Trustees’ Annual Report for the period
From 06 Apr 2025 Period start date To 05 Apr 2025 Period end date
Charity name: Moonbeams Playgroup
Charity registration number: 1068848
Reference and Administrative details
| Charity name | Moonbeams Playgroup |
|---|---|
| Other name the charity uses | Moonbeams Pre-School |
| Registered charity number | 1068848 |
| Charity’s principal address | Moonbeams PreSchool |
| Meadows Community Centre | |
| 299 Arbury Road | |
| Cambridge CB4 2JL |
Objectives and Activities
The charity’s purpose is the development and education of children under statutory school age. We do this by:
(a) helping parents to understand and provide for the needs of their children;
(b) identifying and encouraging study of the needs of such children and their families and promoting public interest in and recognition of such needs in our local community;
(c) offering appropriate play, educational and care facilities;
(d) providing opportunities for family learning together with the right of parents to take responsibility for and to become involved in the activities of such groups, ensuring that such groups offer opportunities for all children whatever their race,culture, religion, means or ability;
(e) Instigating, adhering to and furthering the aims and objectives of the Early Years Alliance.
Through play, discovery and meaningful experiences we prepare children not just for school, but for life. We encourage children to be confident, curious, independent and lifelong learners in a safe, welcoming and nurturing environment. We respect the individuality of each child, encouraging curiosity, creativity and a love for learning through play-based exploration.
We prioritise the development of communication and language, personal social and emotional development and physical development in a safe, welcoming, supportive and stimulating environment where all children feel valued and confident to express themselves.
We are committed to building strong relationships with the families and the community, recognising the importance of this for a child’s development.
Guided by compassion, patience, understanding and a broad array of knowledge, we aim to create a foundation that supports life-long learning and deep sense of belonging. Moonbeams embraces diversity and encourages the importance of celebrating, learning and teaching of these for children to appreciate everyone is different.
Achievements and Performance
We have now well established and settled our new premises; what seemed very different this time last year for children, staff and parents has now become a familiar daily routine. We are happy in our new location and we are very much part of the Community Centre.
In September 2024, we simplified our sessions and their timings. Each day has two 3-hour sessions. This means that parents can use all of their 15 hours’ funding. We also introduced session fees with a discounted rate for full day attendance. We ask fees for additional sessions taken by funded children or for non-funded children attending the Preschool. We have also asked parents/carers to contribute £10 per term towards the cost of consumables not covered by our funding. We do not make any other charges.
We currently have seven staff members; each member of staff has taken a lead role in the four areas of the Early Years Framework (Maths; Personal,Social and Emotional Development; Physical Development; Communication, Language and Phonics). It is our intention that staff will deliver workshops on their lead roles to parents and carers next year.
All staff are up to date on mandatory training including child protection and first aid.
A programme of refresher training has been set in place which will benefit children and families as new ideas and practice are brought into the setting from these courses.
A named safeguarding officer has been appointed to the Management Committee in accordance with regulations which require this.
We have thirty-three children on the register this year.
We have focused on the provision of special events and experiences for the children in addition to the general daily activities. This has been made possible by using money raised from our own fundraising activites. We have one staff member who is undertaking a Forest School training course in order to expand our activities with the children; so far, she has demonstrated her new skills by creating a rope
bridge for the children to explore and has demonstrated how using sticks, leaves and natural resources to make homes for wildlife. To support childrens physical health and development, we have a coach-led sports session twice a week.
From past experience, we have found the best way to engage with parents and carers is by direct contact; for instance, by asking them to tell us what their child is showing interest in at home, what books they’ve enjoyed, or places they have visited, films they have seen. Parents are encouraged to chat with staff at morning drop-off or to tell us things via a quick email. In turn, we let parents know what their child is showing interest in and what we have been doing to support their interests in the preschool. We have in previous years tried on-line learning journals and other technological tools, but we have found that the direct one-to-one contact with parents/carers has the most success. We continue to build on this.
