Overton Community Centre Winchester Street Overton RG25 3HS Tel: 01256 770370 Registered Charity 1075540
ANNUAL REPORT 2021-2022
Legal and Administrative Information
Charity Name Overton Playgroup Also known as Overton Preschool Playgroup Registered charity no: 1075540 For the financial year beginning on 1[st] September 2021 For the financial year ending on 31[st] August 2022 Charity’s principal address Community Centre Winchester Street Overton Hampshire RG25 3HS
Governing Document Early Years Alliance (was Preschool Learning Alliance) Preschool Constitution 2011, approved by the members at a General Meeting held on 19[th] September 2012
Objects of the Charity To enhance the development and education of children primarily under statutory school age by encouraging parents to understand and provide for the needs of their children through community groups.
Professional Advisers
Georgina Jackson (Accounts Administrator)
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Introduction to Overton Preschool Playgroup
Overton Playgroup has been in the heart of the village of Overton for 41 years, providing care and education to local children by our qualified and experienced staff. We are registered to care for 26 children from age two at the Community Centre setting and 18 children from age three at the Overton Primary School setting in any one session. Last year we were able to provide places for 60 children at both our Community Centre and School settings (33 and 27 respectively).
Overview
We have had a very successful year at Overton Preschool Playgroup, and are very happy that we have been able to return to operating as normal after the government declared end of Covid restrictions earlier this year.
We began the year optimistic to embrace the new normal, with our finances in good shape despite our various interruptions of the previous year. Both our settings continued to provide a safe-haven for our children to get back to what they do best: play and learn, while the government gave the Chair and Manager plenty of extra reading with ever changing covid rules and advice.
However, we still faced challenges through the year with both our settings having to close due to separate cases of covid - and storm Eunice! I remember saying this last year, but it is still 100% true this year – I am proud to say that we were able to support our children and keep our closures to the absolute minimum, thanks to our wonderful staff who worked in a different setting or on a different day to enable us to stay open as much as we did. They all truly shone in difficult circumstances.
Our staff worked unstintingly to ensure our children’s time at Playgroup and Preschool was as normal as possible, full of education, fun and outdoor play in all weathers. They also supported our big initiative of the year, the Octopus Challenge, which we successfully completed and earned our Plastic Free status as well as teaching children and their families more about reducing, reusing and recycling. On top of this, we finished the year with a profit which we look forward to investing in new equipment for both settings.
The professionalism, hard work, dedication and positivity of the staff made this year one to remember.
Stafng
We are extremely lucky to have such an experienced, hardworking and well-qualified team at Overton Preschool Playgroup, led since 2000 by Amanda Igo.
We have 4 salaried staff and 4 sessional staff.
| Leader - | Amanda Igo NNEB NVQ4 |
|---|---|
| Room Leaders - | Angela Cowperthwaite NVQ3 |
| Linda Shanks NVQ3 | |
| Keypersons - | Hazel Duncombe NVQ3 |
| Leanne Britton NVQ3 | |
| Clare Miller | |
| SENCO - | Eva Jones NVQ3 |
| Preschool Assistant | Laura Enters BSc Social Policy |
Clare Miller started as keyperson in September and has had a great first year with us.
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Helen Wragg resigned her position at the end of the autumn term and has been missed by staff, committee and children alike. Laura Enters began as Bank staff in December, and we were very happy that she decided to become a Preschool Assistant earlier this year and will become a keyperson this year.
All our Keypersons and have assigned a number of children for whom they have particular responsibility helping them settle quickly, assisting him or her in activities and keeping the parent or carer informed of the child’s progress. The Keyperson keeps a record of each child’s progress by making regular observations, which are noted in the child's Learning Journey and a play plan is then formulated according to each child’s needs.
Professional Development
Angela Cowperthwaite and Linda Shanks have continued in their roles as Room Leader at the two settings, also acting as the Safeguarding officer in their respective settings.
It has been difficult to maintain the level of training usually completed, due to lockdowns and changes to training opportunities, but the staff has used the Services for Young Children online learning platform to keep up to date with safeguarding and the new reformed EYFS. Amanda has continued to access the provider briefer meetings, Angela has accessed safeguarding meetings, Linda has attended birth to 4 meetings and Eva has attended her SENCO meetings. Inset days continue to be used to reflect Playgroup and Preschool practice and as a result of the pandemic staff have joined lots of social media early years groups where they have been able to share ideas, new information and latest updates.
Quality Assurance
There were no visits from Ofsted, and so we retain our Outstanding rating at both of our settings, as ever working to the highest standards.
Enrolment
The year began strongly, with Preschool full right from the start and a good number of children registered for Playgroup. Flexible start dates and options supported this, and we attracted a number of newcomers to the village as well as younger siblings from families we have previously known.
For the coming academic year, we have 56 children on our register so far, 28 for each setting, with Preschool full and many children attending 5 days a week. Playgroup is also busier than previous years in September, as some children who turned two last spring or summer term started then, rather than waiting for September, which should lead to a more settled start to the new academic year.
We offer a flexible variety of session times at both the Community Centre and school settings and are well set up to welcome children from the age of two. We accept applications from birth. As a charity, it is always our intention to provide Early Years’ Education to as many local children as our space and ratios allow and this will continue to be a driving factor when deciding upon session times. We are also pleased to be able to offer the Government 30 hours funding for eligible 3 and 4 year olds.
