2025-08-31-accounts

(Registered Charity No. 1133135) Annual Report and Financial Statements For year ended 31 August 2025

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Rainbow Preschool

Trustees’ Annual Report for the year 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2025

Reference and administration details

Address Methodist Church Spring Lane Colden Common Winchester SO21 1SB

Names of charity trustees

	Committee 10 Oct 2024 - 7 Oct 2025	Changes at AGM 7 Oct 2025	Current Committee 7 Oct 2025 - Current
Joint Chair	Ellie Ashton		Ellie Ashton(Chair)
Joint Chair	Irene Anderson	RESIGNED	(No joint Chair)
Secretary	Rachel Crossland	RESIGNED	Layla Cook
Treasurer	Andy Hagell	RESIGNED	Daniel Taylor
	Ben Radford		Ben Radford
	Tracy Gilmour	RESIGNED
	Mariola Hinton		Mariola Hinton (resigned on 19 Jan 2026)
	Sarah Basford	RESIGNED
	Amanda Rowe		Amanda Rowe
			Victoria Overington

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Structure, governance and management

Rainbow Preschool is a registered charity (number 1133135), which has adopted the Pre-school Learning Alliance Model Pre-school Constitution (2011) within which it operates (adopted at EGM 8 March 2016). The preschool is an association consisting of Family members (parents or guardians of the children attending the preschool) and Affiliate members (individuals interested in supporting the aims of the preschool). Trustees (Officers and Committee members) are elected for one year at the Annual General Meeting held in June. Retiring Officers and Committee members are eligible for re-election unless they have already served on the Committee in any capacity for ten consecutive years. The preschool is a registered member of the Pre-school Learning Alliance and also with Ofsted.

Objectives and activities

The aims of the preschool are 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. The preschool offers a safe, happy and stimulating environment, where children learn through play in a wide range of activities whilst fulfilling the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. We acknowledge the right of parents to take responsibility for and to become involved in the activities of our group and we offer opportunities for all children, whatever their race, culture, religion, means or ability. We encourage the study of the needs of all children and their families and promote public interest in and recognition of such needs in our local area.

The preschool services the village of Colden Common, together with the local rural area in an effort to ensure that the public all have access and can benefit from the service provided within the preschool learning environment. The Trustees have considered the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit and by opening their doors to all local communities, feel they fulfil their requirements to demonstrate the services provided are for the benefit of the public.

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Achievements and performance

There were 34 children on role by the summer term 2024 and of these, 31 were in receipt of early years funding.

We had 8 members of staff and 2 volunteer students working at Rainbows during this period. All staff members hold appropriate early years qualifications. Our Manager and Deputy Manager are qualified to Foundation Degree.

Yearly Overview

Both the Chair and the Manager presented their yearly reports for 2024-2025 at the AGM. These reports are included below.

Due to the Financial year finishing in September, the accounts for 2024-2025 have not yet been audited. The Treasurer’s report for 2023-2024 was presented at the AGM. The Treasurer’s report for 2024-2025 will be presented at next year’s AGM.

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Chair’s Annual Report 2024-2025

This year has been yet another year in which Rainbows has continued to thrive and play an important role in supporting young families in our local community, and nurturing and shaping the adults of the future.

Parents have been able to come into the preschool and watch their children sing, dance and partake in the Harvest Celebration, Christmas show, and Easter service with the wonderful bonnet parade. After a few years break during Covid, Rainbows has restarted their monthly stay and play sessions, which has seen both current parents and some new families spend time in the preschool, joining in with activities and seeing what a wonderful place it is for children to play and learn in. In the second half of the year, the older children have continued the practice of visiting Colden Common Primary School, maintaining the strong relationship between these two settings and supporting these children to make a smooth transition on to the next stage of their education.

The range of activities has continued this year, from the children watching the caterpillars and tadpoles transforming, to baking cakes, to taking part in road safety week, to dressing up for World Book Day. A variety of visitors has also been warmly received, with the children enjoying dance, drama, animal experiences, and even oral hygiene lessons! These were an exciting opportunity for all the children who were lucky enough to take part, and we are thankful to all this year's visitors for enriching the children’s experiences further. The staff have continued to utilise the local spaces around them, taking the children for regular trips to the park and to the allotment where lots of vegetable growing has been taking place!

Each time I have visited the setting, I have been so impressed with the dedication and commitment of the staff to providing the best possible care to the children, and maintaining the Outstanding provision for which Rainbows is so well known. From September, Rainbows began taking 2 year olds which has been a big change to the setting, but thanks to our established and nurturing staff team, the younger children have settled well, and the team have been adapting the setting and activities on offer.

At the end of the academic year, our manager of 23 years decided that it was her time to step down and spend more time with her family. Tracy has been the heart of Rainbows and has been a part of many children’s early education. We are hugely grateful for her commitment and passion she has shown Rainbows over the years, and she will be greatly missed. However, we feel exceptionally lucky to be able to welcome Mandy to the team, who has years of preschool leadership experience, and we are confident she will continue to lead our team and Preschool to an exceptional standard.

We are very thankful for the support provided by the committee and their breadth of knowledge and skills which are invaluable to the setting, including the sub team that has created our brand new website in the past few months. We are pleased that many are able to continue in their roles for the next academic year but would like to particularly express our gratitude to those whose children have moved on to pastures new, and are therefore stepping down at this time. Without a dedicated committee, Rainbows would not be able to operate, and we look forward to welcoming new members this coming year.

Above all, the staff at Rainbows are passionate about nurturing our children, smoothing the transition into a school setting, helping them to feel settled and secure, whilst engaging in new experiences and learning important skills, and I am confident that this will continue into the next academic year with our new manager Mandy.

