Mobberley Preschool and Playgroup – Trustees report 2024-2025
Charity name: Mobberley Preschool Playgroup
Number: 1054730
Address: Victory hall, Town lane, Mobberley, Cheshire, WA16
7JQ
Trustee names: Helen Kynnersley (Chair) Erica Ludley (Treasurer) Victoria Britland (Secretary) Support: Donna Higgins (Setting manager) Emma Fletcher-McCarthy (Deputy Setting Manager) Ray Brocklehurst (Administrator) Elli Wilson (Committee Member) Suzanne Hunt (Committee Member)
Objectives and achievements:
The primary purpose of the preschool is to provide education, learning and development for children aged from two to five years old and prepare them to begin their school journey in reception. We are open five days a week and offer half day sessions from 9am – 12pm or 1pm, or full day sessions from 9am – 3pm, closing for school holidays.
We offer families a community-based setting, to provide children with all the tools and support they need to develop effectively and appropriately for their age and development. The preschool works closely with the wider community and encourages parents and families to be involved with activities and their children’s education as much as possible. We pride ourselves on offering a small, personal and familiar setting where all staff know every child and parents are included and encouraged to offer information on their child’s interests and needs to help us to plan activities.
Achievements so far this year include welcoming several new children to our setting. We managed to adopt a new constitution which is more modern and flexible and will allow us to work within the Charity Commission regulations much more easily. We have continued to develop our garden with the addition of a new, larger chalk board and we have spent time tidying and maintaining our nature garden with the help of some very kind parents. Our setting has benefited from a kitchen refurb and our storage area has been relocated making it easier for staff to store and access resources. Staff have continued to attend training courses (outside of the necessary ones) to improve their knowledge and skills, and they are encouraged to undertake CPD using the Noodle Now online training platform when they are able to do so. We have recently had visits from a local farmer who brought his tractor for the children to explore, and we are looking forward to visits from the fire brigade, local PCSO and other people in the community, such as the local dentist. We are looking forward to our annual sports day celebrations where we will also hold a Graduation ceremony for our school leavers. We are looking forward to competing in the village Rose Queen "Best Dressed Float" competition and to our annual end of year school trip.
Financial summary and Fundraising.
While we receive money from Government funding for some children, as well as others being privately funded, the preschool also works hard to hold charity events to improve the income of the setting and help the staff to continue to excel in the care and education that they provide.
Fundraising this year has been extremely difficult. We suspect this to be down to the general trend of spending being down due to the increased cost of living. We have seen a dramatic downturn from last year in the number of people booking tickets to attend events. In September/October the preschool planned and organized a village scarecrow competition but due to low numbers this sadly had to be cancelled. In December we held our annual Nativity and parents were invited to join in with raffles and a few fundraising stalls which made a small amount for the preschool. Sadly, our Breakfast with Santa event had to be cancelled due to lack of numbers and we suspect a similar event taking place within the locality and we were unable to take advantage of a stall at the primary school Christmas fair due to the school using a different venue with limited capacity. In February we hosted a Valentine’s Ceilidh which was well attended by members of the public, many of them having traveled from far afield, however, due to increases in costs we made less profit than the previous year. In March we held a Spring craft event where children and families were encouraged to partake in a selection of crafts and Easter themed activities, and this made us a small profit. Our highly successful May fashion show, which was well attended last year, sadly had to be cancelled once again due to lack of numbers. In more positive news were able to secure the Co-op grant this year which we will use to replace our garden equipment for more natural and sustainable apparatus and we were also in receipt of a generous donation from a business donor which has vastly helped us. We’d like to thank everybody who has donated to the preschool this year, not just in attending the events that we have managed to hold, but also for the support we have received from local businesses and individuals in terms of monetary and raffle prize donations this year. We are extremely thankful. We are also very grateful to the local businesses who sponsor our Rose Queen float entry.
Fundraising events in the pipeline include a Family Fun Day, a clothes "Swish" event, a baby tabletop sale, and a pie and a pint/prosecco evening with quiz or bingo. We will also be continuing in our efforts to secure some form of permanent business sponsorship.
