2025-03-31-accounts

Children’s Discovery Centre – East London

trading as Discover

Report and Financial Statements

For the Year Ended 31 March 2025

Charity number 1070468

Company number 3479284 (England and Wales)

“Such a wonderfully curated space - creative, imaginative, fun, interesting! Should serve as a blueprint for how other children’s spaces are thought out. Compared to [others], Discover is miles ahead, a real cut above the rest! The staff were friendly, engaged and seemed to enjoy their jobs.” Parent comment, October 2024

CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON

CONTENTS PAGE

Legal and Administrative Information … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …	2
Introduction & Chair’s Summary … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …	3 - 7
The Trustees’ Report … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …	8 - 28
The Auditor’s Report … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …	29 - 31
Statement of Financial Activities … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …	32
Balance Sheet … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …	33
Statement of Cash Flows … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …	34
Notes forming part of the financial statements … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …	35 – 46

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

Trustees Alexandra Marks – Chair (Re-appointed 28 January 2025) Amit Rama – Treasurer (Re-appointed 28 January 2025) Graham Massie Giorgia Stewart Hannah Duthie (Appointed 28 January 2025) Helen Whiteman Joe Robinson Ketiwe Anjorin (Appointed 28 January 2025) Lerato Marema (Appointed 28 January 2025) Naseem Hossain Oghenevese Aghoghovbia Siobhan Tighe Vaseem Khan Victoria Dance Company Secretary Rebekah Polding Chief Executive Rebekah Polding Charity Number 1070468 Company Number 03479284 Registered Name Children’s Discovery Centre, East London Registered Office 383 - 387 High Street , Stratford, London E15 4QZ Telephone [phone] Fax [phone] Email [e-mail] Website www.discover.org.uk Auditor HaysMac LLP 10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1AG Solicitors Winckworth Sherwood, Arbor, 255 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 9AX Bankers National Westminster Plc, 1-11 Broadway, Stratford, London E15 4DX Beverley Building Society, 57 Market Place, Beverley, East Yorkshire. HU17 8AA Cambridge and Counties Bank, Charnwood Court, 5B New Walk, Leics. LE1 6TE Nationwide Building Soc., Nationwide House, Pipers Way, Swindon, Wilts. SN38 1NW Charity Bank, Fosse House, 182 High Street, Tonbridge, Kent. TN9 1BE Redwood Bank Limited, The Nexus Building, Broadway, Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire. SG6 3TA Hampshire Trust Bank, PO Box 74003, London. EC2P 2QR

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Introduction

The idea for Discover came from a group of east London community leaders, educationalists, and local parents in 1997. Their ambition was to develop a world-class hands-on learning resource for children and families and purposely locate this in in the heart of Newham to support a community in need as well as spur the regeneration of Stratford. ‘Children’s Discovery Centre East London’ was registered as a charity and limited company in 1998. Supported by Arts Council England and the London Borough of Newham, the Discover Children’s Story Centre opened in 2003 and was the first children’s museum in the UK to focus exclusively on stories and children’s literature.

Discover has evolved a unique practice that gives children aged 0-11 and their families freedom to explore our shared heritage of stories through multi-sensory, playful experiences. This includes immersive book-come-to-life exhibitions, storytelling, interactive performance, workshops on and off-site and opportunities to learn with and about authors and illustrators. Creative facilitators (“Story Builders”) support engagement throughout, and we strive to provide an offer for all children, providing targeted support where needed to enable fully inclusive participation.

The Centre has grown incrementally and by its 20[th] anniversary in 2023 had reached one million visitors, with a site that now includes two magical Story Worlds, a Story Garden, an annual immersive exhibition, a dedicated story telling space for 0-3’s, events and party rooms, a café, reception and shop and a programme of schools workshops, festivals, artist training, community-led projects and other activities including those specially for homeless families, and disabled children with their families.

Our mission, vision and principles

Our mission: Transforming lives through stories.

We create wonder.

We are the UK’s first Story Centre for children aged 0 – 11 and their families, proudly rooted in Newham, East London.

We believe stories are critical to child development, that they can transform lives and shape strong and vibrant communities.

We are committed to supporting the curiosity, creativity and imagination of all children through excellent artistic, creative, play and learning experience.

Five principles run through everything we do:

• put children first

• create the extraordinary

• keep growing our accessibility and inclusivity

• play our part in protecting our planet

• ensure our organisation is well-run.

With these principles guiding our choices, we are working to support 1 million more children and families by 2030.

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Our objectives

In 2024, Discover celebrated its 21st birthday.

We’ve welcomed over 1 million visitors so far and have evolved our support for creative literacy through numerous projects and programmes with local children at their heart.

To set out on our next 21 years we’ve engaged with children, families, artists, staff, trustees and strategic stakeholders and agreed five objectives for the charity:

• Up and Out : evolve our building to inspire the next 1 million visitors

• Outside Over There : reach more people in more places

• More Storytellers Like Me : ensure every child can find themselves in Discover

• Play and Learn : champion Discover’s approach and learn from others

• No Place Like Newham : make a difference to every child in our home borough

Our annual business plans will make sure we are on track to achieve each of these targets, and we will monitor and report our activities and progress each year.

Public benefit

The Trustees confirm that they comply with their duty to have regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission in exercising their powers and duties as further outlined in this report.

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Chair’s Summary 2024/25

I am proud and delighted to report on a pivotal year for Discover – the year we stopped using fossil fuels, invested in our future with a new fundraising strategy and installed a giant inflatable monster on our roof!

This year is the second in our strategic plan ‘Stories For All’ that sees us evolving our building and operations to ensure Discover can serve and inspire its next 1 million visitors. To this end, we took the significant step of closing the centre for the whole of September in order to implement the critical works of repairing our lift (vital for our accessibility), rebuilding our basement toilets and replacing our last-legs gas boilers with environmentally friendly air source heating and cooling. To complete all this in just four weeks was an extraordinary achievement, and testament to the commitment of both staff and contractors to getting Discover open again for children, schools and families. I always say Discover has a special magic, and this feat of delivery was a clear proof.

With just 11 months of operation in Discover itself, the centre nonetheless welcomed 86,456 visitors, including 166 school visits. With our externally presented programme across schools, libraries, festivals and partner venues serving an additional 4,025 people this year saw a grand total of 90,481 direct beneficiaries of our hands-on story work, 15.6% of whom experienced Discover for free. This figure – exceeding our target – is a source of great pride to me and the Board, as we continue to honour Discover’s founding principle of being for everyone. That our free, artist-led club for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and their families, ‘Mighty Mega’, is now in its 18[th] year is similarly something we celebrate as core to the identity of this organisation.

Vital projects within and beyond Discover’s walls enable us to keep learning and growing our work with our community. The ‘Story Sandwich’ programme continues to support families facing homelessness and our partnership with the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival gave local families the opportunity to be part of world-class art experiences. Thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we were able to explore the many different storytelling traditions brought to Newham by its residents, sharing food and bedtime rituals with groups across the borough and learning that Helen Oxenbury’s ‘Bouncing Babies’ is a favourite with everyone. The third year of our ‘Story Seed’ project, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, has allowed us to innovate with teachers in the teaching of climate change through arts, our schools work supported by Man Group PLC Charitable Trust continues to provide powerful creative learning experiences for over 7,000 primary pupils and our new partnership project with University of East London, London Early Years Foundation and funder The Mercers Company, trustee of the Charity of Sir Richard Whittington, sees us setting out to explore how to embed sensory storytelling in early years through work within nursery settings.

The opening of our new immersive adventure, ‘Monster Funfair’, celebrating the colourful, comical and empathetic work of contemporary author-illustrator Nadia Shireen was the centrepiece of our creative year – and judging from feedback, a highlight for many children and families likewise. The launch was our biggest yet, with over 30 influencers sharing beautiful bespoke content with their combined followers of over 356,000 families, with 30,525 people in just over seven months then visiting the Funfair to search for the missing candyfloss.

"I said the last one “The Box Rocket” was my favourite and tbh I wasn’t sure how they would top it! Well they have in my opinion, this one is my favourite! This adventure takes you through a fantastical circus tent and into the woods, where you can play dinosaur laser maze, they have beastly fun house, mini bumble-bear bumper cars. So much thought goes into each zone the attention to detail is always amazing and like always, the staff are so engaging!" Influencer quote, July 2024

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Our hands-on storytelling for 0-5s also continued to exceed expectations, with over 11,000 people enjoying the six interactive, multi-sensory shows commissioned and produced by our in-house team. ‘Luna Loves Christmas’ with a script written for us by former Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho may have been my secret favourite, though each brought its own delights: the glittering underwater of ‘Drop of the Ocean’, actual pond for ‘Duck Pond’, cuddly veg of ‘That’s Not My Pumpkin’, dastardly genius of Evil Pea in ‘Supertato’ or magical final reveal of ‘Rajiv’s Starry Feelings’.

And we continue to innovate in our creative programme: this year, we added additional sensory story experiences for Diwali and Christmas, ‘Campfire Adventures’ for slightly older children, an outdoor trail (‘Stomp and Stamp’) in partnership with our new East Bank neighbours, the ‘Story Street’ summer programme and a growing practice of deepening engagement through our book-based trails which this year celebrated Lydia Monks’ ‘Adoette’, Tom Percival’s ‘Big Bright Feelings’ the adorable ‘That’s Not My . . .’ series and the 40[th] anniversary of beloved farmyard duo ‘Poppy and Sam’. We thank all our publishing partners for their support with this work, which demonstrates our approach of ‘stealth literacy’: supporting families with reading for pleasure through hands-on play and connection. The clear link between our activity and sales in our bookshop – topped this year by Nadia Shireen’s ‘Barbara Throws A Wobbler’ – is a pleasing proof of concept which we also see evidenced in regular visitor feedback.

“After the Big Bright Feelings character search, we read four of the books.”

“It was nice that the Adoette trail ended in the café and you could see the illustrations from the book in there – like a mini gallery.” Visitor feedback 2024

Looking at how we have continued to strengthen our organisation, the bookshop has been one of the focal points for development this year, with input from our Family Forum and retail expert (and local parent) Katie Powell, resulting in a pleasing increase in book sales as well as spend per head, an upward trend also visible in our café. Other important steps forward include a review of our policies on parental leave, bringing the support for staff in line with our core mission of supporting children and families; introducing paid time off for carers; and the exciting decision to expand our trusteeship by three to bring in additional voices from the Newham community and expertise in early years child development. I cannot help but be proud of the strength and skillset of our committed board, and it was therefore a major governance highlight to receive a visit from Orlando Fraser, outgoing Chair of the Charity Commission, who noted the inclusion of both financial and legal expertise in the trusteeship and commended the work of the centre.