Playgroup and Preschool settings
We benefit from having two separate classrooms in two different locations; Playgroup in the heart of the village within the Community Centre and Preschool based within Overton Primary School. Since Covid, Preschool continues to flex to fit in with the staggered start and finish times at Overton Primary School and Playgroup children enter our Playgroup room via the garden.
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Overton Playgroup and the local Community
As we are located at the heart of the village, we feel very central to the community and have missed the level of involvement we have had in previous years, due to social restrictions lifting slowing after Covid-19. However, we managed to hold one community event, our May Fair, in the Community Centre in May this year, which was wonderfully supported by our children, their parents, previous children and parents and the community as a whole. A great way to restart our in-person fundraising events which we hope to organise more of this year.
We have continued with our monthly feature in the Test Magazine, broadening our subject range to activities to enjoy with our children during all sorts of weathers and times of year, our participation in Light Up Overton at Christmas, and how to help children transition – whether to join us at Playgroup or Preschool or whether starting at “big school”. The best advice given being to enjoy an ice-cream or iced lolly when it gets hot!
We also worked with the children and their families on our Octopus Challenge, inspired by the work of Plastic Free Overton and Sustainable Overton to look at what we do in our settings. We pledged to make changes such as reducing our use of single use plastic by encouraging our children to bring reusable water bottles, reusing plastic, e.g. yogurt pots that come in our children’s packed lunches as glue and paint pots, and recycling our old toys at our fundraising May Fair event. We are pleased to share that we have gained our Plastic Free status.
Parent Management Committee
Overton Preschool Playgroup is managed by a voluntary Parent Management Committee, which is an essential part of Overton Preschool Playgroup. They not only manage and organise the fundraising activities throughout the year but they also act as Trustees for Playgroup (which is a Registered Charity) and oversee the staff, finances and administration.
The Committee consists of three officers (Chair, Secretary and Treasurer) and no fewer than two and not more than nine other elected members. Committee members are elected for one year at the Annual General Meeting. The Committee are able to co-opt a further three members, during the course of the year. A list of the charity Trustees for 2020/2021 is detailed at the end of this report.
The Management Committee have continued to meet on a monthly basis through the year to ensure the smooth running of the business carrying out functions including:
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Banking and Petty Cash
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Health and Safety risk assessments
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Fundraising and events
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Website and social media management
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Newsletters
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PR
Events and fundraising
We successfully ran a number of fundraisers, with our events and fundraising team working very hard to ensure our Christmas cards, sponsored bike ride and May Fair raised vital funds to invest back into our settings for our children. A special mention must go to one of our parents, Josh, who cycled 100 miles to raise funds for us.
Funds raised by the charity are spent directly on resources to enrich the learning environment for the children. In addition to the events mentioned a second ago, we
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have maximised income from passive fundraising by promoting schemes such as Amazon Smile and Easy Fundraising.
The Southern Coop chose us to be their charity partner for another year from April, which was great news. We are very pleased that they have selected us again for this coming year, thank you to Stuart and the Coop for your support.
Parent Survey
Responses to the Parent Questionnaire were universally positive, reflecting the understanding and respect that the parents have for the staff and the dedication the staff put into the children’s welfare and enjoyment of their time at Overton Preschool Playgroup. Suggestions for improvements have been reviewed and actioned where practical.
The committee will continue to prioritise open and relevant communication with parents and carers, and actively look for ways to improve this.
Some examples of comments from the questionnaire:
“We chose Overton Preschool Playgroup because, quite simply, playgroup seemed like a very happy place where all the children were having fun- a first impression which has proved to be absolutely true.”
“The staff have done so incredibly well to continually provide a great experience for our child through all the challenges associated with the pandemic.”
“3 children of my own have attended this playgroup/preschool over the last 9years and they have always been amazing and attended to each child in a way that the child’s needs were met.”
We are very grateful to the commitment of the parents for their time and dedication to Overton Preschool Playgroup. In addition to the committee members, we would also like to thank all the parents who helped in various ways including supporting our fundraising, as parent helpers or supplying fruit for snack time.
Thank yous
At this point I would like to say a big thank you to those members of the Parent Management Committee who are standing down from the Committee this evening. Your support, hours volunteered, positivity, enthusiasm and help have been very much appreciated. By me as the Chair over a very trying couple of years, and I’m sure Amanda and the staff will not mind me thanking you on their behalf – for allowing them to concentrate on what they do best, letting our children experiment, learnt, thrive and have fun.
We mustn’t forget those Committee members who will stay on this year and any parent who volunteers their time to us. Thank you from all of us. We could not do what we do so well without you.
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- CHARITY TRUSTEES 2019 2020
| Name of Trustees | Dates during which named trustees acted, if not during the whole period of this report |
Method of appointment or election |
|---|---|---|
| Susannah Teixeira, Chair |
Re-elected at AGM 2021 |
|
| Sarah Hands, Treasurer |
Re-elected at AGM 2021 |
|
| Amy Smith, Secretary | Re-elected at AGM 2021 |
|
| Beth Wilkes | Elected at AGM 2021 | |
| Chris Shaw | Re-elected at AGM 2021 |
|
| Claire Whitlam | Re-elected at AGM 2021 |
|
| Emma Booth | Re-elected at AGM 2021 |
|
| Emma Riggs | Re-elected at AGM 2021 |
|
| Georgie Corlett-Pitt | Elected at AGM 2021 | |
| KatyDibbern | June2022 to date | Co-opted June2022 |
| Lucy Quick | Re-elected at AGM 2020 |
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