2021-08-31-accounts - St.mark's Pre-School

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St Marks Pre-School Commitee AGM minutes Thursday 7th October 2021 7.30pm at Pre-School

Welcome, introducton from the Commitee Chair and apologies:

Sam welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced the Committee Members to everyone.

Agree minutes from previous meetng

The minutes from last years meeting, were signed off. (Proposed by Sam, seconded by Georgina).

Chair’s Report:

Sam delivered the Chair’s report:

Pre-School AGM Chairs Report

Hello and welcome to our pre-school AGM. Thank you for attending it is so lovely to see you all here.

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.

This last year has also been quite a different year with further lockdowns taking place due to Covid-19 for Shelley and myself. Due to Covid we were unable to hold a Christmas Bazaar, however there was a planned week of Christmas activities that was a great success.

Our fundraising events are only as successful as you the parents enable them to be by your continued support. Following suit from the Christmas Activity week we held an Easter Activity week which all children enjoyed. During the summer term we were able to sell ice-creams on a Tuesday which was fantastically supported and we raised around £140.

On this note I would like to thank Rachel and all the pre-school practitioners for enabling the pre-school to continue to remain open during the January 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 with the Government guidance after moving to step 4 of the roadmap out of lockdown. 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 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 changes that are going to be taking place in the pre-school playground over half term. This has been a long road with various ideas being bounced backwards and forwards and talks with various companies about ideas, then receiving quotes to actually finalising the plans and placing the order. This will help to develop the children’ gross motor skills, physical development and imaginative play including developing their social skills.

I don’t know if everyone is aware but I am stepping down as Chair of the Committee as I feel that as both my children have now finished here that it is time to pass this role on to another parent, grandparent or friend. Being Chair of the Committee has been a fantastic experience and developed my own skills in numerous areas alongside working with Rachel and her fantastic team. Thank you for all of your support Rachel and everyone at pre-school. Also I need to thank Shelley for all of your support and help with planning events and the rest of the pre-school committee. You are all brilliant!

In the next academic year I wish everyone the best of luck in orgainising and holding various fundraising events with your support to raise funds for the preschool. Which can then be used to buy a variety of resources or have external organisations, like the Petting Zoo, in to visit the children to enhance their learning experiences.

Once again thank you for your continued support and I will now pass you over to Ben for his Treasures report.

4. Treasurer’s Report:

Ben delivered the Treasurer’s report.

This has been my first year in the treasurer role and I have really enjoyed working closely with the committee and staff at the pre-school. I want to thank everyone involved for their assistance and patience as I have been getting up to speed in this position.

The financial climate the pre-school is operating within remains challenging and slightly murky due to the recent disruptions caused by COVID-19 restrictions. Government funding through free-hour provisions continues to be at a lower hourly rate than ideal and rising at a rate lower than our outgoings.

However, the pre-school remains relatively secure in its financial status which should put us a good position as the economical landscape steadies. Parent contributions to the children’s enrichment fund and the fresh fruit snacks has enabled the staff to continue to provide these where core funding mechanism may not be able to stretch.

The committee has also decided to spend some of the pre-school’s reserves in upgrading the playground equipment. This has been supported by a £5k grant from the Wiltshire Council Salisbury Area Community Fund. The new climbing frame, and slide will replace the old log which was becoming unsafe and unusable and will support the new Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum.

Ben also introduced a new role to the committee - ‘Deputy Treasurer’. He outlined the responsibilities that the deputy would take on.

Staf Rep Report:

Rachel delivered the Staff Rep report.

The Practitioner Team-

Changes in the 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.

This year we have been pleased to welcome Megan, Lizzie and Sharon to the team, practitioners who come to us with a range of good qualifications and experience. We have also taken a step into the

apprenticeship scheme as a means of supporting the professional development of team members. We are very excited to have our apprentice Lauren taking us into this new scheme.

Bank Staf: We have a consistent team of Bank staff who support the practitioner team. All of our Bank staff have been with us for several years and 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!

Practtoner 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, Food Hygiene, Supporting the Sensory Child, the new eyfs,

In the year ahead it is hoped that training will include: Updating Paediatric First Aid, ‘Not just counting’.

Working at pre-school in the current pandemic: The practitioner team have continued to be amazing in their response to the changing demands of the pandemic, enabling the pre-school to remain open throughout. Working to the pre-school operational plan, the team have continued to provide a sensitive and flexible approach, enabling children to continue to experience something near normal in a very disrupted world. With thanks to the committee for their ongoing support with the provision of PPE to keep our practitioners as safe as possible and biscuits/sweets and cake for morale.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you as parents for their patience and engagement with all our COVID protocols. As a practitioner team we have been grateful for your respectful response to all requests we have made to keep everyone safe.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the practtoner team for their ongoing hard work and commitment to maintaining and developing the quality of the provision at St Marks Pre-school and the commitee for their support, enthusiasm and tme which make such a diference to life for everyone at St Marks Pre-school.

Manager’s Report:

Rachel delivered the Manager’s report.

The New EYFS

I wanted to use this moment to introduce the changes in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), whether you are a new parent to the EYFS or a parent who is more familiar with the previous EYFS. In 2019, the government proposed changes to the EYFS. These changes have now been made and St Marks has been following this curriculum from September 2021.

The aim of the changes is to improve the learning for all children and better prepare them for the move into year 1 as well as hopefully giving children the best start in life and set them up well for their future.

The Early Years Foundaton Stage curriculum covers the first stage of a child’s care from birth to five years old. It sets the standards to ensure that all children learn and develop, as well as keeping them healthy and safe. As an early years Ofsted registered setting, we must follow the EYFS.

