2021-08-31-accounts

St Pirans Playschool AGM Minutes Meeting held on Tuesday 2 November 2021 at 7.30pm

Attendees; Kasey Smeeth, Francesca Bell-Winfrow, Jo Carthew, Richard Lewis, Lucy Smith, Sue Wilcox, Chantelle Binney, Kerry Burt, Aimee Little

Apologies; Kathryn Tiplady-Evens, Trish Rabson, Tom Budd, Carol Moncam

Confidentiality reminder and previous meeting minutes and 2020’s AGM minutes signed off by committee.

Chair Report

Thank you, for coming and welcome. It is very nice to see a few new faces. We though that 2020 was an unusual and difficult year due to Covid, but I think we can all agree that 2021 has certainly thrown us some challenges too. With that in mind, on behalf of the committee and myself I would like to say a huge thank you to Kasey, Lucy and all the staff for giving their all and then some.

Unfortunately I don’t think we are out of the woods yet and fear things could get worse before they get better. I think that St Pirans Playschool will need a strong committee and an enthusiastic fundraising team to give Kasey and all those involved the support they need.

We are lucky to have a successful play school in Delabole.

’ – – Manager s Report AGM October 2021

It’s been a better year than last year!

Staffing:

New staffing – Charlotte Staff left – Debbie, Kelly, Amanda, We are currently short 4 members of staff:

• Deputy

• Play assistant

• Baby room play assistant

• Cook

• Staff are working additional hours and Kasey will be covering in the Baby Room after half term.

Attendance:

• 3 new children this term, with another one starting soon.

• Current attendance in black (red is last year’s AGM):

o Playschool:	o Playschool:
14	15	15	15	15
11	15	14	15	10

	Cannot take more children due to staffing	Cannot take more children due to staffing	Cannot take more children due to staffing
11	8	11	12	8
6	10	9	7	5
	Only 2 spaces left due to staffing
o Babyroom:
0	3	3	3	0
2	3	3	2	0
	full	full		Currentlyunable to staff
0	2	2	0	0
2	3	3	2	0
	full	full		Currentlyunable to staff

• Reasonably large cohort left in July (19) which is being followed by a small cohort leaving this year (10) which is the reason for the dip in numbers, however we are the busiest we have ever been for 2-year-olds with 8 in on a Thursday morning (10 in total). 7 out of the 10 started in our baby room, 5 of which may not have come to us if they had started somewhere else as a baby so in time the baby room will feed the Playschool with more children than before and significantly increase our numbers.

• 6 babies on role.

• 28 children on role in total.

• The baby room is almost double the bookings that it had at last year’s AGM and I also reported that last year, so it is definitely growing from strength to strength.

• Mornings are definitely still busier than afternoons.

• Breakfast club is only really being used one morning a week.

• Afterschool is more popular and is being used 3 afternoons per week.

• 5 children so far this year with 30-hour eligibility.

• 3 children with 2-year-old funding.

EYFS

The new Development Matters is easier to navigate, and shorter in word length to allow for more freedom to develop the right broad curriculum for the children that we work with. The age bands have been simplified to avoid tracking activities that do not support child development. There are now 3 instead of 6:

• birth to 3

• 3 and 4-year-olds

• children in reception

There’s more room for professional judgement. We can make more judgements based on our knowledge and experience, instead of using the early learning goals or age bands in the framework to track children’s progress.

There has been a huge shift away from lots of observations and gathering evidence, instead we can use this time to play with and teach the children! Woohoo!

Outdoor Classroom

• Has been rebuilt and is making a big difference to the experiences of children that attend.

Baby Room

• Going from strength to strength, only 5 slots available over the week.

This year’s events

• First Sports Day, was well attended by parents and the children had a great time.

Upcoming events / projects

• Parent’s Evening

• Diwali & Guy Fawkes

• Healthy Halloween

• Remembrance

COVID

• We only had to close for one afternoon due to Covid related short staffing.

• This is mostly down to the cleaning efforts of staff and pulling together as a team to cover shortfalls in staffing when others needed to isolate. They have been incredible!

Work Experience

• Tara is continuing here whilst doing her Level 3 and is her Monday and Tuesday.

• Lisa will be starting on Thursday and Friday after half term

Food

• Uptake for lunches continues to be good with 50% or more children have lunch 4/5 days of the week.

• We are hoping to have a cook in post by Christmas.

Staff training:

• With lockdown everybody has been able to update most of the essential training (Prevent and FGM are the 2 that Ofsted are focussing on at present).