Thanks are as always due to many for all these achievements: first and foremost to the dedicated staff who work tirelessly to transform lives through stories, to our Trustees, and most especially to Interim CEO Helen Tovey for stepping in to lead the organisation whilst the substantive CEO is on medical leave. Especial thanks are also due to partners Jan Kattein Architects for the visionary work that is building Discover’s next chapter, to our IT support company Integrity for going above and beyond to improve our cyber security, to our new coffee partner the wonderful social enterprise Change Please and to Winckworth Sherwood and K&L Gates, for pro bono legal support. And I would like to thank wholeheartedly our many funders and supporters, including:

• Arts Council England, whose award of NPO (National Portfolio Organisation) funding support provides the foundation on which we operate and whose generous grant for our capital project lead the way

• Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Man Group PLC Charitable Trust for support to our education work

• The Mercers Company, trustee of the Charity of Sir Richard Whittington, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Waltham Forest Council, LLDC, Creative Newham and Create Within Newham for funding and expert support to deliver projects that expand our reach and impact

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

• Bruce Wake Charitable Trust, CMS Cameron McKenna, D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, Endurant Limited, John Thaw Foundation, London City Airport Community Fund, Maccreanor Lavington and the Tom Ap Rhys Pryce Charitable Trust for enabling us to deliver our core mission

• Postcode Innovation Trust, City Bridge Foundation, The Clothworkers Foundation, Foyle Foundation, The Veolia Environmental Trust, LLDC and the SIB Reach fund for supporting our vision for the capital project ‘Up and Out’

We are grateful to all who have supported Discover’s work and who share a belief in the transformative powers of imagination, play and stories; the children we support will change the world.

Alexandra Marks CBE

Chair

22 August 2025

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Case study: A Story Street Summer

Story Street 2024 transformed a misused street into a world of adventure and stories for children and families.

From 8[th] August to 8[th] September 2024, Discover delivered a magical play street on New Mount Street (the dead end street running alongside Discover’s garden), expanding the activity and footprint of the Centre during the busy summer holiday period. This enabled us to offer free tickets to local families, with codes distributed via libraries and our community partners: in total, 1,977 local children and families visited Story Street and Discover for free, exceeding our initial target by 97%. An anonymous donor generously kickstarted the project with a £10,000 gift, and this then leveraged a further £9,300 in donations from local businesses. Powerful partnerships supported the provision of creative activity and volunteer support. Our amazing creative team transformed the street from a junk-filled no-go area into an inspirational and joyous painted play zone using murals, games, facepainting, dance, monster crafts, sensory play, books and storytelling; a place for families to connect and imaginations to run wild.

The initiative built upon a pilot play street day delivered in 2023 and brought together a number of Discover’s strategic priorities:

• Prioritising our support to our Newham community

• Engaging with our local corporate connections to build a wider supporter base, developing our fundraising model

• Finding new ways to keep growing our access and inclusion such that all children can benefit from the freedom to play and expand their creative imaginations

• Initiating a volunteer programme, engaging more people with Discover’s practice and enabling us to achieve more

• Expanding and improving our facilities

• Transforming more lives through multi-sensory, hands-on stories and storytelling.

“Story Street was like a little extra play area…the quirky play objects and the sense of space and freedom for children.” Parent feedback, Story Street 2024

“I watched a dad and his son build a monster together for over 2 hours, he must have only been 3 but the spontaneous activity provided the perfect opportunity for them to ‘work it all out together’, constantly communicating, he was leading the way, persisting with fiddly tasks to create what he envisioned – the father patiently supported him and commented to me that he had never thought more out of the box. This monster had six eyes because why not!” Observation from Visitor Service Assistant, Story Street 2024

All participants – visitors, staff and volunteers – felt that Story Street was a joyful initiative that should continue and grow in future years. We look forward to building more partnerships that enable us to support more children and families during the long summer holidays with creative story play.

With thanks once again for the support of Culture Within Newham, Hollybrook Homes, LB Group, M&G In The Community Fund, One Point Services Ltd Building Maintenance and Construction, Stratford Original, The Westbridge Hotel and those who would prefer to remain anonymous.

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Our Activities April 2024 – March 2023

1. Up and Out: Evolve our building to inspire the next 1 million visitors

The Discover Centre offers a magical world that is child-centred, without rules and full of inspiration for children’s imaginations. It is also a slightly draughty nineteenth-century building that has been operating as Discover for over twenty years and requires investment in its infrastructure and layout to continue to function, meet and exceed the expectations of 21[st] century visitors.

As the building is the charity’s central asset without which the organisation cannot realistically function, we have begun a major programme of community-led redevelopment to ensure Discover can continue its charitable mission for the next 20 years.

“The variety of things to play with/on - the way they were designed so that our 3-year-old could play independently (and safely), but we could join in when he wanted to involve us. Everything was so visual, tactile, interesting and easy for him to interact with. It was perfectly pitched to capture his imagination and keep him engaged for ages.”

Parent comment, April 2024

a) Implement the findings of the accessibility audit

The Centre for Accessible Design delivered a thorough access audit of our premises in September 2023, striking a careful balance between recognising the special nature of Discover’s immersive Story Worlds and our ambition to be accessible to all children. All those improvements marked for short term attention were implemented immediately, and the remaining recommendations were incorporated into the plans for the major capital works.

In September 2024, thanks to funding from the City Bridge Foundation we were able to deliver two major improvements to our accessibility: completely refurbishing our worn-out lift such that we have minimised the risk of losing this critical access feature, and rebuilding our horrible basement toilets to include a proper wheelchair accessible space, a space for ambulant visitors with mobility issues and no noisy hand-driers (hated by children and people with sensory sensitivities). Basins, towels and taps are at a range of heights also to ensure usability for all our visitors.

We have continued to implement additional changes as recommended by the access audit:

• the hoist and changing table are now in full working order and serviced every 6 months

• we have sufficient visual beacons connected to our fire alarm system

• the baby changing unit and nappy bins have been relocated away from the first-floor disabled toilet

• maintenance and cleaning levels for the fire escapes have been raised to ensure no risks to users from litter or damage.

Looking to the future, we have also taken care to consult with the children and carers in our Mighty Mega group for children with special educational needs and disabilities and their families about their ideas and priorities for The Amazing Accessible Story Tree, our new vertical play space to be built next year. Participants worked directly with our architects to craft beautifully imaginative model trees and treehouses; their request for there to be some very small spaces and a lot of different sensory stimuli has been incorporated into designs.

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

b) Improve the visitor experience with better facilities

A great honour this year to be shortlisted for the Kids in Museums award for the Best Medium Museum for the strength of our welcome – we loved being part of this excellent process and feel very proud of this achievement.

We know that on a family trip out, the toilets and café can be make or break. So these two areas have been our priorities also, with an ongoing programme of improving our café presentation and menu (resulting in highly positive visitor feedback and improved sales) and rebuilding our sub-standard basement toilets. These new toilets include a range of family-friendly features like toddler seats and extra hooks as suggested by our Family Forum. And best of all, they are decorated as a steam-punk submarine!

c) Create dedicated spaces for 0-2s and 7-11s

Case study: Family Forum

The brilliant idea of a ‘Family Forum’ was proposed by the Marketing and Design Manager in recognition of the importance of parents in visits to Discover, and an acknowledgement that the wonderful Children’s Forum don’t fully represent the breadth of the ages of Discover’s visitors. The idea was widely approved by staff, many of whom are parents themselves and who noted the speed with which you can forget the realities of having a baby or a toddler once your kids get older.

Recruitment for the Forum took place via social media, posters in Discover and our regular newsletters, which generated huge amounts of interest. We articulated the need to gather a fully diverse collection of families to make sure we were always looking at things from multiple perspectives – and we were really successful in bringing in a fantastic mix representative of London’s rich diversity, including a range of ethnicities, LGBTQ+ families, families with no secure home space and families with disabilities.

The Forum has chiefly shared views through on-site group meetings, roughly quarterly. Though we have also used emailed surveys on particular topics, the in-person approach sparks more interesting discussion!

We’ve been trialling different topics and different approaches to tackling conversations, including: collectively imagining the best (and worst) family toilet facilities; drawing trail maps with a Story Builder (small children are great at imagination, their parents tend to focus on buggy access and toilet locations but both elements are important); playing in the Story Worlds and discussion of favourite (and not so favourite) aspects of the space. It’s great when the kids join in but we’ve learned also to have lots of toys and a member of the team available to entertain smaller kids so that their parents can string a thought together.

Amazing Family Forum brainwaves have so far included wind chimes in the garden, toddler seats in the toilets, donation messages printed on wristbands, and an understanding of the actual process of arriving with and unpacking a small child and buggy and how to build a buggy park around this. They also nixed the idea of a slide from reception to basement, pointing out that this would cause huge difficulties in holding on to their children, sensible feedback for which we remain hugely grateful!

We can’t imagine planning anything from festivals to café menus without the Forum’s input now, and we look forward to many more great insights in the years to come.

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Our commitment is to supporting children aged 0-11 and their families – but we know that we serve some age groups better than others.

Our data shows that we receive fewer visits from children aged 9 – 11 than from younger children. National data also shows an alarming “decline by nine”, with children ceasing to read, write or draw for pleasure around this age. We have continued the work developed last year of welcoming more children from this older age group via our Saturday afternoon film and story build sessions. From consultation with individual 9-year-olds, however, we have learned that while they still find the spaces at Discover engaging, they are uncomfortable sharing a play space with littler children. We therefore created an opportunity for older children to visit the Centre after hours, without smaller children present, beginning with ‘Story Quest Sleepovers’ and developing into a new regular programme slot, ‘Campfire Adventures’.

Case study: Campfire Adventures

In summer 2024 we trialled an exciting new idea aimed at 7 -11s: Story Quest Sleepovers. Children and their adults would come to the centre at teatime, take part in story activities across the building without any other (smaller) visitors present and then sleep over in our magical storyworlds. We combined our own in-house knowledge with research into peer overnight offers and were pleased that audience interest was high and online response enthusiastic. Feedback from the attendees about the activities was great and it was clear that the team had created a really fun model for engaging older kids. However, booking numbers didn’t quite hit the point needed for financial viability.

