2024-08-31-accounts

Thurnby and Bushby Playgroup Leaders report for A.G.M. 2024 Friday 15[th] November 2024

Committee - A BIG THANK YOU to them for their hard work and their fantastic support! Since the last AGM we have been able to fill all our outstanding roles, and for the first time in many years, have a full committee! Our chairperson remains unchanged, Rochelle Jarrett, as does our treasurer Karen O’Donovan, and Priya Brookes remains as a general member. The position of secretary has been kindly taken up by Ed Johnson, a parent of a child who left for school in the summer, and also another child who will start with us in 2025. He volunteers his computer knowledge at the local hub, and we are sure he will be a fantastic asset to the committee. We also welcomed Catherine Drury, who has a wealth of early years experience, and as well as many other qualifications, has a foundation degree in early years, and is currently working for home start. Catherine will become a general member alongside Priya. Helen Shepherd remains as our representative for Ofsted, and completes the committee.

Again we thank all who have joined, established committee for their hard work and support and noncommittee parents who also support us.

Any parent wishing to join the committee will be expected to complete an enhanced DBS and an EY2, which allows them to be checked as suitable to be involved with playgroup’s roles. Any other parents can join our forum, which allows them to support us and attend meetings but with less responsibility than a committee member.

Previous AGM - Thursday 26[th] October 2023

Staff Changes- Our permanent staff group remains, Kerri Le-Butt as leader, Nicola Catherall as Deputy, and Karla Appleton, and Meghann Hudson remain as level 3 qualified staff. Nicola has reduced her hours slightly, due to other commitments. We continue to welcome local child minder, and previous parent, Pinky Jadav, as support on a Friday morning throughout the year, and she also helped on Thursdays when she was free. We are still looking to add to our bank staff, if you have experience of early years, and preferably are level 2 and above trained, please ask us about cover work. This would be part time hours, and on a non-permanent basis. Training-

• New EYFS Framework- All staff continue to familiarise themselves with the new EYFS, and continue to work in a more paperless way of recording children’s developments.

• All staff complete essential training online (EduCare) throughout the year, which includes Effective Safeguarding (revised 2019), The Prevent Duty in an Early Years Environment, Understanding and Addressing behaviour, Understanding Children’s Rights, Equality and Inclusion in Early Years Settings, Food Allergy and Intolerance Training, as well as others that staff choose to do.

• 11/01/24 Kathryn Liles-Taylor our Improvement advisor and Area Send visited with advise and support. She continues to be approachable for any advice between visits. Several visits were cancelled this year due to illness.

Changes to playgroup hours/routines-

• All rules regarding Covid have been relaxed, however we continue some practices which were implemented during this time, such as washing hands on arrival, and individual snacks.

• As requested by School during the pandemic, to avoid congestion with school children, we changed our finish times of our late club, to 3.20 instead of 3.30, we have continued to do this.

• We continue to close on a Tuesday, and offer full days (9-3) on a Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and 9-1pm on a Friday. Sessions can be 3 hours (9-12), 4 hours (9-1) or 6 hours (9-3). We also offer an early arrival from 8.30am and later collection 3.20pm, to help working parents. All these hours can be covered by 15 or 30-hour funding, and extra hours are charged at different rates for 2 year olds, to that of 3 and 4 year olds, due to higher ratios needed.

• September 2022 we began accepting 2 year olds on a daily basis, from the term after they turn 2. We previously allowed 2 year olds to begin, but only for the term they turn 3. We had a good response and limited each day to 4 two year olds, as this was one member of staff within the 2 year ratios. We have now extended the number to five 2 year olds in line with new government ratio rules.

Other mentionable items regarding playgroup -

• We trialled a staggered start to the new Autumn term, for not only new starters but existing children too. We found all children definitely benefitted from this, as they have been away for such a long time, many of their friends have moved to school, and getting used to the routine of playgroup once again, starting with just mornings, and then lunch, worked well. We will continue to do this each September.

• As we are on the grounds of St. Luke’s School. We have to comply with all their rules regarding access/egress, as well as closures. If the school decide to shut for inclement weather, or training days we are also obliged to close. St. Luke’s have introduced training days on the Fridays before the end of terms, and therefore playgroup will also close on these days. All parents will be made aware of dates for each term in advance, and any unforeseen closures, such as snow days with be advertised as soon as the information is available.