Parent consultation sessions were held in December; these are short meetings for parents and their child’s key-worker and are an effective way for staff to engage with parents directly so that they can learn how their child is getting on developmentally in the preschool, what their key worker is working on with them and affords parents with the chance to share any concerns they might have.
The preschool produces a monthly newsletter which is distributed to parents/carers and is available on our website. This gives details of upcoming events and activities going on and suggests ways in which parents/carers can support similar activities at home. The newsletter also signposts further resources which parents/carers can use at home to complement children’s interests in the setting.
Some of the highlights of the year included:
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A ‘Healthy Eating’ week in June; we used this to promote healthy eating and to give the children the opportunity to prepare and taste different fruits and vegetables. We combined this with some home learning in the form of a mini-work out. Parents were invited to take photos so that we could add these to the children’s learning records.
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In October, we asked parents to provide a small donation so that we could take the children along to the Macmillan Cancer Coffee morning held at the Community Centre to buy a sweet treat to take home. There was also a face-painter and animal experience at the event for the children to enjoy. This was a good opportunity to take the children outside the setting to support an organised event in the Centre and to help fundraising for a worthwhile cause.
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In November, as part of general fundraising, the Preschool held a stall in the Community Centre ‘pop-up’ market. This was a great opportunity to advertise the preschool as well as a major fundraising event.
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The children’s Christmas party was held on the last day of term, 20[th] December. The children had a Christmas party lunch with a surprise visit and small gift from Father Christmas, followed by some festive activities for the children to enjoy.
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We celebrated the Chinese New Year in January with lots of learning opportunities for the children through activities such as mark making, imaginative play and story telling. We invited parents to send children in wearing something red on the 29[th] January, in celebration of the Lunar new year. The children learned how to say ‘Gung hay fat choy’; made Chinese lanterns; and got to enjoy some traditional Chinese foods, such as dumplings and fortune cookies. We also had a cooking activity with them in which we made vegetable noodles.
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Valentines Day was celebrated with a range of activities and also getting the children to engage in conversations about the people and things that are special to them and why that is.
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World book day - 6[th] March- was celebrated throughout that week. We encouraged the children to come to preschool dressed as their favourite character from a story and invited parents/ carers to come and share a story with their child in the setting. The children’s activities that week were focused on story telling and story creation.
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To celebrate Easter, the children were given the chance to observe chicks hatching from eggs. This has been a great success in previous years and the children and staff have really enjoyed watching the chicks hatch from their eggs and grow, whilst learning about how to take care of them and how to handle them safely.
Our AGM was held in November at the centre and was accompanied by the annual plea for volunteers to serve on the management committee.
Financial Review
Financial accounts for the year end April 2025 showed an overall surplus of £40K at the year end April 2025.
The year has been dominated by the change in status of our accounts with Lloyds. Our accounts were formerly identified as ‘Treasurer’s accounts’ and were not subject to monthly charges. They have been reclassified as ‘Community accounts’ which are subject to basic monthly charges with additional charges for transactions, irrespective of whether the account is in credit or not. Following advice from our accountants, in order to avoid account charges on what are essentially the business reserves, two new accounts have set up with Lloyds. A fixed interest savings bond account containing £20k and an instant access savings account with £30k This leaves a balance of £7k in the reserve account which, given the charges on business accounts, would best be transferred to the instant savings account. The purpose of the instant access savings account is to hold the ringfenced sum of money in accordance with the charity’s reserves policy, effectvely the wind-up costs of the business. There seems little point in holding reserve account given that any balance in it is eroded by application of monthly account charges.
The PreSchool Reserve funds policy provides that sufficient funds must be ringfenced within the Reserves to cover the financial liabilities that would arise should the PreSchool have to wind up.Ringfenced funds therefore need to cover final salary bills (including HMRC/NI), statutory redundancy payments due (not subject to HMRC/NI), pension liabilities, and monies owed for rent and other services (broadband/phone). Currently, the amount ringfenced is around £30K. This figure has to be reviewed annually (as statutory redundancy calculations need to be adjusted for staff service length).