Using our Dotdigital analytics, we were able to target a survey to people on our mailing list who had clicked on the link to Sleepovers but hadn’t booked – which gave us the interesting insight that people would be interested in a similar event but without sleeping over. Costs for an event without overnight staffing were much lower, allowing us to reduce the ticket price also. Story Quest Sleepovers were reborn as Campfire Adventures, with the first pilots running at 74% and 98% capacity (52 and 69 attendees). Subsequent bookings continue to be healthy, with birthday groups and Scout parties joining in. Social media influencers have been very keen and have created enthusiastic TikTok videos and Instagram Reels encouraging people to book.

The age guidance for these events is 5-11 and feedback has been really positive about the opportunity for kids to come to Discover with an older group, and with activities aimed at them.

“They both had an absolutely brilliant time and loved all of it”

“The variety of activities was fantastic. We enjoyed everything.”

“Best bits? Seeing how much the children loved it. I personally enjoyed the campfire story.”

Campfire Adventures parent feedback

At the other end of the age range, we know that early years are critical for providing the interactions that drive development and establishing story sharing as part of carer and child routines. We have continued with the increased level of baby storytelling and early years story performances established last year to ensure this group is well served. And excitingly, we have spent time visiting peers, researching and planning for the new multisensory story space for 0-2s and their carers that will be built next year. The expert guidance of the amazing

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Professor Sam Wass, Director of University of East London’s BabyDevLab, has been an exceptional gift, melding the neuroscience of early years development with our expertise in enabling story sharing and sensory play and we cannot wait to launch this new facility in 2026.

"It was more about searching for the pumpkin and lots of textures of leaves and pumpkins we just loved it! The story builder was really gentle and kind with the children as well which is not easy with lots of toddlers � " Visitor feedback on ‘That’s Not My . . . . Pumpkin’ early years show

d) Reduce our carbon footprint by 50%

Like all organisations, we have a responsibility to improve our environmental sustainability. But as an

organisation working to support children to thrive, we feel we have a particular responsibility to protect their future environment.

As a baseline, our carbon footprint for 2023-24 (as calculated by Julie’s Bicycle) was 88 tonnes CO2e and for this year 89 tonnes CO2e. [NB We note that this figure does not take into account the carbon footprint of our bank accounts, an area highlighted by our eco-auditor and which we intend to address.]

We hope that with this autumn’s switch from gas boiler to Air Source Heat Pump, the installation of proper controls for heating and cooling and a staff-wide drive to reduce paper cup usage that began this year we will start to see a reduction in this figure in 2025-26.

e) Make more money from our building

Our building is our core asset and ensuring that we make the most of it is essential to our ability to deliver our charitable work. We are committed to affordability for the children and families we exist to support, and aim to achieve income growth through delivering more, not through rising prices.

Staff identified evenings in the venue as an underused asset, and we have successfully trialled and developed a new evening programme, Campfire Adventures (see case study page 11) to begin making more of this capacity.

The price for entry to Discover has stayed static this year to ensure we remain accessible. Whilst the one month closure period and the impact of the ongoing cost of living crisis on our audiences have held visitor numbers down this year, we have noted a positive trend that our visitors are doing more while they are with us, taking part in paid activities in addition to their entry ticket and growing our ancillary revenues per head in shop and café. Income for our immersive adventure ‘The Box Rocket’ across all 12 months of 2023-24, for example, was £131,000 whereas this year our immersive adventures delivered revenue of £144,000 despite ten weeks of closure / exhibition build time, a rise driven by a small price rise and continued visitor demand. Spend per head in the café has risen to £1.58, from a low of 83p per head in 2022-23, with very limited price rises, and we have seen a marked growth across the year as we have improved the displays and offer. Bookshop sales, likewise, are on an upward trend since our investment in revamp, with spend up from 76p per head in 2023-24 to 88p per head in the final quarter.

2. Outside Over There: Reach more people in more places

With thanks to wonderful children’s author and illustrator Maurice Sendak for the title of our objective, we want to ensure that the transformative power of stories reaches everyone – that our work reaches as many people as possible, that we make best use of our investment in new work to leverage new partnerships and income, and that we are reaching out to audiences wherever they are, removing barriers to engagement wherever possible.

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Figures for this year are somewhat skewed by the switch from Newham Word Festival, for which sadly there was no further funding, to the smaller, more targeted Newham Festival of Stories. Our commitment to working beyond our venue was undimmed, however, and we reached an audience of 4,025 people across (last year 5,483) across a magnificent 117 external events (last year 82). These included:

• 2 gigantic World Book Day events with Newham Libraries, including a storytelling parade of 450 people

• 4 shows of our splishy splashy early years show ‘Duck Pond’ in libraries across Waltham Forest

• 4 community co-designed shows celebrating the history of Newham’s libraries for Newham Heritage Month

• 5 ‘Story Suitcase’ events in schools, taking the magic of Discover directly into classrooms

• 13 sessions for Redbridge’s amazing Fabula family festival, including author visits from Dean Atta, Pete Williamson and the legendary Trish Cooke

• 14 storytelling sessions for children in hospital, in partnership with Imperial Health Charity

• 26 magical free events lighting up Newham’s libraries with the first Newham Festival of Stories

• 46 baby storytellings and early years shows in Gravesend town centre

And of course there were many lovely one offs with treasured partners including The Magpie Project, the Olympic Park, Creative Basildon and Aberfeldy Community Centre.

a) Develop a sustainable touring model

Every year our creative teams develop at least three new story shows (highly sensory, interactive performances for 0 – 5s), a range of exhibitions and trails opening and celebrating the work of children’s authors or illustrators, and our unique, immersive, book-come-to-life exhibitions that transform 200m2 of basement into a safe, handson adventure facilitated by our Story Builders. Many peers and partners have expressed interest in sharing this work with their own audiences and we are exploring a range of models that will get this work to more people and support the need for more hands-on storytelling.

We are thrilled that since 2016 we have worked in partnership with amazing Manchester children and family arts organisation Z-Arts who have shared four of our exhibitions with Northern audiences - A World Inside A Book, The Tiger Who Came To Tea, Fairy Tales and The 100 Story Hotel, which received 7,590 visitors in 2024-25 during 9 months of being open, plus 850 school visitors. Due to rising materials and installations costs – and, more positively, growing capacity in the Z-Arts team – we have now reached the end of the partnership in its current form and have begun the development work required to see how we can continue to tour our work and gain the insight and learning from other organisations that this brings.

Fantastic visit to 100 story hotel which is great for young children. The immersive and interactive nature and the rooms within is great to strengthen their imagination and experiences. My little boy (aged 3) loved the ability of freely moving from room to room and dressing up or interacting with the environment around.” Z-Arts visitor

Thanks to the fantastically innovative Gravesham Council culture team, we tested an alternative form of touring in early summer with a residency in the Gravesend pop-up arts centre, in the heart of the town’s shopping centre. This included installation of an exhibition and trail to create an immersive story-themed space alongside a rich programme of sensory storytelling, supporting Gravesham’s ambition to develop and support family audiences. We’d love to try similar partnership with other places . . .

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“I just wanted to drop you a line to say thank you so much for the Discover Exhibition and the wonderful stories and shows. It has been a delight, and, despite it being somewhat tricky to get over the line, the response has been fantastic – a whole new audience.” Mandy Hare, Cultural Manager, Gravesham Council

b) Grow our externally presented programme to deliver more income to Discover

Our commitment to reaching more audiences beyond the wall of the Discover Centre is central to our charitable mission and identity – Discover’s work is a practice and set of beliefs, not a venue.

Our ability to deliver extraordinary work for children and families with little support, space or tech requirements is also an asset and one for which there is demand from external organisations. We have no core funding that enables us to deliver this work but will seize opportunities to work with others where financing can be found.

This year has shown our gross income for contracted external work rise to a total of £82,178 including significant contracts from LLDC for the Olympic Park Trail and from Newham Libraries to deliver operations, marketing and

“Our kids were completely engaged the entire visit, it was so wonderful to see them so excited about The Box Rocket story / world and we have already seen an improvement in their willingness to want to sit and listen to stories being read to them and reading with an adult.”

“An excellent session that then made our children desperate to write their own stories / comics once we had got back to school.” Teacher comments 2024-25

select programming for the inaugural Newham Festival of Stories. We are grateful to all our creative partners who have helped us take Discover’s work further and ensure our financial resilience.

c) Deliver a minimum of two sustained engagements in a school setting per year

This year we received visits from 166 different schools including 15 SEN specialists; c278 individual classes or

6,698 children taking part in creative workshops to build their literacy, oracy, confidence and creativity. [NB The small drop on last year’s figures equates to the aggregate 10 weeks of closure for capital works / exhibition build.]

Our Teachers’ Network of primary school teachers from across the East London area guides us in ensuring that our work continues to support schools’ needs. Working with feedback from teachers and our Story Builders, we have rewritten our long-standing Story World workshop session to add still more interactivity, including games of Grandmother’s Footsteps and drama elements, turning the collaboratively built story into a performance.

In addition to this core work we are committed to sustained engagements in school settings in order to provide the benefits of longer-term engagement to pupils and to support teachers with skills, confidence and opportunity in creative story telling. These are funding dependent, and we are grateful to our partners for enabling this vital work to take place:

• London College of Fashion visited the Monster Funfair exhibition and, using the inspiration of Nadia Shireen’s works, worked with Brampton Primary school pupils over six weekly sessions to craft World

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Book Day costumes, culminating in a session in Stratford Library and a grand parade for World Book Day itself

• Paul Hamlyn Foundation supported the third and final year of our ‘Story Seed’ project, supporting schools to bring teaching around climate change across from STEM and into arts to enable a more diverse range of learning styles and, in response to a steer from our Children’s Forum, ensuring that the messaging was fun, engaging and positive. Three Newham primaries (Dersingham, Stratford Manor and Hartley) each had eight weeks of workshops for classes of Year 5 and 6 pupils, including one SEND class. Artists explored environmental themes with the children through a range of multi-sensory storytelling methods with a final shared showcase at Rich Mix. Across all three schools, we worked with 100 children – the majority of whom spoke English as an additional language – and 8 educators, who took part in artist-led CPD sessions.

“We observed such a high level of engagement from children who usually struggle to participate. The music, sensory resources and fabulous storytelling really brought the stories to life and allowed all the children to take part.” Story Seed teacher feedback

“I had so much fun when Discover came. I didn’t think I was creative but they made me believe I am.” Story Seed pupil participant feedback

3. Play and Learn: Champion Discover’s approach and learn from others

Discover is not a campaigning organisation. But our core belief that stories are critical to child development, that they can transform lives and shape strong and vibrant communities is one we are passionate about, and our practice of hands-on (‘kinaesthetic’) learning through creative, story-based play has been shown to be hugely effective. We are keen to champion this approach and share what we have learned as part of our role in the cultural, educational and child development sectors, whilst continually improving our work through insight and learnings from great practice elsewhere.

a) Establish a programme to support parents with storytelling

Our daily Baby Story Sessions are at 92% capacity and designed to enable babies and caregivers to take part in sensory storytelling together, picking up tricks such as repetition, singing, questions and tactility that can be used easily at home.

