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← The Friends Of Caldecott Primary School

2024-03-31-accounts

Trustees Annual Report The Friends of Caldecott Primary School Financial year April 2023 to March 2024

Charity Name: The Friends of Caldecott Primary School Registered Charity Number: 1104594 Address: Caldecott Primary School, Caldecott Road, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 5HB Phone: 01235 523132 Email: friends@caldecott.sch.uk Trustee Names: Sarah Warrick, Jade-Natasha Evans, Nicola Hutt and Miriam Mutizwa Names of elected committee: President – Katy Walsh (Head teacher Caldecott Primary School) Joint Chair – Henri Salter-Collins/ Eleanor Britton Secretary – Sarah Warrick/Jade Evans Treasurer – Becky Norris/Shaista Saeed

Gross income April 2023 to March 2024 - £33.15k Expenditure April 2023 to March 2024 - £6.55k

Governing Document:

The Friends of Caldecott is governed by constitution. The aim is to advance the education of pupils at Caldecott Primary School. This constitution was adopted on the 26[th] May 2004.

Constitution:

We are a small charity registered with the charity commission. We have a committee of elected volunteers that oversee the general running of events and fundraising. We are overseen by the head teacher of Caldecott Primary School in order to ensure funds are used appropriately to further the education of pupils within the school. Our elected committee is supported by a wider group of volunteers. All parents/carers of children at the school and all school staff are automatically included in our membership with membership also open to the wider local community. Each year at our AGM the committee steps down and a new committee is elected by the general membership. Decisions within the Friends of Caldecott are made collectively by the committee members through a majority vote with communication with the school to ensure we are meeting need. There are no paid employees within our organisation and no members or trustees hold funds or assets on the charity's behalf.

Charity Trustee selection:

Charity Trustees are elected from the general membership at the Annual General Meeting.

Summary of charity objectives:

The Friends of Caldecott Primary school is a charitable organisation set up to support the school and advance the education of the pupils attending it. We provide and assist in the provision of such facilities or items for education at the school (not provided for by statutory funds) as the committee sees fit.

Activities and Objectives:

Summer Fair 2023

This was the final event for our previous committee. The summer fair is a much loved institution at Caldecott Primary with the whole community parents, children and staff coming together. Throughout our events we face the challenge of acknowledging the demographic of our schools community and ensuring we offer events that are inclusive for all. Whilst we wish to raise funds we are also committed to ensuring as many families as possible are able to take part treading a fine

balance between profit and affordability. The school community came together on a lovely, sunny day to play games, beat the goalie in our football fun, partake in tombolas, get glitter tattoos, explore a summer trail around the school, and eat lots of burgers and ice cream! Not to mention bouncing till they couldn't jump any more on the fantastic bouncy inflatables provided by Elite. We were lucky enough to be sponsored by some great local companies including Turner Heating which really helped keep our costs down and allowed all the children to have an amazing day.

Clothing recycling and School Uniform shop

Every year we encourage our families to have a clothing clear out and bring their bags of old good quality clothes down to the school where they are collected by an outside company to raise school funds. We love the sustainability of recycling alongside our fundraising. This year we commenced an initiative to collect our school clothes alongside this and wash, organise and resell these within the community. We have also been making bundles from our donated clothes for those who have fallen on hard times to ensure even if you can not afford to buy uniform you can have a selection of outfits that match your peers. These initiatives have proved really popular amongst the families attending Caldecott Primary and we hope to continue supporting our school population with cheap uniform options over the coming years. As well as teaching our children within the school about sustainability – reduce, reuse, recycle!

School Disco

One of the favourite staff events throughout the year is the annual school disco. The teachers and teaching assistants love an opportunity to pop on their dancing shoes and have a boogie alongside the pupils with all the best hits of the year alongside some retro classics being shared. From our youngest kids strutting their moves to the Frozen soundtrack right through to our oldest kids enjoying Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift the whole school love to come together to drink excessive amounts of squash and dance till their feet hurt.

Christmas Celebrations

At Caldecott School we love the festive season and we always come together to celebrate. In October we get the children to create their Christmas art this is sent off and turned into beautiful cards and gifts available for their families to buy and share. Who can resist a fingerprint Christmas tree or a drawing of Santa getting stuck up the chimney? We then enjoy our Christmas fair and raffle. Another great community event where children can see Santa at the Santa's grotto (a big thank you to the Abingdon Lions Club who send Santa to visit us every year), buy presents for their family from our external stall holders, create decorations for the tree, make food for the reindeers, and play lots of fun Christmas inspired games. The Friends of Caldecott ensure every child in the Early Years and Foundation stage within the school gets a wrapped story book from Santa every Christmas. These are delivered to the classrooms by the elves during the children's Christmas parties and they love having a little gift to take home helping to encourage a love of reading in our smallest children.