• Staff enjoyed a wonderful afternoon Tea at Veenos on Tuesday 19[th] September 2023, which coincided with Kerri and Karla’s birthdays, and again at The Langtons on 31[st] may 2024, which coincided with Meghann’s 30[th] Birthday, which were very generous leaving gifts from previous parents.

• Chubb renewed our fire appliances, and replaced ones as necessary to comply with legal recommendations- December 2023

• PAT testing was completed on all electrical items- Monday 30[th] October 2023

• Air conditioning units tested and Cleaned- Monday 6[rd] November 2023.

• Area Senco and support officer, Faye Campbell, left and was replaced by Kathryn Liles-Taylor.

• We were lucky enough to be chosen to be one of our local Co Ops charities, and again received a very generous amount of over £1000, the cheque was presented to staff, and parents at the Co Op on 15[th] Nov, at 4pm and will be a fantastic boost for essential resources.

• We invited the teachers from feeder schools to do their annual transition visits, for children who will move into school in Autumn term. Fernvale teachers chose to do this over the phone this year, and we had no children moving to Houghton. We again, had no response from St Luke’s, despite several attempts to promote these. All schools offered stay and play, and induction sessions for children to attend. We continue transition with stories about school, drawing pictures and circle time activities. The new EYFS encourages less paper work, and so this year we mostly reported on each child’s development verbally rather than by written reports.

Termly ActivitiesAutumn Term 2023 Term Dates- 30/08/23 – 20/12/23 (16wks) Total number of children- 22 Number of 2yrs - 8

Numbers Mon 15 Tues Weds 15 Thurs 16 Fri 12 PM (until 1pm) 13 closed PM (until 1pm) 13 PM(until 1pm) 16 Until 1pm- 9 PM 12 PM 10 PM 12

Term details- First half term- We continue to use our weekly ‘Focus’ board, for the older children, which includes a Letter (sound), Number, Shape, Song, Makaton sign, and word (s) of the week. Younger children will spend time in the quiet room doing age appropriate activities to allow the older children time to engage in their learning without distraction. Any new children will spend time completing fun activities within an ‘All about Me’ booklet which determines where they are within areas of learning, and helps their key person set termly goals.

We began the new term with activities around different things happening throughout this term, including recycling week, and encouraged the children to recycle as many of their snack or lunch items as possible. Black history month, world animal day, and on Thursday 12[th] October we were invited to attend the annual Macmillan coffee morning. This is run by The Thursday Café, within the village hall. Children were encouraged to bring a donation towards this good cause, and enjoyed a cake and juice. This is a wonderful opportunity for the children to not only enjoy a treat, but to learn about what we can do to help others, and be an active part in what is happening within their community. This week also saw the beginning of Navratri, (meaning 9 nights) the Hindu festival of dance. This festival continued begins on 15[th] October and continues for nine nights over the half term. We enjoyed learning about this, and Mrs Pinky kindly brought in lots of beautiful outfits to wear, Dandiyas and helped us to celebrate. The children made their own Dandiya sticks, and we had a wonderful time dancing to lovely music.

We continued the term learning about the season of Autumn, the changes to trees, animals, birds, including migration, hibernation, and the changes to our surrounding area during this time of year.

During the week of Halloween, we had Pumpkin Week, and scooped out pumpkins, made many different crafts etc. and sang our pumpkin song, and ended the week celebrating 5[th] November, Bonfire night, we made firework pictures using straws, paint and glitter.

The second half we learned about Autumn festivals and celebrations. We celebrated Diwali (12[h] October) with card making, dancing and many props such as masks, wearing cultural clothing etc. for the children to learn about the festival of lights. Again Mrs Pinky very kindly shared her, and her families experience of |Diwali with us. This week was also Remembrance Sunday, (12[th] November) we made poppy pictures and talked about the soldiers in the war, and on the 11[th] hour of the 11[th ] day of the 11[th] month, we sat outside, as the bells rang for 2 minute’s silence. The children were fantastic and held their poppies they had made. Friday 17[th] November was BBC Children in Need and we had a Pudsey Bear day, we wore yellow, spots, bears or Pudsey bear outfits! We enjoyed lots of Pudsey themed activities, and had a donations box to raise funds.