Our ambition to build on from modelling for parents to offer more active engagement has taken a huge leap forward this year thanks to funding from The Mercer’s Foundation Early Years Special Initiative. Our ambitious four-year project aims to support children in nursery settings through sensory storytelling and includes supported sessions for both nursery staff and parents / carers. Currently in development phase, this project will begin to work on direct parent support in 2025-26.

b) Work in partnership to develop accredited training using Discover’s practice

Discover is regularly visited by educators, cultural organisations and artists to learn more about what we do and how we do it. And we would like to enable and expand this process. Our partnership with University of East London’s BabyDevLab and London Early Years Foundation for the four year nursery project presents a huge opportunity to take this forward, as we develop and test supportive training for nursery staff.

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c) Champion Discover’s practice in at least 25 professional networking events per year

Three national publications have featured pieces by or about Discover this year:

• Daily Express, 19[th] August 2024, ‘Keep kids reading this summer’, headed a piece on story-based venues for the summer holidays with a picture of our Monster Funfair exhibition and included a lovely description of Discover’s “dreamscape play spaces”

• The Bookseller, 14[th] November 2024, ‘Stealth Literacy’, a comment piece by CEO Rebekah Polding

• BookBrunch, 28[th] November 2024, ‘The BookBrunch Interview: Rebekah Polding, Discover Children’s Story Centre CEO’

This strong press interest reflects what we feel is a growing interest in story venues as a critical part of the landscape to support falling levels of reading for pleasure amongst UK children. We hugely welcome the initiative by Arts Council England, therefore, to bring such venues together into an informal network, a source of peer support and learning that we have hugely valued.

This year we have engaged professionally with the following organisations; *starred names indicate those who have visited to tour the museum, @ indicates presentations given by Discover staff.

AMA Digital Day AND Teachers cohort@ Andersen Press Arts Council CYP team Barbican Charity Commission Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust Crip Kid Lit Dutch Children’s Museum Early Childhood Authority Abu Dhabi Garfield Weston Foundation GEM@ Goldsmiths MA Students Hilltop, National Trust Horniman Museum Innovate UK ‘Story Haven’ project Junibacken Keswick Museum Kids in Museums KIDZU Children’s Museum Lego Foundation@ LG Group Libreria Bookshop

LLDC London College of Fashion London Museum Museum of London National Museum of Sweden New York University Newham Council Newham Family Hubs Newham Family Hubs Novelty Automation Playful Places @ Pop Up Pathways @ Stratford Original (BID) @ The Golden Hinde The Line The Reader * The Story Museum TheBookseller Children’s Conference @ Tom Ap Rhys Price Foundation University of Edinburgh University of Hertforshire Wellcome Collection

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d) Create and deliver training courses, workshops and masterclasses for 1,000 people across 5 years

This year our internal and external training programme has included:

• ‘Make It Happen’, a programme funded by Waltham Forest Council to train librarians in sensory storytelling (8)

• CPD teacher training for schools participating in the Paul Hamlyn-funded ‘Story Seed’ project (8)

• Nursery teachers training session, early years support project (15)

• Trainee teachers working with A New Direction received an introduction to Discover’s practice (10)

• World Book Day costume-making workshops for carers and children (10)

• Support programme for authors and illustrators to enable them to deliver workshops (29)

• Workshop for sectoral peers hosted by The Playful Places network (42)

• Creative Producer internship, through partner Creative Newham (1)

• Two skills sharing days for Story Builders including adapting shows for 0-3s, using music in storytelling, sensory play and using roleplay (15)

• The family visitor experience, workshop run for all front of house (8)

This gives a total of 146 people; with last year’s 48, this gives us 194 towards our target. More to come!

"I had the absolute pleasure of designing and delivering a Grimwood inspired workshop @discover_story last month! From chaotic creatures to wild woodlands, the children brought so much imagination and energy to every part of the session. Huge thanks to the team at the museum for having me, it's such a joy to share storytelling through creativity and play!" London College of Fashion workshop leader

d) Use our learning from outside the organisation to make at least 5 positive changes every year

We are committed to continuous improvement to ensure we deliver the very best support to children and families, and ensure our organisation is well run. We pay regular learning visits to peers, participate in sectoral networks and include review of such activity as a standing item in management meetings. Amongst smaller adaptations, in 2024-25 we have made the following five changes:

1. From Melany Rose, Interim Head of Learning and Creative Programming and her experience at the British Museum and beyond, we've added family craft activities into the template for our cafe exhibitions, increasing interactivity and engagement and bringing these into line with Discover’s handson ethos..

2. From museum gift shops across London and beyond, we have spotted the art of creating thematic displays and now have shop areas mixing books and toys focusing on dinosaurs, tigers, LGBTQ+, pink and sparkly, cats, dogs and eco tales. The pairing of John Burmingham’s Avocado Baby with a small soft toy avocado has been especially popular! Visitors and staff are both enjoying the new look, and there has been a clear uplift in sales.

3. Always serious about our storytelling, we visited HMS Ocelot at the Historic Dockyard, Chatham to experience a real submarine before building our own steampunk submarine interior, the Bubblenaut. Floor to ceiling pipework and a myriad of dials and displays were the result.

4. Again benefitting from the input of a new staff member's experiences, we have expanded and restructured our development team thanks to the knowledge brought in by Livvy Brinson from her time at Bletchley Park, The Kiln Theatre and The Young Vic. The new department is set up to enable support

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for the charity from individual giving and corporate donations alongside trusts and foundations fundraising, ensuring a more resilient business model for Discover.

1. We enjoyed a fantastic peer learning day with CEO Jamie DeMent of North Carolina's hands-on children's museum, Kidzu. From their experience we refined our plans for a smallest visitor space to be 0-2s (baby to toddling), from our original thought of 0-3s, as we learned that new walkers have a terrible tendency to run over the less mobile!

4. More Storytellers Like Me: Ensure every child can find themselves in Discover

The annual ‘Reflecting Realities’ research by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education demonstrates unequivocally the need for a more inclusive and representative children’s literature. The curation of our reading spaces, bookshop, events programme and exhibitions strives to make a difference by making commonplace the representation of marginalised characters and /or authorial voices. We do not collect statistics from visiting artists on their ethnicity, the themes or characters of their books but are pleased to receive regular visitor feedback on the visibility and impact of our commitment.

We were also proud beyond measure of our Children’s Forum, who participated in a workshop with Kids in Museums on their manifesto: they were highly vocal about ensuring that the manifesto included values of diversity and inclusion, and that families from different cultural, racial and sexual orientations were represented.

[A thing we liked about our visit]: “The representation of my son in the black characters around the exhibit and in the new stories to read.” Parent feedback, August 2024

“So many lovely story books with interesting and unique themes that you can’t find elsewhere!” Parent feedback, January 2025

a) Overrepresent the underrepresented voices in children’s books and storytelling

“it was incredible to be able to offer such a diverse and inclusive programme in 2024 which was a huge improvement to previous years and enabled us to have a much deeper engagement with our local community and encouraged new audiences to our festival.” Fabula festival organisers, Summer 2024

During the year we’ve hosted events with 84 children’s authors / illustrators , with a carefully curated balance of roughly one third ‘big names’, one third ‘established’ and one third ‘emerging’.

For Black History Month, we piloted a new programme – ‘Meet the Authors’ – to support authors from our immediate local community to deliver their first author events on our Story Worlds, with direct access to an engaged audience and a stall in our bookshop. Thank you to the three authors who braved their first public appearances and took part – Princess Booker, Priscilla Ohene Manu and Chinwe Adlih: it was wonderful to see how well your work was received and we look forward to seeing the next steps in your careers.

“just wanted to say a heartfelt THANK YOU for the lovely Sunday I had at Discover Children's Story Centre and for the success of my book launch for 'Happy Tears'. It was wonderful interacting with the children and parents and many said it was important for them to show their kids the diverse authors that exist in society.” Meet the Authors participant, October 2024

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We have also worked with a number of new artists over multiple events, supporting them to develop their public-facing practice within and beyond Discover:

• Kelechi Okafor is a Black-British author and performer, born in Nigeria and raised in London, who we invited to showcase her creative work as a main author for the Fabula Festival in Redbridge for both school and family audiences with her new book ‘Strong Like Me’, which also featured in our Black History Month programme.

• Pamela Aculey is a Birmingham-based artist and Black mother raising three boys of mixed heritage, one of whom is autistic. She champions a belief that education should be extraordinary, inclusive and interactive, values clearly matching our own such that we were thrilled to support Pamela to design and deliver a fully inclusive musical storytelling event which showcased her first book, ‘Buster Finds a Beat’, which uses specialised technology to bring the illustrations to life such that many neurodivergent children had their first opportunity to integrate into storytelling sessions. We programmed author events with Pamela in school sessions, within the Newham Festival of Stories, and as part of our Black History Month programme.

• Maria Motunrayo Adebisi is an emerging global majority and LGBTQ+ author who graduated from Oxford with a burning desire to “write a novel that would speak to children straddling British and African identities and make them proud of both.” We were able to provide opportunities for Maria’s work to have a wide reach to various young people (KS2) across the borough.

Case study: Diwali Storytelling with Mr Men and Little Miss

The perfect opportunity to celebrate Diwali emerged through a partnership with publisher Harper Collins around the beloved Mr Men and Little Miss series and the special celebration title ‘Happy Diwali’.

A team of talented Story Builders worked together to develop an interactive early years storytelling using the book and bringing in a feast of multi-sensory props: highly scented spices to pass around, flickering lamps and a beautiful giant Rangoli pattern made of highly strokable artificial petals. Diwali lights and decorations were also installed in the venue reception and café.

Whilst we did not collect audience data specifically on attendees, anecdotally box office staff reported a high number of visitors who were new to Discover and who arrived asking for the Diwali show specifically.

The initiative also supported our ambition to review and improve our welcome for families with South Asian heritage.

“It was incredibly special for us as Hindu audience members to be able to share these special moments with our little ones and it meant so much to be represented. Was also wonderful to be integrated with non-Hindu families and seeing them reveling in the beauty of Diwali and understanding different terms of language we use and feelings around our festival and being comfortable enough to be inquisitive. We came especially for this as it was our first time to Discover and were not disappointed, we will be returning for sure.”

