar where we raised a further £50. After Christmas we held a Valentines’ Day Cake sale where there were lots of donations of cakes sent in which was fantastic. From the money raised we were able to buy some more cooking resources. Our fundraising events are only as successful as you the parents enable them to be by your continued support. After this we had begun to start planning our Easter Fayre when Covid 19 put a halt to our plans! On this note I would like to thank Rachel and all the pre-school practitioners for enabling the pre-school to remain open during the lock down to support key workers’ children and enabling parents to go at work. Since September Rachel and the team have all been working hard to ensure that the pre-school is Covid compliant and that all children and staff are as safe as possible. Alongside this when planning activities for the children it has also been of equal importance that all children have had a positive experience returning. I think I can say that Page **4** of **11** this has been managed greatly by the staff. We would also like to thank you the parents for being so accepting of the changes that have been put in place to ensure we are Covid compliant and thus ensuring the safety of all children, staff and yourselves. We are also very excited about the launch of the new website for pre-school this week. It has been designed to be much more user friendly and have key information at the forefront of each page. I hope that you agree that when you have a look it looks brilliant. In the next academic year I hope that we will be able to organise and hold various fundraising events with your support to raise funds for the preschool. Which we can then use to buy a variety of resources or have external organisations in (like the Petting Zoo) to visit the children when this is able to take place. Once again thank you for your continued support and I will now pass you over to Tony for his Treasurer’s report. ## 2.4 Treasurer’s Report ## Tony delivered the Treasurer’s report: The background we operate in remains a challenging one. The Government’s increase in the Living Wage is comfortably outstripping our increase from the local authority in terms of funding, and this has meant we will see a short fall in our P&L account, as we did last year. This relatively small shortfall does become quite large overtime and it will fall to a committee in the not too distant future, to work out the best way of shoring up the cash reserves, either by reducing costs or increasing income. However, the cash reserves are still exceptionally healthy for an organisation of this size, and it means we can plan for the future in an orderly way, without undue pressure. Covid obviously reduced both our fee and fundraising income, however due to our cash reserves we were able to continue to pay full salaries without recourse to furlough arrangements. We were also able to continue to operate in this difficult time and support key workers. We await the Government’s final decision on Living Wage increases for 2021 and will then be able to play for next year. This will be my last AGM as Treasurer, and I want to thank all of the various committee members over the years with whom it has been a pleasure to work with. ## 2.5 Staff Representative’s Report Rachel delivered the Staff Rep report. ## 2.5.1 The Practitioner Team The Practitioner Team - We pride ourselves on good staff retention at St Marks Pre-school. A consistent practitioner team supports good relationships with children and parents and promotes the smooth running of the pre-school. Page **5** of **11** ## 2.5.2 Changes in the Team Changes in the team - This term we have had a change of Administrator, a role which has a significant impact on the smooth running of the pre-school. Sophie Barker who comes to us with experience of the pre-school as a parent, committee member and a pre-school practitioner as well as having business management experience has stepped into this role. She has been valiantly pulling together the threads of this role and managing a new software system from scratch. This has come with challenges, but it is anticipated that this system will streamline lots of processes for the pre-school. ## 2.5.3 Bank Staff Bank Staff - We have a consistent team of Bank staff who support the practitioner team, most of whom have been able to step back in to supporting us this term. Our Bank staff have been with us for several years, come with lots of experience and familiarity with how the pre-school runs. We are always very grateful for the way they slot into whatever is happening in the preschool, often at very short notice. I just wanted to take a moment to thank them! ## 2.5.4 Practitioner Training Practitioner training- We implement a rolling programme of continuous professional development for the practitioner team. With training needs identified during regular supervision and annual appraisal. In the last year, the team have individually