There has been no drawdown of reserve funds to cover operational expenses. With 8 members of staff, payroll accounts around 76% of the charity’s expenses, especially given increases in PAYE/NI and minimum wage. (Recall that the charity’s position on minimum wage increase is to apply them to all staff in order to maintain differentials; this was a decision taken by the Management Committee in 2018). The combined effect of statutory increases in minimum wage and resulting increase in PAYE/pension payments means that this cost has risen 31% on last year.
The effect of a full headcount and last year’s welcome increase in hourly funding rates for children accounts introduced last year can be seen in the income figure, up 46% on last year. It is thought unlikely that these funding rates will be increased further year on year; what seems more probable is a scenario that the Preschool has seen in previous years; funding rates remain static, while staff costs continue to rise in line with statutory requirements of employment law. These reserves will be needed to support payroll and increases on other operational costs in months/years ahead.
Structure, Governance and Management
Our constitution was adopted in May 2018 and is the Early Years Alliance model constitution of 2011 as approved by the Charity Commission.
The charity is currently unincorporated.
Trustees are elected from members or associate members annually and any member of the charity may put their name forward for election at the AGM; our constitution allows for a maximum of 12 members at any time. We currently have one members of staff serving on the management committee. All Committee volunteers must obtain an enhanced DBS which is registered with the update service. All Committee volunteers have a ‘suitable person’ status with Ofsted.
The Charity reported one serious incident to Ofsted and to the Commission (reference 776962, Feb) concerning allegations made about a staff member in June 2024. The procedures documented in the Charity’s policy on safeguarding was followed. On the recommendation of the LADO and Safeguarding team, an internal investigaton was undertaken into the matter. Investigation found that the allegations were unfounded and unsubstantiated.
On the recommendation of Ofsted, the Charity’s safeguarding policy has been reviewed and updated to better reflect the reporting schedule to agencies/regulators. Ofsted will review the investigation in their next inspection of the setting.
LADO and Safeguarding team were content that internal investigation was appropriate to address and
investigate the allegations made.
Trustees
Trustees and officers during the financial year April 2024 – April 2025 were as follows:
Donna Thrower elected Chairperson November 2024 Stephanie Champion Trustee and Preschool Manager Lynne Purchase Treasurer/Secretary Renata Segatto Tessinari Trustee Yi Zhou Trustee Resignations Heidi Scott resigned from Committee November 2024 Dora Suberlak resigned from Committee November 2024
Declarations
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
On behalf of the charity’s trustees
Donna Thrower Chairperson Lynne Purchase Treasurer/Secretary Date: 28[th] January 2026
Moonbeams Accounts 250405
| Moonbeams Pre-Schoo | l Accounts 2024-2025-Year Ending 5th.April 2025 | ||||||||||||||
| Restrict Fund | General Fund |
Totals | 05-Apr-24 | 05-Apr-23 | 05-Apr-22 | 05-Apr-21 | 05-Apr-20 | 05-Apr-19 | 05-Apr-18 | 05-Apr-17 | |||||
| b/f from lastyear | £70,159.44 | £1,709.15 | £71,868.59 | £47,902.40 | £50,944.65 | £46,157.42 | £29,362.64 | £33,117.16 | £35,966.23 | £14,387.53 | £23,383.26 | ||||
| Income | |||||||||||||||