"We loved the storytelling sessions we attended. The diwali one was particularly lovely and really kept my daughter's attention."

Visitor feedback, November 2024

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• b) Grow our special educational needs and disabled audiences year on year

With our focus on multi-sensory experience, a no-rules environment and non-verbal storytelling the general visitor experience is a welcoming one for a wide range of children and we strive to make our core delivery an inclusive one.

In 2022-23, we recorded 2,051 Disabled or Carer Entry tickets; in 2023-24, this figure grew to 2,612. In 202425, we recorded 2,006 across 11 months: 1,736 Disabled or Carer entry tickets plus 270 attendees for a dedicated day for SEND children and families funded via Newham Council. This was a fantastic day loved by both staff and visitors, who were hugely appreciative – not least of the two stories told in Makaton.

"My son is autistic and the sensory side of things was beneficial for him and his needs"

"I love how sensory everything is. My daughter is autistic and absolutely had a field day at the discover center”

[What did you like best about your visit to Discover?] "BSL interpreter!! Accessible whoop"

“Everyone was clearly making a LOT of effort to make it special and to make sure everyone was comfortable. Genuine consideration was given to my daughter’s SEN requirements.”

Visitor feedback 2024-25

We have continued the BSL interpreted storytelling and Sensory Adapted exhibition sessions begun last year with 532 attendees across these programmes across 11 months (last year 574, 12 months). And our new partnership with the wonderful Chickenshed Theatre has brought joyous and inclusive performances for a takeover day featuring a lot of magically bouncing children.

Our ‘Mighty Mega’ club for SEND children and their families has proudly continued with free, artist-led sessions every Saturday morning during term time, plus sessions run by our architects consulting the group on elements of our building project. Mighty Mega is a core commitment from the organisation that we have maintained despite the natural endpoint of our long-term funding partnership for this work. Thanks to the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival, Mighty Mega took part in a Manji-making workshop with artist Roo Dhissou; and we likewise thank Embracing Arts for presenting their wonderful ‘Chrimblesense’ show.

We also programmed three interactive, sensory author events with author Rose Robbins based on her books about neurodivergence 'LOUD', 'Talking is not my thing' and 'Me and my sister', combined total attendees 153.

c) Work collaboratively with at least two specific communities per year to develop and improve our welcome

Our two priority conversations have been with LGBTQ families and families with South Asian heritage – conversations that were begun this year and will continue on.

We did a call out for LGBTQ families to join Family Forum and had a super positive response, with a number of families sharing their (very positive) views of the centre and taking part in our regular photoshoots.

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Through an existing member of the local LGBTQ community, we have been reaching out to a wide range of dedicated social media groups and continuing to listen for any requests or needs. None so far identified!

We have been lucky to have a number of families with South Asian heritage participate in our Family Forum; we are very grateful to them, as to all participating families, for sharing their views, ideas and networks. We have also been lucky enough to have a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund which supported the ‘Newham Stories’ project, working with different community groups, several of which shared South Asian story heritage, including some wonderful food stories accompanied by biryani, dansak and karak chai!

Our programming – in addition to the wonderful Diwali storytelling - has also spotlighted author / illustrators of South Asian heritage, with the dual aims of celebrating these talents and giving South Asian families the joy of representation:

• Our immersive adventure ‘Monster Funfair’ celebrates the work of British Asian author Nadia Shireen , with her wonderful South Asian character Billy (always accompanied by the marvellous Fat Cat) making a strong appearance

• Niall Moorjani is a south Asian non-binary director, author, storyteller and arts educator and longterm collaborator with Discover, including working as a Story Builder and artist facilitator in our education projects. In collaboration with emerging theatre company Astraea, we commissioned the early years show ‘Rajiv’s Starry Feeling’ from Niall’s first book. Audience feedback: “stunning show and so vital for our community to start these discussions and involve fathers more deeply in the family unit. The team have created a great storytelling which my child was enthralled by”

• Rea Malhotra Mukhtyar An emerging children’s author and actress, Rea has had a strong involvement with Discover over the past year including the opportunity to develop and run her own author event sessions to share her new books with the local community, as well as being a lead artist on one of our larger education projects Newham Stories, exploring heritage and culture through oral storytelling with parents in Newham.

d) Develop the make-up of our team to be more representative of London’s communities

We are proud of Discover's diverse workforce and culture and aim to ensure our recruitment practices are accessible and inclusive for all people from all backgrounds, cultures and with diverse lived experiences. We aspire to recruit more posts from within our local area and are working directly with Newham Council’s Inclusive Economy team to ensure we are using all possible resources to provide work opportunities to local residents first. Our jobs are advertised on all local job boards, and we partnered with both University College London – whose new campus has just opened at East Bank – and the Council’s Newham Volunteering Initiative to recruit volunteers for our Story Street project and will build on these for next year. To support our inclusive culture, we have this year held training for staff in managing diversity and in preventing sexual harassment.

This year, we were proud to participate in the Creative Newham Cultural Producers project funded by Arts Council England and host a four-month placement for a highly talented, Newham-resident emerging cultural producer. Our three most recent recruits to our office team are all Newham residents, as are a good number of our front of house staff with the majority of the office team being East London based. The majority of our staff team, as per our survey for Arts Council England March 2025, identify other than as White British, 12% identify as D/deaf and/or disabled, 23% identify otherwise to heterosexual/straight and staff identify from six different socio-economic backgrounds.

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5. No Place Like Newham: Make a difference to every child in Newham

a) Work with every Newham primary school

Working with the universal offer that is schools is fundamental to achieving our goal of making a difference to every child in our home borough.

At the point of target setting in August 2023, we had worked with 23 out of 63 Newham primaries within the last 12 months (though have worked with nearly all Newham primaries over the longer term).Over the past two years, with dedicated staff time to schools outreach, we have now grown our reach to 39 out of 63 Newham primaries (up from 32 in 2023-24).

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

b) Hold an annual festival in Newham, of Newham, for Newham

Case Study: Newham Festival of Stories 11 – 22 November 2024

From 2018 to 2023, Newham Council commissioned the Newham Word Festival, with additional funding support from Arts Council England and delivery by Discover.

When this funding came to an end, we were thrilled when Newham Libraries told us that they were submitting an application to the Arts Council to continue with a smaller, more focused version of the festival that put Newham residents more firmly in the curatorial spotlight and continued the great work of connecting new audiences to their local libraries, commissioning new word-focused events from local creative and community groups and bringing high quality book and story events to the borough.

Newham Libraries run an outstanding programme of year-round events and have strong expertise in working with hyper-local audiences. Discover came on board with additional capacity and expertise in festival organisation, curating for children and families, marketing and event delivery – working closely with library teams in order to build their skills in these areas.

And what a festival ensued! Eleven days of free poetry and storytelling events, authors discussing their books, visual arts, debates, workshops and performances across every part of the borough. Freestyle family dance at Sadlers Wells, a baking history workshop with UCL Special Collections, actor Paterson Joseph sharing the fascination that lead him to write a witty historical novel about a maverick 18[th] century writer and composer and children and family events galore. 17 different organisations took part with 28 events in total attracting 2,600 people. 51% of audience members who completed a feedback survey had never been to “an event like this” before and 98% said they would attend again, with 91% of survey respondents rating the events as good or excellent. We hope there is a legacy in the hearts and minds of those who took part as vibrant and inspiring as the story mural created with and for the children and families facing homelessness who are part of The Magpie Project community.

Some of our favourite audience comments:

“Lovely event, such wonderful people hosting. We felt very welcomed.”

“I really appreciated this free writing workshop, in a lovely setting. These are the sorts of events which enrich lifes so much. Thank you. !”

“Sunday gone, Plaistow Library was transformed into a haven of imagination and joy. They offered an unforgettable experience for children and even for us adults. We were lucky to have authors Tọlá Okogwu and Hollie Hughes, who brought their great stories to life in a way that captured every heart in the room”

“Gotta say – this festival has brought great joy to our community, and the sentiment is shared widely among attendees, even if not everyone has the means to share feedback online. Huge thanks to the organisers for putting this together; it has been a bright spot in our area and I personally cannot wait for more events like this in the future..”

“No improvement needed, just good to have a whole range of stories.”

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c) Ensure 1 in 10 of our audience experience Discover for free

It is a founding principle that Discover should be accessible to everyone, and that price should not provide a barrier to entry.

Of our total audience number for the year of 90,481, precisely 14,112 experienced Discover for free – a total of 15.6%,

Across 2024-25, our free offer included:

• Babies (0-1) and carers

• Participants in our weekly After School, Story Sandwich and Mighty Mega clubs for local schoolchildren, families facing homelessness and Disabled children and children with special educational needs respectively

• Ticket distribution via our community partners, including other local charities, community and voluntary groups, libraries and food banks

• Partnership events in libraries and festivals

d) Prioritise Newham in governance, procurement, partnerships and pricing

As always, our 15-strong Children’s Forum of 8–11-year-olds are all recruited from local Newham schools. This year, their experiences have included a high tea with new Chief Executive of Newham Council, Abi Gbago, reviewing a new manifesto for Kids in Museums, connecting with the new cultural organisations at East Bank as they helped to design the new Olympic Park family trail and taking part in a project from the University of Edinburgh to help shape a library for the moon . . . .

Our recruitment for new trustees specifically prioritised lived experience of Newham, and we are thrilled that two of our three new trustees bring this in spades with backgrounds in working with different local community groups, council, education and charity networks. Of our now 14 strong group of trustees, 7 have lived experience of Newham, ensuring a powerful presence for our local community across decision making.

Our Ethical Procurement Policy commits us to proactively seeking out local suppliers wherever possible. We are pleased that our regular maintenance contract has been held by One Point Services, our neighbours on Stratford High Street, and the award-winning playground designers for the Up and Out! capital programme, APES, are also Newham based.

Tickets to Discover are discounted for Newham residents (£9 as opposed to £10). 19,307 people with Newham postcodes visited the centre – a strong 22.3% of all tickets sold, holding roughly steady on last year’s figures.

