The Goodwin Academy, Hamilton Road, Deal, Kent CT14 9BD T: 07872 536936 Registered Charity No: 1079023 ## **Treetops Annual General Meeting Monday 11[th] November 2024** ## 1. Welcome ## 2. Apologies ## 3. Introductions 4. Over of the past year 2023-2024: - Fundraising Report – Anna Hackett - Treasurer’s report – Anna Hackett - Manager’s report – Jo Gunne - Chair’s report – Laura Newing 5. Treetops Management Committee - What, why and who ## 6. Resignations 7. Election of Committee for 2024-2025 - Chair Person - Vice Chair - Committee Members ## 8. Any Other Business **Minutes of the Meeting – AGM 2024 11/11/2024 @ 7:30pm Taken by Anna Hackett** Meeting held online via Microsoft Teams. - **Welcome** from Laura Newing (Chair Person) and a reminder of confidentiality. - **Present:** Suzy T / Joanne G / Anna H / Laura N/ Sarah B / Susannah G / Michelle L / Alex L / Chris / Millie G - **Apologies:** Naomi & Beth ## • **Over-view of the Year September 2023 – September 2024** Fund-raising Report – Anna Hackett attached Treasurers Report – Anna Hackett attached Supervisor’s Report – Joanne Gunne attached Chair’s Report – Laura Newing attached ## • **The Committee for 2024– 2025** Laura explained how the Committee works, its roles and responsibilities, and led the following process / discussion. ## **Resignations EY3** - Susie G and Megan M ## **Election of Committee for 2024– 2025** ## **Packs out to new members** - Chair Person Laura Newing - Vice-chair Suzy Tigwell - Treasurer Anna Hackett - Secretary Naomi Douglas - Committee Members: Joanne Gunne; Sarah Birkett; Michelle Lawrence. - All committee members voted and agreed to the above positions (no change from the previous year). ## • **AOB** - The committee may look at Co-Opting other members at the next committee meeting. **Meeting ended at 9pm** ## **Treasurer’s Report for End of Financial Year 2024** Closing Bank balances - 31/08/2024 **Current £19969.34** covers day to day running costs. **Reserve £30079.08 Fundraising £504.48 Holding £6274.30** ## **Income:** |**ncome:**|| |---|---| |Collaboration Money|**£ -**| |DAF Money|**£ 5,960.00**| |Donations|**£ 75.00**| |FF2 Funding|**£ 44,767.60**| |Fund Raising|**£ 1,445.49**| |Funding|**£ 124,746.28**| |Grant Money|**£ 2,973.51**| |Interest|**£ 217.99**| |Lunch Money|**£ 55.57**| |Parental Fees|**£ 11,258.65**| |Pupil premium money|**£ 3,433.82**| |Refunds|**£ -**| |SENIF Funding|**£ 36,122.03**| |Training In|**£ -**| |Trip Money In|**£ -**| |Misc|**£ 4,722.67**| Misc in includes: £1674.42 refund of legal fees; £3000 Money from KCC ; £48.25 was raised for the NSPCC on World Number Day. |**Expenditure:**|| |---|---| |Activity Items|**-£ 617.16**| |Bank Charges|**-£ 188.50**| |Rent|**-£ 6,474.27**| |Collaboration Money|**£ -**| |Consumables|**-£ 2019.35**| |DAF Resources|**£ -**| |DBS Checks|**-£ 56.60**| |Equip.& Repairs|**-£ 5,786.69**| |Food|**-£ 305.76**| |Fund Raising Out|**-£ 1,187.58**| |Gardening /|| |Maintenance|**-£ 483.00**| |Gifts|**£ -**| |Grant Money Out|**-£ 735.20**| |Initial Hygiene|**-£ 632.88**| |Insurance|**-£ 722.13**| |---|---| |Lunch Money|**-£ 54.72**| |OfSted Fees|**£ -**| |Pension|**-£ 4,529.88**| |Phone|**-£ 311.83**| |Postage|**-£ 18.90**| |Prof. Fees|**-£ 110.00**| |Pupil Premium Money|| |Out|**£ -**| |SEND Resources|**£ -**| |Tax / NI Payments|**-£ 4,304.28**| |Training|**-£ 716.50**| |Travel|**£ -**| |Trip Money Out|**£ -**| |Wages|**-£ 151,707.44**| |Website Hosting|**-£ 5.99**| |Misc|**-£ 380.75**| Misc Out was spent on: -£ 48.25 NSPCC fundraising -£ 332.50 Fees paid to another nursery The changes we made to our opening hours to make us sustainable have enabled us to transfer funds back into our reserve account. After the last couple of years, we had used almost all of our reserve funds to cover our running costs. We are now in a position to have put funds back into our reserve account so we can cover any costs should we need to close. We also plan to use some of our funds for sheds / buildings for our garden. ## **Next Year:** We will continue to monitor finances next year to ensure we remain sustainable. Fundraising Report 2023/2024 ## by Anna Hackett There has been no Fundraising Sub-Committee again this year, instead fundraising ideas have been discussed and agreed at Treetops Committee Meetings. During the year we raised a total of £1445.49. £66.50 was raised through the Raffle Fundraiser £70 was donated by Charities Trust £130 was raised through Dover Lotto £214.50 was raised by an Easter Fundraiser. This was matched by the Charities Trust giving us another £214.50. The resources for the Easter Fundraiser cost £90.26. £699.99 was raised for us by the Deal Rotary Pirates. £50 was raised for us by one of the children doing a sponsored walk. A total of £1187.58 of fundraising was spent on: £119.90 on Tonies £75.63 on garden resources £399 climbing frame £502.79 new bikes £90.26 spent on resources for the Easter Fundraiser The rest of the money will be carried