| Fees | £25,682.25 | £25,682.25 | £33,919.50 | £28,199.50 | £9,886.03 | £4,133.75 | £9,996.95 | £9,754.25 | £9,490.77 | £5,104.90 | |||||
| Funding | £181,886.68 | £181,886.68 | £107,952.87 | £69,267.65 | £81,433.93 | £86,341.34 | £80,735.71 | £81,610.85 | £84,561.86 | £56,946.45 | |||||
| Grants | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £275.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | |||||
| Fundraisingetc | £2,184.00 | -£1,092.00 | £1,092.00 | £144.30 | £389.36 | £451.50 | £0.00 | £261.54 | £638.87 | £239.47 | £71.53 | ||||
| Other Sundries | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | |||||
| Other Income | £370.00 | -£50.00 | £320.00 | £414.37 | £448.56 | £140.00 | £159.74 | £420.00 | £394.29 | £109.28 | £149.00 | ||||
| -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | |||||
| £210,122.93 | -£1,142.00 | £208,980.93 | £142,431.04 | £98,580.07 | £91,911.46 | £90,634.83 | £91,414.20 | £92,398.26 | £94,401.38 | £62,271.88 | |||||
| -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | |||||
| Expenditure | |||||||||||||||
| Wages and Training | £128,084.35 | £128,084.35 | £97,548.86 | £77,867.03 | £63,519.86 | £61,850.13 | £75,348.46 | £71,855.08 | £52,667.61 | £52,633.56 | |||||
| Subcontract labour | £3,776.27 | £3,776.27 | £995.33 | £1,756.09 | £685.50 | £781.56 | £2,673.35 | £1,310.26 | £2,388.81 | 4,162.40 | |||||
| Rent | £12,429.84 | £12,429.84 | £11,781.12 | £11,224.08 | £11,920.00 | £5,576.00 | £9,916.94 | £11,252.22 | £9,852.67 | £9,745.86 | |||||
| Equipment etc | £16,779.57 | £16,779.57 | £3,674.98 | £3,604.61 | £4,818.75 | £886.64 | £1,262.20 | £4,523.33 | £1,925.12 | £1,735.75 | |||||
| Insurance | £0.00 | £0.00 | £678.90 | £648.29 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £607.65 | £496.69 | £587.03 | |||||
| Professional Fees | £792.00 | £792.00 | £750.00 | £1,482.30 | £2,648.22 | £660.00 | £720.00 | £720.00 | £3,079.92 | 600.00 | |||||
| Broadband and Phone | £880.10 | £880.10 | £740.00 | £1,197.43 | £1,361.62 | £1,538.86 | £1,346.75 | £1,369.80 | £1,017.62 | 377.09 | |||||
| Sundries | £681.43 | £681.43 | £292.72 | £615.13 | £114.64 | £0.00 | £82.78 | £116.63 | £69.77 | £16.82 | |||||
| Other | £1,751.82 | £3,075.47 | £4,827.29 | £2,002.94 | £3,227.36 | £2,055.64 | £2,546.86 | £3,818.24 | £3,492.36 | £1,324.47 | £1,409.10 | ||||
| -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | |||||
| Totals | £165,175.38 | £3,075.47 | £168,250.85 | £118,464.85 | £101,622.32 | £87,124.23 | £73,840.05 | £95,168.72 | £95,247.33 | £72,822.68 | £71,267.61 | ||||
| -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | |||||
| c/f to nextyear | £115,106.99 | -£2,508.32 | £112,598.67 | £71,868.59 | £47,902.40 | £50,944.65 | £46,157.42 | £29,362.64 | £33,117.16 | £35,966.23 | £14,387.53 | ||||
| Represented by: | Bank Reserve Account | 36,318.91 | 56,318.91 | 30,326.91 | 30,326.91 | 34,326.91 | 23,336.65 | 24,936.65 | 19,899.00 | 10,099.00 | |||||
| Preschool | 55,121.29 | 15,065.86 | 16,853.97 | 20,399.42 | 11,517.34 | 6,019.32 | 8,131.32 | 15,916.64 | 4,246.36 | ||||||
| Cash | 1,158.47 | 482.82 | 721.52 | 218.32 | 313.17 | 6.67 | 49.19 | 150.59 | 42.17 | ||||||
| Bond Account | 20,000.00 | ||||||||||||||
| -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | |||||||
| £112,598.67 | £71,867.59 | £47,902.40 | £50,944.65 | £46,157.42 | £29,362.64 | £33,117.16 | £35,966.23 | £14,387.53 | |||||||
| -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | |||||||
| MOVEMENT IN FUNDS YEAR | ON YEAR | £40,730.08 | £23,966.19 | -£3,042.25 | £4,787.23 | £16,794.78 | -£3,754.52 | -£2,849.07 | £21,578.70 | -£8,995.73 | |||||
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Moonbeams Accounts 250405
| Moonbeams Bank and Cash Balances as at 5th.April 2025 | |||||||||||||||