or collectively updated their safeguarding training, visited other settings to observe good practice and undertaken a range of online courses. The room leaders and manager have also attended face to face. In the year ahead it is hoped that training will include: Updating Paediatric First Aid, ‘In the moment planning’ and ‘Maths is Magic’. ## 2.5.5 Working at the Pre-School During the Pandemic Working at pre-school in the current pandemic- The practitioner team have been amazing in their response to the changing demands of the current situation, enabling the pre-school to remain open to key workers during lockdown and a wider opening as government guidance allowed. Feedback from parents has indicated that this offering enabled their children to continue to experience something near normal in a very disrupted world. The practitioner team are continuing to work to an operational plan that considers the safety and wellbeing of children, families, and colleagues. ## 2.5.6 Rachel Thanked the Practitioner Team I would like to take this opportunity to thank the practitioner team for their ongoing hard work and commitment to maintaining and developing the quality of the provision at St Marks Preschool and the committee for their support, enthusiasm and time which make such a difference to life for everyone at St Marks Pre-school. - 2.6 Pre-School Manager’s Report Rachel delivered the Manager’s report. **An introduction to the ‘in the moment approach’ to supporting learning and development Why are we taking up this approach?** We need to get back to the important, powerful role of interacting with children rather than trying to document everything that happens. This is not only good practice but is what Ofsted are requesting. **The Vision:** Children become most deeply engaged when they can choose what they do. This has become known as ‘free flow play’, or ‘child-initiated play’.’ Within agreed boundaries Page **6** of **11** we are talking about children playing where they want, with whatever they choose, for as long as they want, in whatever way they want. **WHAT IS NOT NECESSARY IS:** Any written forward plans, if the children have genuine choice, we do not know where there interest will take them! If children have genuine choice, then it is impossible to predict what they are going to choose to do and therefore it is impossible to try and pre-plan what they will do. **THIS SOUNDS SIMPLE BUT:** things need to be in place to support this. ## **A sense of well-being above for every child** If a child has a low level of wellbeing, they will not be able to engage, no matter how superb the setting. This is where our key person system, effective transitions and good inductions are critical. This term especially we have been working on re-building relationships, developing new ones and working to make sure that children feel happy, comfortable and trusting of the adults at pre-school. **Consistent boundaries, expectations, and routines-** This includes firm, consistent rules within which the children can relax and have the freedom to play as they wish. Unnecessary interruptions that might involve focussed adult led activities have been removed so that when children are playing, practitioners are with them, interacting with them and supporting learning through teachable moments. Small group times are held just at the beginning and end of each session. These might focus on a story, rhymes or simple turn taking games. In Green Dragons this might include ‘letters and Sounds’ or BLAST. **A high-quality environment -** Instead of thinking of providing different resources for each emerging interest, we are trying to think instead about how the resources can be used to meet all interests. Workshops/zones are being set up where children can genuinely choose, initiate their own play and practitioners join them and support them in their pursuits. This should mean that in all areas, the resources are available, accessible to children always. This does not mean that there are lots and lots of resources left out LESS IS MORE: we actually have fewer carefully selected resources which are well used and easy to tidy up. Outside we plan to be noisier, messier, bigger and faster! **Adults interacting with children!