On Thursday 7[th] Dec we were invited to perform a few of our favourite Christmas songs, for the villagers at the Thursday drop in club in the village hall. The adults were more nervous about this, but we had a great time and the children loved dressing up as 10 tubby snowmen and sang beautifully! They were rewarded with juice and a cake in the back room afterwards.

During December we had an advent calendar with each child being chosen to open one date, learned about the Christian meaning of Christmas and the first Christmas, by acting out the story of the Nativity, using costumes and props.

Christmas Party Thursday 14[th] Dec 12.45- 2,15pm. The children enjoyed party games and entertainment, magic and food, and received a gift from Santa.

Christmas Meal- Friday 15[th] Dec Our annual adults only, skittles and food evening at the Rose and Crown, those who attended enjoyed a lovely meal and had a great time.

Spring Term 2024 Term dates 10/01/24 – 22/03/24 (10wks) Total number of children- 26 Number of 2yrs- 8

Numbers

Mon 21 Tues Weds 21 Thurs 22 Fri 17 PM (until 1pm) 19 closed PM (until 1pm) 19 PM(until 1pm) 21 Until 1pm- 9 PM 16 PM 16 PM 17

Term details- We began the year talking about winter, and changes to our environment and the weather etc. Week 3, we took part in National Bird Watching week, and organised a bird viewing area, with sheets to note what you see, binoculars and fed the birds each day. This was so popular! We continued to do this past the week and enjoyed spotting birds again later in the term.

Week 5 we celebrated Lunar New Year, by acting out the story of how the Chinese zodiac of naming a year after an animal came about, this year it was the year of the Dragon. We had beautiful clothes to wear, playing with rice in a tuff spot, as well as role play food items, and the children made different craft items each day, such as mini dragons, or masks. We used our large dragon, which we made in previous years, and did a group dragon dance at the end of the morning.

Week 6 we also celebrated Valentine’s day, talking about the people we love, making love potions and valentine’s activities. We celebrated World book day (Thursday 7[th] March) by inviting parents to join us for our very first “Books and Brunch”, 9-10.15am. We combined our annual Mother’s Day celebration with World book day, as the fell in the same week this year. We offered iced coffees and tea, as well as pastries and other brunch items. We read stories, had story sack themed tables. During the week the children selected a beautiful flower, and decorated a pot label, all which were kindly donated by our local Nursery Centre, Coles. The children also drew pictures of their Mums, made cards and learnt a new song “It’s Mother’s Day” to sing to their mums. It was very well attended and we all felt it went fantastically well.

Week 9 we helped raise funds for Red Nose day, by doing funny activities all day.

We ended the term celebrating Easter, with lots of activities including egg and spoon races, Easter tuff spot, and making Easter treats to take home.

Summer Term 2024 Term Dates- 08/04/24 – 05/07/24 (12wks) Total number of children- 32 Number of 2yrs- 6 Numbers Mon 27 Tues Weds 26 Thurs 28 FULL Fri 21 PM (until 1pm) 21 closed PM (until 1pm) 21 PM(until 1pm) 22 Until 1pm- 14 PM 20 PM 19 PM 18

Term details- Our first half term we began by celebrating Eid (which fell on week 1, Wednesday 10[th] April), we made a display of items used during Eid such as clothes and decorations, and gave the children resources to make cards. We watched my very first Eid about a boy who was celebrating Eid with his family. Some of our families, who were celebrating Eid, bought the children treats, which was wonderful and gratefully received. We also learnt a little about Vaisakhi, which was celebrated on Saturday 13[th] April. During week 7, we had a wonderful Pirate Picnic Party in the garden and indoors. With the garden decorated in bunting made by the children, the children’s art work on the walls and the tables set up under the covered area, the playgroup looked spectacular! We had a fantastic party, most were in fancy dress, who wanted to, we had walk the plank into the soft spots and digging in the sand for treasure. We also had fund raising stalls, including make a sword, and a kind parent offered to paint faces for a small donation, a pirate ship to play in and the sun shone especially for us and it was a great celebration. It was so lovely to see so many families enjoying themselves.