forward to next year. Fundraising ideas for the Year 2024 / 2025 will be discussed after the AGM. ## **Manager’s Report AGM September 2023 to August 2024** After a challenging 2023, the Management Committee made a big decision to change our opening hours allowing us to take children for 30 hours per week. In a time when we saw two local nurseries close, we were making the decision to expand our hours. A decision that we hoped would ensure that Treetops Pre-school could remain open and return to a position of financial stability. As a direct result, we had more children joining our already busy pre-school. We had to close our admissions list and say, ‘we are full’. As with all change we knew there would be challenges ahead and as a team we worked through them. I want to say a massive thank you to the staff team for embracing the change to being open 9-3pm everyday; for working more hours and not complaining. The phrase ‘It’s not easy, is it’ was one we heard regularly, and I was even presented with a sweatshirt with it on! Last year saw the start of the ‘Keyperson What’s App Groups’ for parents and carers. A quick way to share information about what was going on in the setting – sharing the weekly themes, snack items needed and more. During the year we continued to provide a wide range of experiences for the children. These included: - Sensory art activities - Baking - Planting pumpkin seeds - Being outdoors in all weathers - My Child’s Art - Junk modelling linked to books - Learning to use a brailling machine - Turn-taking with our friends with the advent calendar - Decorating the Christmas tree - Dressing up - Making bird feeders - Watching ‘Grandma magpie and Steven the seagull’ everyday - Big outdoor art - Exploring the meadow - The ducklings - A visit from Kent Police PC Jon and PC Joel with a police car - Walks to the library - Bernard the tortoise came too - Number Day to raise money for the NSPCC - Leap Year Frog Day - Red Nose Day - Children in Need - World Book Day and drop in sessions for parents - Our Pirate Picnic - And more! The ‘big storm’ hit us in October, and we had to close for the day to make access to the building safe. We had a second tree down in the Spring Term and another half day closure. The Committee decided to spend some of the money we had built up to get the trees cut back. A big thank you to Mark from SIKA (and his team) for his generous reduction in our bill for this job. The trees are now safe, and we hope for no repeat in the next high winds. Following successful Christmas and Easter fundraising events we were able to buy a Tonie Box and characters and two new bikes! Being open all day everyday does cause more wear and tear to the resources. Thank you to everyone who donated so we could have these new items! Thank you to Father Christmas and his Elf for joining us too. Laura, the Committee Chair has worked hard for us this year. Securing grants for food items and a larger project in the ‘big garden’. After a long wait we could at last have our new climbing frame. Another big thank you to Nick Jennings for spending a Saturday to put the new climbing frame up. We love it! We had money for chalk and colourful plant pots. Laura also forged links with the ‘Pirates’ who came and helped clear and tidy the garden. The Pirates created ‘Bug Hotels’ and ‘Bird Boxes’ for our garden. The ‘big garden’ has become a wonderful space and both classes enjoy spending time there whatever the weather! I completed my Level 3 Early Years SENCo qualification after all these years. Changes to how Speech Therapy works in our area – a balanced approach. Conker Class staff team all trained in the Nuffield Early Language Intervention known as ‘NELI’. We secured this place for Treetops as a direct result of the links I made during my Level 3 course. I can honestly say that the training and 20 week programme were amazing. As a team we have decided that we will be running this again starting in January 2025 for Conker class. Watch this space! Rhianne had a beautiful little girl – Vienna and we will look forward to her re-joining the staff team during 2025. We have started September 2024, with financial stability and we are full until September 2025. Our list was full in March 2024 for this school year. We have no places available until September 2025. The list has started to fill! Conker class is the fullest it has ever been. Acorn class will be at capacity before Spring. It all looks good for us. We have dusted ourselves down and feel proud of all we have achieved for the children and families we serve. This year we are due our routine inspection and hope we can show Ofsted just what we as a team do day to day. Until then we have events planned for parents to get involved in. ‘Get back up again!’ Song from Trolls Report written by Jo Gunne 11[th] November 2024 Treetops AGM – 11[th] November 2024 - Academic Year September 2023-August 2024 Chair’s Report by Laura Newing Welcome everyone and thank you for giving us your time for this year’s Treetops Annual General Meeting. Treetops has seen some real challenges in the last few years, changes that have brought good things and some which have caused worry, but the amazing staff have always rallied to keep our setting the most loving, warm and safe place for everyone we care for. At the end of the summer term of 2023, our finances were not in a good way, if things didn’t change Treetops would have been facing an uncertain future. The committee and staff came together with open minds and some great ideas, we opened for more hours and welcomed more children into the setting, with some staff making temporary sacrifices to keep Treetops moving forwards until the finances were recovered. Thanks to these efforts we are now in a position where the setting is financially stable and we have returned the emergency reserve account to a suitable level. The staff at Treetops, as always, have shown great care, intuition and brilliant teamwork, creating excellent curriculums for their key children, keeping the setting safe and welcoming, and have always been ready to learn more via training courses and engaging with one another to share ideas. Rhianne from Acorns went on maternity leave in March and welcomed a baby girl to their family in June, we send them our congratulations and look forward to her return. As a small staff team in the Acorns class, Jade, Sarah and Lucy took on extra hours to support Millie and Beth in the room, we also welcomed Lisa to the staff team before the year was through. Treetops had a fire safety inspection which turned up some issues. The staff worked together to help with a big clear out and to complete jobs to ensure the setting meets safety standards. We have had some wonderful community involvement at Treetops this year. We were very fortunate to be chosen by the Deal Pirates, a fundraising and community action organisation, to be one of their Charities of the Year. Through this they have supported us with many hands on deck in the garden, along with some super parents, working on clearing away the brambles and nettles and putting up fencing, which was funded via a grant from Deal Town Council. They built and installed some wonderful bug hotels that the children have enjoyed seeing become inhabited by the resident creepy crawlies, all under the watchful eye of Grandma Magpie in the garden! They joined us for our Pirate Picnic, putting lots of the parents and children in their pillory, though I think Jo managed to avoid capture this year!? They also raised money for us through their Pirates treasure Hunt in the summer and gave us a cheque for over £500! – This will be used to finish the fencing in the garden in the coming year. We also received a grant of £400 in the spring from the Deal Ice Breakers, an arm of the Rotary Group, to buy a wonderful new climbing frame, with swings and a slide for the children, this was constructed by an ex treetops parent Nick and we’re grateful for his continuing support. We had a large grant in January from Dover District Council for our Lunch Club, it enabled us to purchase yoghurts, fruit, juices and hot lunches for any of our children who needed a little top up and we used some of this funding to provide small parcels for some families needing a little extra support in the summer. We had great fun and raised some money at Easter with a family fun day! An egg hunt in the garden, a raffle with prizes and a guess the name of the toy game. The money went towards two new Trikes for the garden. The summer term saw the delivery of ducklings which always delights the children and staff and anyone who can find some obscure or tenuous reason to visit during those two weeks! We even found time to raise money for other charities, including the NSPCC, Red Nose Day and Children in Need, which gives our children an understanding of supporting others. It’s been a pleasure to continue in my role as the Chair of the Management Committee, working with the rest of the committee, Jo, Anna and all the staff at Treetops is always rewarding, fun and entertaining. So to end my time tonight, I want to thank last year’s committee, some who will remain and some that will step away as their children move onto big school and I hope to see some new parents and carers join us this year to support the fabulous staff team and help keep Treetops the most special preschool around. callabnti￿ Mrrny P5.IX¢ FF3 Fundlryj Fund R•bslNJ Fur￿l￿j Gfarrt .4TJ W4&> 4y¥¥i .'i• LL¥*hM ParenulFe•5 Pupil premiumm R•fvnds SENIF Fundi Tr•inir#J Trip Mlsc Tot•1 Inc¢7m• '4b.¥ .05 433.oa 33.01 36,2￿3 34L73nJ Js449 pJi.67 aJ&774.k Activity It•m5 9•rtkch•￿> R•nt y.J bA?4JP DAF Mwey ¢JDI 08S Ch•ck5 Eqvlp.& R•p•lrs 46.99 &7•6.69 5Je6.69 Jo> 287.50 163.71 9)8.x3 Funo Raislr¥JOut G•rd•nirylM•wrt•nanr• Grfts Gr•nt Mwout )rti•l Hy9¢r hyur•rK• LvrKh Mc•MyO OfSiodF•15 Pensl TJ5.10 6>3. X3 .3xk14 Postsp Prof. Fee5 Pupil Pr•rniurn Nkfftyout SEND Re50ur