** The practitioner’s role is to observe children’s play; assess what they see, plan how to respond and then **teach next steps** immediately. **Manageable systems of assessment and record-keeping -** As practitioners observe and interact with the children, they will be looking for teachable moments. Some of these will be documented in observations linking in with development matters. Each week the practitioner team will select a few children to be the ‘focus children’ and will record some of the interactions that they have with these focus children. From this focus week will come next steps. This is where you as parents come in, the week before your child is the focus child for the week you will be emailed a ‘Parent Consultation’ sheet. We will be asking you for your input about what you observe at home. We will use this to help inform the focus of ‘next steps’ for your child. Page **7** of **11** Alongside this approach this year we are planning to offer Increased face to face engagement you as parents. Written assessments will be briefer, but these will be linked with more time allocated for ‘Parent Chats’ either by phone or socially distanced. As we cannot share home learning resources, we are putting home learning activity ideas on the Green Dragons and Blue Dragons Activity Diaries. Look out for story/ of the week. As we cannot spend quite so much time handing over at the end of each session each room’s activity diary should provide you with an idea of what is on offer on a daily basis. ## 2.7 Adoption of Acceptance of Accounts Proposed by Tony, Seconded by Sam ## 2.8 Adoption of Acceptance of Policies & Procedures Proposed by Sam, Seconded by Rachel ## 2.9 Members of the New Committee The committee is made up of the following members, voted in as follows: **----- Start of picture text -----**
Role Name Proposed By Seconded By
Chair Sam Williams Lucy Salmon Claire Grover
Vice Chair Shelley Cox Lisa Hall Tony Schendel
Secretary Georgina Mobaraki Lucy Salmon Tony Schendel
Treasurer Ben Egan Rachel Schendel Sam Williams
Staff Representative Emily Fordham Rachel Schendel Sam Williams
Health & Safety UNFILLED
Representative POSITION
General Member Laurie Tibbenham Lucy Salmon Lisa Hall
General Member Emily Fordham Claire Grover Lisa Hall
General Member Jen Calvert Lisa Hall Claire Grover
**----- End of picture text -----**
## 2.10 Any Other Business Sharon queried the comings years available funds. ## 2.10.1Upcoming Finances: Sharon asked if we at any point need to worry about funding not matching our outgoings. Tony summarised, that everyone is in the same position as it is controlled by the government. Government will need to restructure their funding and staff costs. There is less fundraising income at present due to Covid. Approx. £10k/11k extra per year. There is enough in the bank so far. It is fine for approximately the next 4 years. ## 2.11 Date of the Next AGM Page **8** of **11** The next Pre-school Committee meeting will be held on 20[th] October 2021 at 7.30pm at Pre-school. ## 3 Intentions for the Future Our plans for the coming year include: - Ensuring the financial stability of the Pre-School - Improve Pre-School facilities and resources - Fill unfulfilled positions within the committee - Continue to develop and train our staff - Improved awareness of the pre-school in the local community - Develop relationships with parents and their involvement in their children’s learning and development ## 4 Training We have continued to upskill the practitioner team by investing in online training, where staff have been working from home but operating on a rotational basis due to Covid-19 restrictions. Due to this training has been more individually focused. This has included updating First Aid certificates and safeguarding. There has been a focus on developing practitioner understanding of how children learn and how best to support that learning through quality practitioner interaction. ## 5 Achievements and Performance Over the past year we have continued to build upon the success and achievements of previous years. Due to Covid-19 Restrictions fundraising opportunities have been rather limited, however there was an opportunity for a Christmas Bizarre. We have continued to develop our staff through a funded training programme. ## 6 Financial Review Within the appendix (ID Number 1) there is a copy of the Profit and Loss figures for the period covering 1[st] September 2019 to 31[st] August 2020. The report was written and provided to the St Marks Pre-School Committee by: Key Accounting Services (Salisbury) Ltd, Registered Office: Suite 10, The Portway Centre, Spitfire Road, Old Sarum, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP4 6EB Page **9** of **11** ||| |---|---| |7 Confdentiality and
Safeguarding
Details
Within the appendix there is a

**Signature(s)**
**Full name(s)**
**Position (e.g.**
**Secretary, Chair, etc)**
**Date**|| ||Sam Williams| ||Chair| ||14/01/2022| copy of the Committee Confidentiality Policy (ID Number 2) and the Safeguarding Policy 2019 (ID Number 3). These policies are subject to regular review and updated and when it is deemed necessary or mandated by external factors. ## 8 Appendix **----- Start of picture text -----**
ID Number Name
1 St Marks Pre-School Profit and Loss Figures 2019 to 2020
St Marks Pre-School
Profit and Loss Figu
2 Committee Confidentiality Policy
Committee
Confidentiality Polic
3 Safeguarding Policy 2019
Safeguarding Policy
2019.pdf
**----- End of picture text -----**
## 9 Declarations I, the Chair of the St Marks Pre-School Charity Committee, declare the above to be approved by the committee and its trustees. Page **10** of **11** Page 11 of 11