Structure and Management.
Trustees are appointed at the Annual General Meeting. At the AGM, trustees’ resignations are accepted and votes for new appointments are made, as well as reviewing the year’s performance against financial budgets.
All new Trustees are suitability checked and must obtain a relevant DBS certificate and be Ofsted approved. Following that they will be provided with a full handover and training by the previous trustee holding the same office. In addition, trustees are encouraged to read Charity Commission and other newsletters and to attend courses designed to keep them up to date of their responsibilities.
The trustees meet regularly throughout the year, (minimum three meetings plus an AGM. During these meetings all charitable matters are discussed including the approval and planning of fundraising events, income structure and financial issues, performance of the preschool and its staff, and any other issues raised.
The Trustees of the charity are currently a mixture of parents of children attending and other members who have previously been linked to the preschool in one way or another (on a 40/60% split). We have received permission from the EYA to operate at this ratio and we are actively seeking to recruit new committee members from the parents of the preschool to bring us back in line with the minimum requirement of 60% parental members. Last year we had two resignations from the committee, however, we retained Chair, Secretary and Treasurer positions alongside recruiting one additional committee member.
We have had a few changes to staff this year with 2 new recruits following the departure of 2 members of staff and changes to the Deputy and SEND coordinator positions by way of internal promotions. We’d like to thank the staff who are both dedicated to their position of work but also to giving the extra support to fundraisers without hesitation.
Future Plans
We are hoping to continue developing our new website to generate a more modern and recognisable brand for our pre-school within our community. We have recently undertaken a parent survey, and we hope to be able to implement some of the recommendations received in this to include looking at using external providers to enhance and support our sensory/gross motor activities that form part of our curriculum. With the grant that we are due to receive from the Co-op we are hopeful to purchase a water butt to provide water for our outdoor water play and also the new planters that we hope to purchase as part of our continuing garden upgrade.
We will continue to advertise for additional committee members from within our parent membership to enable us to achieve the minimum 60/40 split of parent members to non-parent members. We also intend to review and amend our parental contract and have been seeking help from Law Call to ensure it is legally sound.
We are always looking at fundraising opportunities and we will continue to plan a varied and professional events offering this coming year to be offered to both parents and children of the preschool and the wider community.
It is intended that one of our current committee members will leave at the beginning of the next school year and we hope to recruit an additional parent to enable us to operate on the committee with the minimum requirement of 60% parental members.
MOBBERLEY PRE-SCHOOL PLAYGROUP ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST JULY 2024 REPRESENTED BY:. Ital Account nl Assets: Balance as at 1.8.23 52268 Cash at Bank: Add.. Deficit of Income over Expenditure Current Account balance at 1.8.23 52218 -2230 Plus: Receipts 67690 119908 Less: Expenses 69920 Current Account Balance at 31.7.24 49988 49988 Cash in hand at 31.7.24 50 50038 50038
MOBBERLEY PRE-SCHOOL PLAYGROUP INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st JULY 2024 2023 2024 Income 485 18183 1167 57000 500 201 96 Donations Fees Fund Raising Pr8-School Funding Grant - Parish Council Little Superstars I nteresl 200 14819 4334 47820 300 106 77632 67579 Cost of Sales 165 171 710 Fund Raising Expenses Creative Stock Purchases 876 1081 1046 1957 76586 65622 Less Ex enses 390 512 7360 257 208 527 57319 724 1973 239 723 60 Accountancy Insurance Rent Stationery, Postage & Advertising Subscriptions Legal & Professional Vvages & Salaries Employer's Pension Sundry Telephone Repairs & Maintenan Bank Charges 390 531 7560 225 212 569 55386 727 1127 270 795 60 70292 67852 6294 Not Surplusl(Dèficit) of Income over Expendlture 2230 I have examined the books, vouchers and records of Mobbedey Pre School for the year ended 31st July 2024 TCS MANAGEMENT 18th September, 2024