Easter Activities

This year we trialled a new fundraising idea with the creation of our Easter Activity packs. These included a fun selection of competitions from colouring to photography the winners of which earned themselves some tasty Easter treats. The children had a great time competing and the Abingdon Camera Club were really impressed by the skill shown by our young photographers.

Freeze pop Fridays, and Easter and Halloween treats

Throughout the year we top up our funds with a few playground treat sales. The children love a tasty after school snack be it and ice lolly on a hot summer day or a chocolate treat at Easter.

Grant from Christ's Hospital of Abingdon

In November 2023, an application was made to Christ's Hospital of Abingdon; this charitable organisation funds the support of local organisations deemed by the Governors to be of benefit to

Abingdon townsfolk. They granted an amazing £22,400 in January 2024 to cover: Reflooring EYFS playground to replace dangerous, broken paving slabs, regeneration of play equipment including the mud kitchen, removal of the sand pit which was a health and safety concern, and demarcation of the year 1 free flow play area on the main playground.

Achievements:

Early Years and Foundation Playground Phase 1

The funds received from Christ's Hospital of Abingdon alongside our school fundraising efforts have been used to start the renovations on the Early years and Foundation playground. The space is absolutely rejuvenated with useable space and new play equipment. The refurbishment will continue into the 2024-25 financial year with phase 2 of the project helping to improve our outdoor space. There is a great deal of research into the benefits of outdoor play in the early years and we are very pleased to be able to support our young people to have the best start in life.

Claire's Memorial Garden

Sadly this year we lost our Friends of Caldecott Chair: Claire Routledge to her battle with cancer. She has formed an integral part of our committee for many years and her support and dedication to the charity and the school could not go unmarked. We worked with her family and the school to place a memorial garden in the school grounds with a bench to commemorate her amazing work. Claire's garden forms a beautiful quiet space for the children to use when school is overwhelming and they need a quiet space to think. We hope it is used for many years to come and the flowers planted grow to provide a reflective space in nature for those who need it.

School trips

Every year we aim to provide funding for every child in the school to attend trips and experiences which may be too expensive for families to afford without the support of the Friends of Caldecott. Every child in every year group gets a donation towards the trips for that year in order to keep prices affordable. This year our nursery and reception children were supported to have the fantastic Farmer Gows bring their farm animals to the school playground from turkeys loose in the playground to bottle feeding lambs the children had a wonderful experience they all enjoyed. Trips for our other year groups included a day out at Bournemouth beach for the year 2's, a night away at Youlbury Activity Centre for the year 4's where they tested their bravery abseiling, zipwiring and completing the high ropes course, a trip to stay in a castle in year 5 where the children learnt to make wax candles and enjoyed a medieval feast, and many fantastic events for our year 6 leavers including an amazing trip to London to explore our Capital.

Sports Kits

This year we have also been able to fund the provision of a Caldecott Sports kit for our teams to compete in when at competitions with other schools from the local area. With a dedicated kit they now look exceptional as they put in their best performances at cross country, football, netball and other brilliant sporting experiences.

Ongoing Commitments/charity reserves:

With our fundraising efforts across the year we are careful to ensure we set aside money for our ongoing commitments to the school which include school trips provision each year, provision of books for the early years, and a sinking fund for replacement of the trim trail which needs renewing every 10-15 years. We also plan to continue our work improving the outdoor spaces throughout the school as we move into the 2024-25 financial year. We are currently holding in reserve funds for this ongoing outdoor space redevelopment.

Funds in Deficit:

The Friends of Caldecott Primary School does not have any funds in deficit.

Signatures:

This report was prepared by Sarah Warrick (Trustee of the Friends of Caldecott) and is signed of behalf of all Friends of Caldecott Primary School trustees.

£16,172

£30,145

Bank Balance at start of School Year 1[st] September 2023 Closing Bank Balance at end of School Year 31[st] July 2024

Donations & other Income:

£22,520

£22,420

Fundraising Profit:

£9,184

  - £271

Investments £17,669