Partnership work took us further out and about in the borough:

• we took part in Newham Heritage Month and delivered work in the majority of Newham’s libraries

• we worked with the Newham Council Family Hubs network to distribute 500 free tickets to Hub users – which we extended to 550 to meet demand, and with the Newham Council HAF programme to deliver a special story day for SEND children and their families

• we took part in Greenwich + Docklands International Festival, co-delivering two amazing pieces of street performance: ‘Pram People’ (Polyglot Theatre) and ‘Manji, Charpai, Daybed’ (Roo Dissou)

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

• we braved the rain at the Olympic Park’s Big Get Together, and worked with the fantastic new partners at East Bank to create the ‘Stomp and Stamp’ family trail that links all new East Bank venues and Discover

• we told stories of Olympic bravery and courage at an open day for University of East London

This year, we thrilled to have increased our roster of community partners by 18 organisations to a total of 33 groups, all of whom receive free tickets for their membership. We thank them all for their support and ongoing work with East London’s children and families.

Action For Refugees in Lewisham (AFRIL) Newham Community Project Alternatives Trust Praxis Bayis Sheli Refuge Hackney Bonny Downs Community Association Refuge Lambeth Caris Families Room to Heal Carpenters Estate/The Dovetail Sister Circle Daubeny Primary Nurture Room Start Young UK E6 Sister The AAA Zone Eastside Community Heritage The Magpie Project Empowering Deaf Society The Renewal Programme Family Nurse Partnership The Salvation Army - Stratford Fences and Frontiers Tower Hamlets Enhanced Health and Wellbeing Forest Gate Children’s Centre We Are Family Happy Baby Community Welcome Newham KEEN London West Silvertown Foundation NCT Newham Willow Family Wellbeing Centre NELFT NHS Trust (Waltham Forest)

Structure, Governance and Management

Discover is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 11 December 1997 and registered as a charity on 9 July 1998. The company was established under a Memorandum of Association which states the objects and powers of the charity as:

“to promote, maintain, improve and advance public education n the arts, sciences, humanities, and technology in particular by the provision, promotion and maintenance of facilities and amenities for the education of children, young people and their families, and to relieve poverty, in particular by providing or assisting in providing recreational or other leisure-time facilities and amenities for children and young persons and their families.”

The directors of the company are also charity trustees for the purposes of company law. The charity is governed under its Articles of Association. These state that the Board must consist of between 3-20 Trustees. Current Board membership includes Trustees with skills and experience in business, education including SENCo, finance, fundraising, human resources, law (including property), PR and communications, regeneration, stakeholder engagement, writing and publishing. Many have lived experience of Newham and / or parenting. All trustees give their time voluntarily.

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CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

The Board of Trustees is responsible for the direction and management of Discover. It is elected by members at its AGM. Membership of the charity is open to any individual who supports the aims and policies of the company and is approved by the Trustees.

The Board has overall responsibility for the strategic control and direction of Discover with day-to-day management delegated to the Chief Executive. The Board currently meets five times per year; the Finance, Personnel and Risk Committee meets a minimum of four times per year. When necessary, the Board also establishes working groups or offers additional support on specific areas, e.g. capital projects, governance, fundraising and website development.

New Trustees visit the Centre, meet with the Chair and CEO and are given a ‘board buddy’ from existing Trustees. Their induction pack includes the most recent Annual Report and Audited Accounts, the latest set of Board papers and the current Business Plan. During the year the charity provided indemnity insurance for its Trustees.

Senior Management Team

Senior Management Team
Chief Executive	(1.0)	Rebekah Polding
Interim Chief Executive	(0.6)	Helen Tovey (from Feb 25)
Development and Delivery Director	(0.8)	Livvy Brinson
Finance Director	(0.6)	Mary King
Head of Creative Programming	(1.0)	Charlotte Métairie (parental leave Sept 24)
Interim Head of Learning and Creative Programming	(0.9)	Melany Rose (from Aug 24)
Head of Operations	(1.0)	Richard Smith-Gore
Head of Audiences	(0.8)	Jessica Ziebland

Remuneration

Key management salaries are determined through consideration of our financial position and constraints as well as testing against the wider market. Salary levels are initially agreed by the Finance Committee, which then makes a recommendation for approval by the Board.

Financial Review

In 2024-25 Discover’s total income was £3,070,541 (2024: £2,064,101). This represents a 49% increase from the previous year. The revenue comes from a variety of sources including earned income from admission fees and rental income from sub-letting space. Income also comes from grants, from trusts and foundations and commissions from a variety of sources to deliver specific services. The total expenditure in the year was £2,560,058 (2024: £2,293,284). The overall general unrestricted fund position has decreased by £304,961 with a fund balance at the year-end of £139,211 (2024: £441,908).

Fundraising

We are committed to ensuring that we are completely open about our fundraising and spending and follow the Code of Fundraising Practice. We undertake fundraising activity to our supporters via formal applications, direct mail and direct contact at events. We do not use any third parties to assist with raising funds and have had no complaints during this financial year.

Financial Sustainability

Total visitor income was £1,146,686 (2024: £1,135,183). This represents a 1% increase from the previous year. Our earned income for the year was £461,970 (2024: £457,865). Grant income was £1,383,410 (2024: £440,247).

26

CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Reserves policy

In October 2023, following a review of the capital asset and maintenance plan, the Trustees agreed to invest reserves to ensure the long-term future of the building and of the organisation, this investment to be monitored by the Finance, Risk and Personnel committee to ensure the maintenance of cashflow and appropriate return as evidenced by business projections. The Trustees agreed a policy whereby reserves were expected to fall across 20232025 but be steadily replenished following the capital works such that by 2030 the unrestricted funds not committed or invested in tangible fixed assets (the free reserves) will be the equivalent of 3 months expenditure.

On 31 March 2025 the free reserves of the charity were £139,211 (2024: £441,908).

Investment Policy

The Trustees have considered the most appropriate policy for investing funds and in the current economic climate they felt it prudent to spread the cash across savings accounts with different degrees of accessibility to maximise interest.

Risk Management

The Trustees have a risk management strategy which comprises:

• review and monitoring of the risks that the charity faces by the Finance, Risk and Personnel Committee no less than four times per year;

• the establishment of systems and procedures to mitigate those risks identified in the plan;

• the implementation of procedures designed to minimise any potential impact on the charity should those risks materialise.

The Trustees view the current risks to be financial, the main risks being:

• adequacy of reserves and cashflow

• achieving income targets, including raising funds for the capital project and revenue grants

• significant drop in visitor figures due to the impact of the cost-of-living increases, or competition within the area

• rising overheads especially due to energy price rises and increase in real living wage

• cyber security.

To mitigate the financial risks, the Finance, Risk and Personnel committee reviews management account and cashflow forecasts four times a year and reports directly to the Board of Trustees.

To mitigate the cyber security risk, a cyber security working group and action plan has been established which is monitored by the Finance, Personnel and Risk Committee.

Accounting Compliance

The Trustees (who, as mentioned above are also directors of Discover for the purposes of company law) confirm that the accounts comply with current statutory requirements and with the requirements of the charity’s governing document.

Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities

The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the Directors/Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of

27

CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON TRUSTEES’ REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

resources, including the income and expenditure of the charitable company for that period. In preparing the financial statements, the Directors/Trustees are required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently.

• observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP.

• make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.

• state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in business.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose, with reasonable accuracy at any time, the financial position of the charitable company and to enable it to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

In so far as the Trustees are aware:

• There is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company’s auditors are unaware.

• The Trustees have taken all the steps that they ought to have taken to make any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of that information.

The Directors/Trustees have prepared this report in accordance with the special provisions of Part VII of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

Approved by the Board of Directors on: 22 August 2025

Alexandra Marks CBE

Chair

28

INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Children’s Discovery Centre East London for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flows and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2025 and of the charitable company’s net movement in funds, including the income and expenditure, for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the Trustees’ Annual Report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the

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INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON

work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

• the information given in the Trustees’ Annual Report (which includes the strategic report and the directors’ report prepared for the purposes of company law) for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

• the strategic report and the directors’ report included within the Trustees’ Annual Report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Trustees’ Annual Report (which incorporates the strategic report and the directors’ report).

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• adequate accounting records have not been kept by the charitable company; or

• the charitable company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

• certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or

• the trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies’ regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing the trustees’ report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.

Responsibilities of trustees for the financial statements

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 27 of the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities,

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INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CHILDREN’S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON

including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

Based on our understanding of the charitable company and the environment in which it operates, we identified that the principal risks of non-compliance with laws and regulations related to the regulatory requirements of the Charity Commission, safeguarding, health and safety and employment law, and we considered the extent to which non-compliance might have a material effect on the financial statements. We also considered those laws and regulations that have a direct impact on the preparation of the financial statements such as the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011, payroll taxes and sales tax.

We evaluated management’s incentives and opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements (including the risk of override of controls), and determined that the principal risks were related to the posting of inappropriate journal entries or the manipulation of accounting judgements and estimates. Audit procedures performed by the engagement team included:

• Inspecting correspondence with regulators and tax authorities;

• Discussions with management including consideration of known or suspected instances of noncompliance with laws and regulation and fraud;

• Reviewing minutes of Trustees’ meetings during the year;

• Evaluating management’s controls designed to prevent and detect irregularities;

• Identifying and testing journals, in particular journal entries posted with unusual account combinations, postings by unusual users or with unusual descriptions; and

• Challenging assumptions and judgements made by management in their critical accounting estimates

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an Auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members, as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Lee Stokes (Senior Statutory Auditor) 10 Queen Street Place For and on behalf of HaysMac LLP, Statutory Auditor London Date: EC4R 1AG 22 August 2025

31

CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

Notes INCOME Income and endowments from: Donations and Legacies Grants Receivable 2 Donations and Gifts 3 Charitable Activities Operation of Centre and Outreach 4 Other Trading Activities Contract Income 2 Investments Rents Receivable Interest Receivable Other Income Total Income EXPENDITURE Expenditure on: Raising Funds Fundraising and Marketing 6 Charitable Activities Development of the Centre Operation of the Centre and Outreach Total Expenditure 7 Net income/(expenditure) Transfer between funds 16 Net movement in funds Fund Balances carried forward at 31 March 2024 Fund Balances carried forward at 31 March 2025	Unrestricted Funds £ 95,597 41,579 1,167,410 - 359,069 6,134 30,761 1,700,550 170,180 99,739 1,992,797 2,262,716 (562,166) 1,029,750 467,584 2,944,406 3,411,990	Restricted Funds £ 1,287,813 - - 82,178 1,369,991 - - 297,342 297,342 1,072,649 (1,029,750) 42,899 60,082 102,981	Total Total 2025 2024 £ £ 1,383,410 372,064 41,579 19,860 1,167,410 1,182,384 82,178 68,183 342,482 2,261 359,069 6,134 30,761 76,869 3,070,541 2,064,103 170,180 241,889 99,739 145,690 2,290,139 1,902,374 2,560,058 2,289,953 510,483 (225,850) - - 510,483 (225,850) 3,004,488 3,230,338 3,514,971 3,004,488

The notes on pages 22 to 33 form part of these financial statements. Details of comparative figures by fund are given on page 33.