• Becky and Charlotte have started Paediatric 1[st] Aid this week.

• Charlotte has just started her Level 3 Childcare Apprenticeship

• Sue has just started her Level 3 Leadership and Teamwork qualification to support her Senior Play Assistant (and Currently acting Deputy) role.

• The whole team have virtually attended a variety of courses from ‘The new EYFS’ to ‘Becoming attuned to 2 year olds’.

Parent’s training:

• First Aid training for parents and other members of the community, didn’t run last year due to COVID, Lucy and I are looking at setting a date after Christmas.

Children’s Learning:

• Settling – we have had a few children join and they have all settled really well.

• Forest School – is going well. Staff are continuing to plan all of these sessions. Due to staff shortages we have been using bank to help cover Forest School sessions, where possible this is Niknik who is Forest School trained and runs her own Forest School. This is helping to support staff to learn new skills and encouraging the team to allow the children to take more risk e.g. lighting their own fires, using knives to whittle and expanding their activity repertoire.

• Allotment the allotment site was developed by the team during the February half term and is now much more user friendly and fit for purpose allowing children to have free flow play alongside more structured activities at the site. WE still use the tree are at the far side of the playing field and we are excited that the Parish are looking to develop a specific wildlife area.

• Dance Marie didn’t return after COVID due to going on maternity leave. Morwenna will be starting session on Friday morning after half term, these will have a more

music and movement emphasis and staff with continue to replicate and expand on these sessions between Morwenna’s visits.

• French – French sessions are popular and the children are already singing in French at home!!! Jane is now lovingly known as the ‘Bonjour Lady’.

• Music sessions – going well, each and every week. Staff are continuing to plan all of these sessions. In addition Ann Stott from CMST has been in this half term to ‘topup’ skills and repertoire, giving new staff a further insight and upskilling existing staff.

Transition to school

• Went incredibly well, the majority of children have settled very well, very quickly.

• Delabole school sadly cancelled all of their transition plans.

• Finger gym packs went home on loan to any children who wanted them.

• Last year we created Time Capsules to support transition and we continued that this year.

Partnerships with Parents:

• Trips – The Fire Station trip was well supported. We are getting out and about – village walks, visits to the church and the park.

• Parents Evening – was cancelled.

• Christmas Craft Week – was well attended last year... and we hope to carry out this year, with safe measures in place.

Holiday Club

• Both were well attended. Numbers were capped purely by staffing.

• We need to recruit a ‘Holiday Club’ member of staff for each holiday to work alongside our permanent staff to help meet need this coming year.

Stay & Play:

• Stay & Play: started again in September, averaging 10 families per week.

• Sign & rhyme: typically, 5/6 families attending regularly.

• Both of these sessions support and feed into bookings.

Profit & Loss and Treasurer’s Report shared and discussed. Treasurers Report

We continued to be affected by the covid pandemic operationally and financially as limited fundraising opportunities, additional purchases and equipment and cleaning.

Funding

This year the Autumn term funding was paid in August 2020 and as such was included in last year’s accounts. It would have balanced out but funding for Autumn 2021 was not paid until September 2021. This means that the P&L as calculated on a cash accounting basis rather than accrual is missing a term of funding payment. This is why we are showing such a loss on the P&L.

The loss is mainly due to increased wage costs due to high increase in minimum wage over 18 month period. Increased costs due to covid pandemic and lack of fundraising activity or opportunity. Also we have not had a fee increase for some years but it felt that the time was not right to increase fees for parents despite the need to do so.

Fundraising

We managed to raise almost £800 through Xmas raffle, Easyfundraising, Bags2school and Delabole Carnival Revel. However this is much lower than before the pandemic ie in 2018/2019 we raised £7,500 and last year 2019/20 £1520.

Grants

We received a grant to install low energy lights from Good Energy for £2,500 and hope to see some saving on energy costs this year.

We also received £205 from Cornwall Council against Outside Classroom and £250 from St Teth Parish Council.

Payroll

We are continuing with Devon Payroll as a cost effective payroll solution that meets regulatory requirements accordingly. We have had to deal with a second significant minimum pay rise in a 12 month period which has pushed our wages bill up substantially and is not supported by any increase in Government funding rates as yet.

Major Expenses

We erected an Outside porch area to ensure that parents could drop off/pick up children safely outside, plus a one way system to help protect families and staff. This also acts as an additional outside covered play area. Cost £5620.

Outside Classroom - cost £4800 which was less than we expected to pay for replacement.