| BANK BALANCES CFWD | |||||||||||||||
| Reserves account | £36,318.91 | ||||||||||||||
| Preschool | £55,121.29 | ||||||||||||||
| Cash | £1,158.47 | ||||||||||||||
| Bond Account | £20,000.00 | ||||||||||||||
| ------------- | |||||||||||||||
| £112,598.67 | |||||||||||||||
| ------------- | |||||||||||||||
| In accounts | £112,598.67 | ||||||||||||||
| Written off to Other Over | £0.00 | ||||||||||||||
| BANK BALANCES BFWD | |||||||||||||||
| Reserves account | £56,318.91 | ||||||||||||||
| Preschool | £15,065.86 | ||||||||||||||
| Cash | £483.82 | ||||||||||||||
| Bond Account | £0.00 | ||||||||||||||
| ------------- | |||||||||||||||
| £71,868.59 | |||||||||||||||
| ------------- |
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The Meadows Community Centre 299 Arbury Road,Cambridge,CB4 2)L Tel: 07780 187003 Website: www.moonbeamspreschool.org email: moonbeams.preschool@gmail.com Registered Charity 1068848 OFSTED Registration EY2711214 Mon-Fri term time only 9am-3pm
To whom it may concern:
| have prepared the enclosed accounts which | believe to be an accurate record of the finances of Moonbeams PreSchool for the year 2024-2025.
| have conducted an independent examination of the enclosed accounts of Moonbeams PreSchool in accordance with the requirements laid down by the Charities Commission for England and Wales. Original documents have not been seen but have used a spreadsheet produced from within Moonbeams.
Have seen bank statements for opening and Closing balances and payroll records.
Comments:
Reserves have increased by £40,730(2024-£23,966) and at the yearend there were cash reserves of £112,599. (2024-£71,869)
There has beena large increase of 46.8% in turnover to £209k(2024-£142k), part of which is due by the increased funding rate per child. Lynne notes that such an increase for financial year 25/26 is unlikely. If turnover for financial year 25/26 was to increase to £250,000 or above, then the accounts would no longer be able to be prepared on a receipts and payments basis, but on an accruals basis. With this in mind the turnover should be monitored regular to ascertain if there will be a change of accounting policy required to accommodate the accruals basis.
Currently the accounts are prepared via a spreadsheet. To date this has been very successful, which is due to the very high standard of record keeping .It maybe worth considering switching to accounting software such as Sage Cloud Accounting .The advantages are that the accounts can be produced on a more regular basis such as monthly or quarterly, plus would easily accommodate change of accounting policy. Subscription for the full accounting package would be around £26 per month.
Pleasing to note that £20,000 of the funds have been placed in an interest bearing account with a view to adding more funds into a building society. Checks should be made to ensure that that the banking organisation is covered by the government deposit guarantee scheme, which currently has a maximum limit of £85,000.
Monthly payroll reports have been reviewed against receipts and payments and are fully reconciled. No statutory accounts and Corporation Tax return have been prepared for year ending 5".April 2025, because the HMRC portal has shown accounting periods 5" April 2023 through to 5". April 2025 as being exempt from filing.
Moonbeams PreSchool year end declaration
As mentioned previously the accounts, record keeping, reconciliations, revenue and overhead control continues to be of an exceptionally high standard.
Signature HF Printname MARTIN $MITH (DALLAS AND MARTIN ACCOUNTANCY LTD) Occupation ACCOUNTANT Date 24th. JULY 2025.
Moonbeams PreSchool year end declaration