The EYFS is comprised of seven Areas of Learning . They are:

The Prime Areas:

Communicaton and Language
Personal, Social and Emotonal Development
Physical Development

The Specific Areas:

Literacy
Mathematcs
Understanding the World
Expressive Arts and Design

All these areas of learning are connected together and are weaved through with the characteristics if effective teaching and learning. These characteristics develop as children learn to do new things, acquire new skills, develop socially and emotionally and become better communicators.

The Characteristics of Effective learning are:

Playing and exploring: children investigating, experiencing and having a go

Active learning: children concentrating and keeping on trying if they encounter difficulties and enjoy achievements

Creating and thinking critically: children having and developing their own ideas, making links between ideas and developing strategies for doing things.

Some key changes

Reduced amount of unneeded writen recordings and assessment of children Practitioners are still expected to develop a knowledge of the abilities and skills of each child and know how to support them to develop but they do not need to keep a large amount of written evidence that proves children are able to do lots of things. This frees up more time for practitioners to spend directly with the children. By taking away the need for constant recording, it allows more natural play, conversations and interactions between practitioners and children to develop.

Increased emphasis on the importance of developing communicaton and language skills.

Good language skills are the basis for all other learning and social interaction, so this is vital to focus on. Practitioners support children to build up their vocabulary by increasing the amount of words they know and can use and by encouraging more conversations between adults and children and children and their peers

Focus on how reading stories can support children to develop in all of areas of Learning. Reading is an essential skill that enables children to develop in all areas of learning and is a skill that needs to be demonstrated. Daily reading of stories encourages an enjoyment of reading from a young age. Listening to stories develops imagination, ideas and language and offers opportunities to explore other cultures, science or nature. Story ideas can be further explored by practitioners supporting this in children’s play.

Focus on encouraging healthy choices overall and an understanding of oral health. The pre-school is now required to teach children the importance of brushing teeth and on helping children to understand which choices to make that will help them to be healthy, for example which foods to eat and why. Getting into good routines from a young age are often routines that continue into adult life.

Changes to informal assessment

Children are no longer assessed against an age band. It’s now accepted each child develops in different ways, so the use of the age bands to measure progress does not fit everyone fairly. Practitioners can now use their own knowledge of child development to decide each child’s next steps and support needs, allowing more freedom for practitioners to plan to the learning and interests of individual children.

What this looks like at St Marks Pre-school

As parents you will see less observations on Tapestry, this is not because children are not being observed or assessed, this is still going on but practitioners will be engaging with children rather than taking photos and writing things down. The activity diaries for each room should provide you with an idea as parents of what learning opportunities there have been so that you can chat to your child about their day.

We will share progress during parent chats at before Christmas and Easter and with a full written assessment at the end of the summer term.

We are continuing to implement an ‘in the moment’ approach to the planning and provision of resources, responding to children’s interests and needs.

The wellbeing and care of children is still the main priority of children at St Marks Pre-school and children will still be encouraged to learn and develop through play and exploration with practitioners supporting them through sensitive guidance and teaching.

Adopton of acceptance of accounts:

Proposed by Rachel, Seconded by Sam

Adopton of policies and procedures:

Proposed by Shelley, Seconded by Georgina

New Commitee members:

General Committee members: Stephanie (proposed by Sam, seconded by Rachel)

Julia Brown (proposed by Sam, Seconded by Rachel Fran Holmes (proposed by Sam, Seconded by Georgina)

Secretary: Emily (proposed by Sam, seconded by Georgina)

Treasurer: Ben Egan (as previous year) (proposed by Rachel, Seconded by Sam)

Vacant positions: Chair, Vice Chair, Staff Rep, Deputy Treasurer, Health and Safety Rep.

AOB: Sharon requested that the Treasurer have the Pre-School’s figures in a table, accessible for staff to view. Sophie to assist.
Date of next meetng:

The next Pre-school Committee meeting will be held on Tuesday 9[th] November 2021 at 7.30pm at pre-school.

Treasurer Report Ben Egan 07 October 2021

Date: 20/11/2023 Time: 13:52:11

Page: 1

St Marks Pre-School Profit and Loss

From: Month 1, September 2020 To: Month 12, August 2021

Chart of Accounts:

St Marks Pre-School [PARTIAL]

Period Income Fees WCC 133,216.00 Fees Parents 44,416.51 Parent Deposit 480.00 Fund Raising Income 1,223.61 Coffee Morning Income 578.30 Consortium Sales 120.44 Purchase Shirt & Tea Towels 214.80 Gross Profit/(Loss): Overheads Gross Wages 153,058.06 Rent 3,000.00 Heating 272.41 Printing 793.49 General Admin Costs 30.69 Telephone 932.18 Licences 138.72 Books,Toys & Equipment 3,372.17 Consumables 2,696.63 Cooking 1,020.84 Legal Fees 1,649.72 Accounting ,Payroll & Audits Fees 288.00 Bank Charges and Interest 226.00 Donations 99.02 Publications 1,992.59 Training Costs 991.65 PLSA Ins & Membership Fees 1,442.72 Fund Raising Costs 337.31 Gifts 748.81 Photographic Charge 79.00 Repairs & Renewals 59.99 Web Site Costs 568.00 Premises Expenses 3,780.92 Children's activies 966.00 Net Profit/(Loss):	180,034.86 214.80 179,820.06 178,544.92 1,275.14	Year to Date 133,216.00 44,416.51 480.00 1,223.61 578.30 120.44 214.80 153,058.06 3,000.00 272.41 793.49 30.69 932.18 138.72 3,372.17 2,696.63 1,020.84 1,649.72 288.00 226.00 99.02 1,992.59 991.65 1,442.72 337.31 748.81 79.00 59.99 568.00 3,780.92 966.00	180,034.86 214.80	180,034.86 214.80
			179,820.06 178,544.92 1,275.14
				1,275.14