Improvements to Forest School/allotment area to make it safer for the children, fencing in area and erecting two gates, moving soil and general improvements to aid outside learning. Cost £1,919 in total.

General

We are going into this year with stock/supplies in hand and have already made purchases for Christmas items such as presents and craft items.

Looking forward to 2021/22

Finance

We will need to look at wage increase to attract and retain staff. A fee increase is unavoidable to recover rising wage costs and additional costs re covid re equipment, labour and cleaning.

Account checking – propose half yearly check with external accountant as additional financial control at minimal cost.

We are looking to hire a cook as we are providing more hot meals now and to free staff to focus on childcare or management.

Funding

It looks like we will have more private income in the next year as we have more Baby Room customers.

Fundraising

Going forward we hope to be able to more fundraising activities to pay for items for Playschool. We have been collecting items for a Car Boot sale. Activities already booked…

November – BBQ/Birthday Firework event and Bingo/raffle. December – Santa’s Shop, Christmas card sales

2022

January – Bag2school collection

Grants

Look at grants for more expensive play items, outside play items, electricity to Outside Classroom and new kitchen equipment as required. Apply for Council Community Chest grant again.

Lease may need to be renegotiated.

Look at building insurance costs (currently £400 per year).

Committee:

Committee members stepped down;

Francesca Bell-Winfrow Kathryn Tiplady-Evens Jo Carthew Trish Rabson Tom Budd

Election of new committee members;

Kerry Burt – nominated by Lucy and seconded by Richard Aimee Little - nominated by Lucy and seconded by Richard Chantelle Binney - nominated by Lucy and seconded by Richard

St Pirans Playschool

Profit and Loss

September 2020 - August 2021

	TOTAL
Income
Bank interest	6.70
Education Funding	68,717.80
Fees	32,934.57
Fundraising	797.30
Gifts and Donations Income	20.00
Unrestricted	250.00
Total Gifts and Donations Income	270.00
Grants	2,705.00
Lunch Club	4.40
Miscellaneous Income	87.73
Sales	204.80
School trip	120.00
Unapplied Cash Payment Income	146.51
Total Income	£105,994.81
GROSS PROFIT	£105,994.81
Expenses
Advertising/Promotional	569.56
Baby Room	211.07
Books and Publications	144.47
cleaning supplies	369.27
consumables	4,585.08
Contract Labour	1,530.13
Dues and Subscriptions	827.87
Expensed Equipment	127.96
Forest School	618.74
Fundraising expense	33.61
Gifts and Donations	644.58
Insurance	1,149.06
Miscellaneous	1,810.15
Office Supplies	775.47
Payroll Expenses	105,384.11
Postage and Delivery	179.76
Printing and Reproduction	630.86
Professional Fees	540.00
Accounting	200.00
Total Professional Fees	740.00
Repairs	194.21
Building Repairs	1,691.86
Equipment Repairs	366.04
PAT Testing	72.00
Total Repairs	2,324.11
Smoke alarm and lights as per Fire check	81.60
Software Expense	532.80
Subscriptions	71.95

Cash Basis Tuesday, 28 June 2022 11:09 am GMT+01:00

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St Pirans Playschool

Profit and Loss

September 2020 - August 2021

	TOTAL
Supplies	0.00
Office	52.01
Total Supplies	52.01
Telephone	377.18
Mobile	72.00
Total Telephone	449.18
toys	404.56
training	1,082.38
uniform	1,148.28
Utilities	51.82
Gas and Electric	892.39
Water	263.87
Total Utilities	1,208.08
Total Expenses	£127,686.70
NET OPERATING INCOME	£ -21,691.89
Other Income
Interest Income	1.24
Other Income	0.01
Total Other Income	£1.25
Other Expenses
Amounts Written Off	374.20
Reconciliation Discrepancies	-50.00
Total Other Expenses	£324.20
NET OTHER INCOME	£ -322.95
NET INCOME	£ -22,014.84

Cash Basis Tuesday, 28 June 2022 11:09 am GMT+01:00

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Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees/ Charity Name ST PIRAN’S PLAYSCHOOL members of On accounts for the year Charity no 31st August 2021 1061195 ended (if any) Set out on pages One (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/08/2021

Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention ( ~~other than that disclosed below~~ *) in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

• accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or

• the accounts do not accord with the accounting records

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

• Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.

Signed: Name: Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Address:	Date:	28/06/2022
	Jon Sharpe
	Institute of Certified Bookkeepers FICB PM.Dip
	Higher North Beer Farmhouse, Boyton
	Launceston
	Cornwall PL15 8NP

October 2018

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IER