Week 8 we made Father’s day cards, drew portraits of our dads, coloured a box (kindly donated by the Co Op) and added a ginger man biscuit, to give to our Dad’s, during the week up to Father’s day on Sunday 18th June. We talked about our dads and other father figures in our lives, and read stories which included dads/ male role models.

After half term, on June, we held a surprise party for Mrs Hudson’s 30[th] Birthday!! The children loved making a special card, and giving her the present that families had kindly donated towards. She was overwhelmed, and we all had a fantastic day.

Our annual Sports day was held on Friday 14[th] June at 9-30 until 11am and we celebrated father’s day with a display of our dads or male father figures in the main room. Due to having an exceptionally wet year, as well as the school not having mowed the grass, we were not able to practice or hold the sports day on the school field as normal. However, we were determined the weather was not going to stop our fun, and organised teams inside, and called each team and families to view the races, of the team colour at each appropriate time! The children practiced all week, and on the day, ran different races within halved team colours, under the covered area in the Playgroup garden. All the children received a medal, and had a great time! We also raised funds through our tuck shop. Thank you to our committee member Karen O’Donovan for help manning this. We also enjoyed lots of summer activities throughout the term, such as the nature area, trim trail, school field, and summer themed crafts and role play areas such as an ice cream shop, and Eid-al-Adha on Monday 17[th] June.

Our leavers party was on Friday 28[th] June, 12-2pm. This year we again chose to not invite parents to stay, as often the children choose to sit with them or don’t participate the same. This was again a great success, and as hoped, the children had a fantastic time and all got thoroughly involved in the games. We added lots of photographs to the Facebook page so parents didn’t miss out.

We said good bye to 18 children, 16 who are moving to school, one who has moved house/ preschool, and another who has moved to another country! We ended the school term on Friday 5[h] July, not Weds 10[th] as schools, due to the number of weeks we receive funding.

We have had another very enjoyable and successful Year.

Thurnby & Bushby Playgroup Income & Expenditure Account

1st September 2023 - 31st August 2024

----- Start of picture text -----
Income Expenditure
Funding 71,524.60
Furlough income 0.00
Parents Fees 7,414.00
New Starter Provisions 385.00
Termly Donations 730.00
Bank Interest 0.41
Milk Refund 495.77
Fundraising 0.00
Funding (Course) 0.00
Grant Income 0.00
Donations 2,305.86
Early/Late Club 67.50
Wages/Tax & NI (67,623.98)
Ofsted Renewal (50.00)
Milk (582.89)
Waste Collection (497.65)
Rent & Premises Costs (1,847.00)
PLA Renewal (115.91)
Business Rates (563.88)
Building Insurance (2,025.90)
Phone Contract (407.96)
Other Expenses (20.00)
Pupil Premium (217.40)
Stationery and Stamps (987.29)
Twinkl Membership 0.00
Fire Safety (134.83)
YPO Office Supplies 0.00
PAT Testing 0.00
Photography 0.00
Cleaning Products (114.72)
Seasonal, Toys and Crafts (646.76)
Refreshments (14.98)
Garden Items (55.23)
Computer Equipment (10.00)
ESPO 0.00
Petty Cash 0.00
Courses (8.10)
Gardener 0.00
Electricity/Water (22.08)
Entertainer (150.00)
Lottery Licence 0.00
Book People 0.00
Air Con Service (208.20)
Photocopying (174.40)
Baker Ross 0.00
DBS check 0.00
cash transfer 0.00
82,923.14 (76,479.16)
Net Income/(Expenditure) 6,443.98
----- End of picture text -----

Bank & Cash b/f 2,278.96 Bank & Cash c/f 8,723.16

AUDIT CERTIFICATE for Thurnb & Bushb Pla rou I hereby certlfy that the •ccounts of Thurnby & Bushby Playgroup for the pefknd to 3111 August 2024 represents a true and fair vlew of the Playgroup's financial opefJtions for the perk>d. I confwrn that adequate financial records are maintained by the Playgroup. ((Iif' David Appleton ACMA CGMA 3 Coleman Road Fleckney Leicestershire LE8 8AJ 2116125