All income and expenditure are derived from continuing activities.

The statement of financial activities also complies with the requirements for an income and expenditure account under the Companies Act 2006 and includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

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Company Registration No 03479284

CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 MARCH 2025

Notes FIXED ASSETS Tangible fixed assets 11 CURRENT ASSETS Stock Debtors 12 Cash at bank and in hand CURRENT LIABILITIES CREDITORS: Amounts falling due within one year 13 NET CURRENT ASSETS CREDITORS: Amounts falling due 13 after one year TOTAL NET ASSETS Unrestricted Designated - Building & Fixed Assets 17 General Funds Restricted Funds 16	£ £ 3,272,779 10,941 92,230 484,274 587,445 (130,517) 456,928 (214,736) 3,514,971 3,272,779 139,211 3,411,990 102,981 3,514,971 2025	£ £ 2,500,234 9,527 163,605 476,088 649,220 (112,966) 536,254 (32,000) 3,004,488 2,500,234 444,172 2,944,406 60,082 3,004,488 2024	£ £ 2,500,234 9,527 163,605 476,088 649,220 (112,966) 536,254 (32,000) 3,004,488 2,500,234 444,172 2,944,406 60,082 3,004,488 2024
			3,004,488
			2,944,406 60,082
			3,004,488

The notes form part of these accounts.

The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Trustees on 23 July 2025 and were signed below on its behalf by:

Amit Rama

Amit Rama Treasurer

22 August 2025

33

CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

2025 £ CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES: Net income/(expenditure) for the reporting period (as per the Statement of Financial Activities) 510,483 Adjustments for: Depreciation Charges 271,975 Dividends, interest and rents from investments (6,134) Decrease/ (Increase) in stocks (1,414) (Increase)/decrease in debtors 71,375 Increase/(Decrease) in creditors 200,287 Net cash (used in)/provided by operating activities CASH FLOW FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES Purchase of tangible fixed assets (1,044,520) Dividends, interest and rents from investments 6,134 Net cash used in investing activities Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period Cash in hand Total Cash and Cash Equivalents	2025 £ 1,046,571 (1,038,386) 8,185 476,089 484,274 2025 £ 484,274 484,274	2024 £ (225,850) 270,340 (2,261) (2,724) 147,797 25,479 (67,325) 2,261	2024 £ 212,781 (65,064)
			147,717 328,372
			476,089
			2024 £ 476,089
			476,089

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CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

1 ACCOUNTING POLICIES

1.1 Basis of Preparation

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP 2015) (Second Edition, effective 1 January 2019) and the Companies Act 2006.

The charity meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note(s).

1.2 Going Concern

The trustees consider there are no material uncertainties about the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern. The review of our financial position, reserves levels and future plans gives trustees confidence the charity remains a going concern for the foreseeable future.

1.3 Income

All income is recognised once the charity has entitlement to income, it is probable that income will be received and the amount of income receivable can be measured reliably.

1.4 Expenditure

Expenditure is recognised in the period in which it is incurred and is allocated to the activities to which it relates. Where necessary a best estimate of allocation between activities is adopted.

The cost of raising funds comprises costs associated with generating funds including the cost of staff directly engaged in fundraising.

Charitable expenditure comprises costs directly attributable to running the Centre’s core charitable function as well as the other programmes run.

Governance costs are those associated with the governance of the charity, compliance with statutory obligations and costs related to the strategic management of the Charity.

Support costs are attributed to each activity and are apportioned on the basis of staff time spent.

1.5 Tangible fixed assets and depreciation

Tangible fixed assets are stated at cost less depreciation. Individual fixed assets costing £500 or more are capitalised

379-381 improvements 15 years Long leasehold improvements - specific offices 20% on cost Long leasehold premises 50 years Exhibits 8 years Furniture, Fittings & Equipment 25% on cost

Assets under the course of construction are not depreciated until the work is completed and the asset brought into use.

1.6 Leasing and hire purchase commitments

Rentals payable under operating leases are charged against income on a straight line basis over the period of the lease.

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CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

1 ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Continued)

1.7 Stock

Stock is valued at the lower of cost and net realisable value. Stock comprises materials used during workshops and refreshments and souvenirs for resale.

1.8

Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

1.9 Cash in bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments.

1.10 Creditors and provisions

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

1.11 Restricted funds

Restricted funds are funds received subject to specific conditions imposed by the donor.

1.12 Unrestricted funds

Unrestricted funds are funds which are expendable at the direction of the Trustees.

1.13 Employee benefits

Short term benefits

Short term benefits including holiday pay are recognised as an expense in the period in which the service is received.

Employee termination benefits

Termination benefits are accounted for on an accrual basis and in line with FRS 102.

1.14 Financial instruments

Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured. Financial assets held at amortised cost comprise cash at bank and in hand, together with trade and other debtors. A specific provision is made for debts for which recoverability is in doubt. Cash at bank and in hand is defined as all cash held in instant access bank accounts and used as working capital. Financial liabilities held at amortised cost comprise all creditors except social security and other taxes and provisions.

1.15 Critical accounting judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty

In the application of the accounting policies, trustees are required to make judgement, estimates, and assumptions about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and underlying assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised if the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods if the revision affected current and future periods.

Judgements made by the trustees, in the application of these accounting policies that have significant effect on the financial statements and estimates with a significant risk of material adjustment in the next year are deemed to be in relation to the depreciation rates of tangible fixed assets and are discussed above.

In the view of the trustees, no assumptions concerning the future or estimation uncertainty affecting assets or liabilities at the balance sheet date are likely to result in a material adjustment to their carrying amounts in the next financial year.

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CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

2 GRANTS AND CONTRACTS RECEIVABLE Analysis by Funder: Access Reach Fund Arts Council England BBC Children in Need Bruce Wake Trust Childhood Trust City Bridge CMS Cameron McKenna Cockayne Foundation D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Foyle Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation John Thaw Foundation London Borough of Newham London Borough of Walthamstow London City Airport Community Fund London Legacy Development Corporation Man Group plc Charitable Trust The Mercers' Company National Lottery Community Fund National Lottery Heritage Fund Paul Hamlyn Foundation Postcode Innovation Trust Tom Ap Rhys Pryce Memorial Trust The Wolfson Foundation Grants Contracts Capital Revenue	Unrestricted £ - 95,597 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 95,597 95,597 - 95,597 - 95,597 95,597	Restricted £ 14,922 494,500 - 2,000 - 79,648 750 50,000 3,500 75,000 250,000 1,000 44,662 2,046 3,000 31,720 50,000 68,859 - 24,384 44,000 125,000 5,000 - 1,369,991 1,287,813 82,178 1,369,991 1,049,710 320,281 1,369,991	2025 Total £ 14,922 590,097 - 2,000 - 79,648 750 50,000 3,500 75,000 250,000 1,000 44,662 2,046 3,000 31,720 50,000 68,859 - 24,384 44,000 125,000 5,000 - 1,465,588 1,383,410 82,178 1,465,588 1,049,710 415,878 1,465,588	2024 Total £ - 95,597 33,887 - 2,000 - - - - - - - 89,600 - - 12,060 40,000 - 43,022 30,481 44,000 - - 49,600
				440,247
				372,064 68,183
				440,247
				49,600 390,647
				440,247

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CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

2 GRANTS AND CONTRACTS RECEIVABLE Analysis by Funder: Arts Council England BBC Children in Need Childhood Trust London Borough of Newham London Legacy Development Corporation Man Group plc Charitable Trust National Lottery Community Fund National Lottery Heritage Fund Paul Hamlyn Foundation The Wolfson Foundation Grants Contracts Capital Revenue	Unrestricted £ 95,597 - 2,000 - - - - - - - 97,597 97,597 - 97,597 - 97,597 97,597	Restricted £ - 33,887 - 89,600 12,060 40,000 43,022 30,481 44,000 49,600 342,650 274,467 68,183 342,650 49,600 293,050 342,650	2024 Total £ 95,597 33,887 2,000 89,600 12,060 40,000 43,022 30,481 44,000 49,600
			440,247
			372,064 68,183
			440,247
			49,600 390,647
			440,247

3 DONATIONS AND GIFTS

DONATIONS AND GIFTS
Donations Gift Aid	2025 Total £ 37,678 3,901 41,579	2024 Total £ 16,754 3,106
		19,860

All donations and gifts were unrestricted.

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CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

4 OPERATION OF CENTRE AND OUTREACH

Family admissions School admissions Shop and café income Birthday party lettings Hire of space Community income Education and participation commissions	Unrestricted £ 820,178 76,761 210,989 26,909 11,849 13,829 6,895 1,167,410	Restricted £ - - - - - - - -	2025 Total £ 820,178 76,761 210,989 26,909 11,849 13,829 6,895 1,167,410	2024 Total £ 804,953 59,883 209,428 38,194 22,726 16,927 30,273
				1,182,384

The expenditure on operation of centre and outreach in 2024 was unrestricted.

5 NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)

The result for the year is stated after charging: Auditor's remuneration - Statutory Audit - Other audit services Depreciation	2025 Total £ 15,000 7,610 271,975	2024 Total £ 13,200 6,900 270,340

6 FUNDRAISING AND MARKETING

UNDRAISING AND MARKETING
Direct Costs Salaries Governance Costs Support Costs Direct Costs Salaries Governance Costs Support Costs	Fundraising £ 3,342 50,713 2,181 25,334	Marketing £ 31,385 37,097 1,596 18,532 88,610 Marketing £ 27,346 67,388 2,753 40,601 138,088	2025 Total £ 34,727 87,810 3,777 43,866 170,180 2024 Total £ 29,901 128,997 5,270 77,721 241,889	2024 Total £ 29,901 128,997 5,270 77,721
	81,570 Fundraising £ 2,555 61,609 2,517 37,120 103,801			241,889

Fundraising is mainly from Trusts and Foundations. Discover does not undertake street collections or cold calling.

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CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

7 EXPENDITURE

Direct Costs Direct Project Costs Temp/Consultancy Costs Salaries Governance Costs Staff costs Audit Other Support Costs Bank Charges Depreciation Insurance Building Costs Printing & Postage Professional Fees Stationery Telephone Direct Costs Direct Project Costs Temp/Consultancy Costs Salaries Governance Costs Staff costs Audit Other Support Costs Bank Charges Depreciation Insurance Building Costs Printing & Postage Professional Fees Stationery Telephone	Fundraising & Marketing £ 34,727 - 87,810 2,265 1,512 144 18,191 1,222 20,775 123 2,573 286 552 170,180 ~~166,458~~ Fundraising & Marketing £ 29,901 - 128,997 3,792 1,478 205 30,276 1,518 42,709 90 877 1,121 925 241,889	Development of Centre £ 907 9,995 49,238 1,270 848 81 10,200 685 24,534 69 1,443 160 309 99,739 ~~88,659~~ Development of Centre £ 2,025 26,693 71,178 2,093 816 113 16,706 837 23,566 50 484 619 510 145,690	Operations £ 424,189 - 1,030,582 26,583 17,749 1,695 213,496 14,347 243,823 1,438 30,199 3,353 6,478 2,013,932 ~~1,321,882~~ Operations £ 281,423 - 670,283 19,707 7,681 1,066 157,319 7,883 221,922 472 4,558 5,825 4,804 1,382,943	Outreach £ 52,164 - 145,240 3,746 2,501 239 30,088 2,022 34,362 203 4,256 473 913 276,207 ~~334,016~~ Outreach £ 57,041 - 281,367 8,273 3,224 448 66,039 3,309 93,157 198 1,913 2,445 2,017 519,431	Total 2025 £ 511,987 9,995 1,312,870 33,864 22,610 2,159 271,975 18,276 323,494 1,833 38,471 4,272 8,252 2,560,058 ~~1,911,018~~ Total 2024 £ 370,390 26,693 1,151,825 33,865 13,199 1,832 270,340 13,547 381,354 810 7,832 10,010 8,256 2,289,953	Total 2024 £ 370,390 26,693 1,151,825 33,865 13,199 1,832 270,340 13,547 381,354 810 7,832 10,010 8,256
						2,289,953

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CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

8 EMPLOYEES

The average number of employees during the year was as follows:

Number of Employees Direct Charitable Expenditure Fundraising and Publicity & Marketing Staff Costs Wages and Salaries Social Security Costs Pension Costs Senior Management Team salaries totalled Senior Management Team is composed of the following number of posts: Chief Executive Officer Interim Chief Executive Officer Finance Director Head of Development Head of Creative Programming Head of Creative Programming (Maternity Cover) Head of Operations Head of Marketing	2025 56 4 60 2025 £ 1,229,452 72,572 44,711 1,346,735 2025 £ 306,956 2025 1.0 0.6 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.8	2024 50 6
		56
		2024 £ 1,081,291 68,463 35,936
		1,185,690
		2024 £ 340,556 2024 1.0 - 0.6 0.8 1.0 - 1.0 0.8

There was one employee whose annual emoluments were £60,000 - £70,000 (2024: one).

There were no settlement areements (2024: £15,558) and no compromise agreements during the year (2024: nil).

9 TRUSTEES

No Trustees received any remuneration for the charity in the year. (2024: Vaseem Khan was paid £300 for services for Newham Word Festival).

10 RELATED PARTIES

There were no other related party transactions in the year. (2024: Vaseem Khan was paid £300 for services for Newham Word Festival).

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CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

11 TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

Cost or valuation At 31 March 2024 Additions At 31 March 2025 Depreciation At 31 March 2024 Charge in Year At 31 March 2025 Net book value At 31 March 2025 At 31 March 2024	Discover House £ 1,009,528 53,761 1,063,289 623,578 15,651 639,229 424,060 385,950 Leasehold	Discover Story Centre £ 4,484,821 948,394 5,433,215 2,481,552 214,884 2,696,436 2,736,779 2,003,269 Premises	Exhibition £ 515,947 38,669 554,616 412,613 36,263 448,876 105,740 103,333	Furniture, Fittings & Equipment £ 174,992 3,696 178,688 167,311 5,177 172,488 6,200 7,682	Total £ 6,185,288 1,044,520
					7,229,808
					3,685,054 271,975
					3,957,029
					3,272,779
					2,500,234

Net book value at 31 March 2025 represents fixed assets used for:

	Leasehold	Premises
	Discover	Discover		Computer
	House	Story Centre	Exhibition	Equipment	Total
	£	£	£	£	£
Direct charitable purposes
Operation of the Centre	-	2,736,779	105,740	6,200	2,848,719
Leased Property	424,060	-	-	-	424,060

The Sub-leased building represents expenditure on 379/381 High Street, Stratford which is a property subleased to Skills for Growth/Landmark on a 10 year lease from Oct 2015. The building improvements specifically for the tenant are being depreciated over the period of the lease.

The Sub-leased building was revalued at 11 October 2006 by Glenny LLP, Chartered Surveyors, on the basis of open market value at £985,000. This resulted in an unrealised impairment loss of £289,135 which was accounted for in the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2006. The Trustees do not believe that there has been a further permanent diminution in value since 11 October 2006.

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CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

12 DEBTORS

Trade debtors Rent / Service Charges Prepayments and accrued income CREDITORS: Amounts falling due within one year Taxes and social security costs Loans Repayments Other creditors Accruals and deferred income CREDITORS: Amounts falling due after one year Loan Repayments falling due 1-2 years Loan Repayments falling due 2-5 years Loan Repayments falling due after 5 years Total Loan Repayments falling due after 12 months Tennant Deposit falling due After 12 months Total Creditors Falling due After 12 months	2025 £ 18,177 24,298 49,755 92,230 2025 £ 16,950 14,198 69,960 29,409 130,517 2025 £ 28,772 89,465 54,499 172,736 42,000 214,736	2024 £ 25,021 56,904 81,680
		163,605
		2024 £ 33,289 - 54,304 25,373
		112,966
		2024 £ - - -
		- -
		-

13 CREDITORS: Amounts falling due within one year

14 DEFERRED INCOME

Total deferred income at 1 April 2024 Amounts realised in the year Deferred income in the year Total Deferred Income at 31 March 2025	2025 2024 £ £ 7,965 13,257 (7,965) (13,257) 5,910 7,965 5,910 7,965

15 SHARE CAPITAL

The company is limited by guarantee and does not have any share capital. Each member guarantees up to £5 payable in the event of a winding up under the terms of the Memorandum and Articles of Association.

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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

16 RESTRICTED FUNDS

Capital Project Community Projects Capital Project Community Projects	Balance at 1 Apr 2024 £ - 60,082 60,082 Balance at 1 Apr 2023 £ - 46,700 46,700	Income £ 1,049,710 338,281 1,387,991 Income £ 49,600 293,050 342,650	Expenditure £ (12,885) (302,457) (315,342) Expenditure £ - (279,668) (279,668)	Transfers £ (1,036,825) 7,075 (1,029,750) Transfers £ (49,600) - (49,600)	Balance at 31 Mar 2025 £ - 102,981
					102,981
					Balance at 31 Mar 2024 £ - 60,082
					60,082

The The Capital Project 2025 represents improvements to the Discover Building including installation of an air-source heat pump, lift replacement, basement toilet replacement, Creature on the Roof and the beginnings of the Roof Repairs, Insulation and a new Story Tree. It also includes a new Fire Alarm system for Discover House.

The Capital Project 2024 represents improvements to the lighting and windows of Discover Story Centre. The transfer of funds represents the capitalisation of the expenditure.

Community Projects represents income and expenditure in relation to promoting the objectives of the charity in the local area.

Transfer of Funds to Unrestestricted Designated Funds occur on Capital Projects once the conditions of the funding has been met.

Tranfers of Funds from Unrestricted Funds occur when expenditure exceeds the restricted funds raised for Community Projects.

17 DESIGNATED FUNDS

Building Fund Building Fund	Balance at 1 Apr 2024 £ 2,500,234 2,500,234 Balance at 1 Apr 2023 £ 2,703,246 2,703,246	New Designations £ 14,770 14,770 New Designations £ 17,728 17,728	Expenditure £ (271,975) (271,975) Expenditure £ (270,340) (270,340)	Transfers £ 1,029,750 1,029,750 Transfers £ 49,600 49,600	Balance at 31 Mar 2025 £ 3,272,779
					3,272,779
					Balance at 31 Mar 2024 £ 2,500,234
					2,500,234

The Strategic Fund is for essential maintenance and repairs of the building and garden. The Building Fund represents the net book value of the tangible fixed assets held at 31 March 2025.

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CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (Continued) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

18 ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BETWEEN FUNDS

ANALYSIS OF NET ASSETS BETWEEN FUNDS
Fund balances at 31 March 2025 are represented by: Fixed Assets Current Assets Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Creditors Amounts Falling due after one year Fund balances at 31 March 2024 are represented by: Fixed Assets Current Assets Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Creditors Amounts Falling due after one year	Unrestricted Funds £ - 484,464 (130,517) (214,736) 139,211 321,218 Unrestricted Funds £ - 589,138 (112,966) (32,000) 444,172	Designated Funds £ 3,272,779 - - - 3,272,779 3,756,734 Designated Funds £ 2,500,234 - - 2,500,234	Restricted Funds £ - 102,981 - - 102,981 117,955 Restricted Funds £ - 60,082 - 60,082	Total Funds £ 3,272,779 587,445 (130,517) (214,736)
				3,514,971
				4,093,313 Total Funds £ 2,500,234 649,220 (112,966) (32,000)
				3,004,488

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CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTRE EAST LONDON STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

19 STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES - 2024 INCOME Income and endowments from: Donations and Legacies Grants Receivable Donations and Gifts Charitable Activities Operation of Centre and Outreach Other Trading Activities Contract Income Investments Rents Receivable Interest Receivable Other Income Total Income EXPENDITURE Expenditure on: Raising Funds Fundraising and Marketing Charitable Activities Development of the Centre Operation of the Centre and Outreach Total Expenditure Net income/(expenditure) Transfer between funds Net movement in funds Fund Balances brought forward at 1 April 2023 Fund Balances carried forward at 31 March 2024	Unrestricted Funds £ 97,597 19,860 1,182,384 - - 342,482 2,261 76,869 1,721,453 241,889 145,690 1,622,706 2,010,285 (288,832) 49,600 (239,232) 3,183,638 2,944,406	Restricted Total Funds 2024 £ £ 274,467 372,064 - 19,860 - 1,182,384 68,183 68,183 - - - 342,482 - 2,261 - 76,869 342,650 2,064,103 - 241,889 - 145,690 279,668 1,902,374 279,668 2,289,953 62,982 (225,850) (49,600) - 13,382 (225,850) 46,700 3,230,338 60,082 3,004,488

46