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Ellie Ashton & Irene Anderson

Co-Chairs

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Manager’s Annual Report 2024-2025

Our first event this year was our Harvest Concert including a Macmillan coffee morning (afternoon) in September. The children enjoyed sharing a few familiar songs to their families. Thank you to the parents for supporting Macmillan Cancer Charity and for Rev Ruth for sharing a short address with the children.

We were visited by two lovely Eastern Hermanns tortoises, Heidi and Hamoun, thank you to Karon form bringing them into visit us.

We have started regular fortnightly visits from Charlie from Diddi Dance.

During the Autumn term we acknowledged Halloween, Bonfire night, Remembrance and of course Christmas. Pudsey bear could be found in a variety of different areas around Rainbows in support of Children in Need. We coloured, painted, and collaged pictures, large and small showing our wonderful fine and gross motor skills. We joined in with Nursery Rhyme week, a world-wide initiative celebrating the importance of nursery rhymes in early childhood development. The children enjoyed singing a variety of rhymes whilst baking and creating crafts.

We took part in the Holy Trinity Church ‘Festival of Angels’ by creating a wonderful big angel for them to display. Thank you to Helen and Fiona for sharing their creativity with the children.

The Christmas Nativity went well. Once again, this year we performed a mixture of our old and new songs and acted out the Christmas story and the children were wonderful. Thank you to the parents for supporting the raffle and for the donations from the Co-op. We would also like to thank Rev Ruth (again) for sharing a short address with the children.

The Methodist Church gifted each child with a lovely Christmas book, “Who can it be?”.

We also had our Christmas party with entertainment from Charlie from Diddi Dance and a surprise visit from Father Christmas. Many thanks go to Charlie, the staff and Wayne French for their contributions to a successful party. We also purchased a gift for each child again this year due to the Discretionary funding we received. Each child had a book, bubbles, and chocolate from Father Christmas.

Our fundraising this term included a Jumble sale and a Tombola table at the Winter Market. The children each created a handprint which was then transformed by All My Own Work into wonderful keepsakes and Christmas gifts for their families. We also held a Bags2School collection post jumble sale. We have purchased some great new equipment this term with the money raised.

During the Spring term we led the children through an exciting Chinese New Year Celebration. We would like to thank the two mums who came into Rainbows to share a cooking and craft activity with the children. We would also like to thank John who brought in his pet snake for a visit (CNY of the year of the snake). We also supported World Book Day, enjoyed celebrating Red Nose Day, planted a flower for Mother’s Day, as well as making pancakes for Shrove Tuesday. We were also visited in January by our local policing team following children’s interest in the police.

We were delighted to start our weekly visits to Colden Common Primary school in January to use the hall for a PE session (just the school leavers). These visits are very helpful for the children as they become familiar with the school and to recognise some teachers and reception staff.

The children really enjoyed Anna from Zoo Lab coming into visit us with a variety of different creatures.

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During the spring term we reintroduced monthly ‘Stay and Play’ sessions on the first Wed of each month. These were popular with new families as well as families who already had children attending.

At our Easter Celebration and Bonnet Parade we performed a selection of songs and the children looked wonderful wearing their Easter Bonnets. Thank you to the parents for supporting the raffle and for the donations from the Co-op.

Our fundraising this term included a tombola table at the Spring Market and the raffle at the Easter Celebration.

Before Easter we watched our frog spawn transform into tadpoles. We also welcomed five little ducklings to Rainbows. This was a lovely experience for the children and one that has now become an annual event. We also watched ten hungry caterpillars change into beautiful butterflies. Thank you so much to Helen for looking after the tadpoles, caterpillars/butterflies and ducklings so well outside of Rainbow opening hours, they were in good hands.

Walk with Wheels - it was great to see so many children (and parents) taking part in our Walk with Wheels week. Walk with Wheels is an initiative designed to encourage active travel to and from preschool/school.

We took part in the Holy Trinity Church, Flower festival in June by creating a display around the hungry caterpillar book. Thank you to Helen and Fiona for sharing their creativity with the children once again.

The children really enjoyed a second visit from Zoo Lab this term, this time Sam came in with a variety of different creatures.

We also had a visit from Yasmin, Hampshire Healthy Hero’s workshop, talking about oral care. The children really enjoyed her visit especially cleaning the giant teeth.

We have also enjoyed half termly visits throughout the year from Chloe from Debutots who told a selection of stories through music, dance and guided dramatic play.

Aswell as the weekly visits to the school hall we were also invited during the summer term for transition visits. The children were given the opportunity to spend some time in the reception classroom with the teachers. We felt that the children really benefited from these visits.

The children once again really enjoyed our allotment venture this year. We are always modifying our allotment to provide the best learning opportunities for our children. The allotment is proving a wonderful learning and play area for the children, and they really enjoy visiting it regularly.

The children really enjoyed our Leavers Farewell. We had entertainment from Immie, Debutots with a story about starting school. We welcomed the parents to a short leaver’s presentation where the children received either a book bag or PE bag. This is also a very emotional time, but we know that the children are prepared and ready for their next step, school.

We would like to thank two students from Kings school for choosing to come into Rainbows for the last week of term for their Work Experience.

We decided not to fundraise again this year at the Common have a go event but use it more as an outreach to the village. This worked really well, but a few more helpers on the day would have been appreciated but we managed to chat to a few families during the afternoon.

We arranged a Photo session in May (individual and group) with a percentage going to preschool as well as the photos being a lovely gift for you.

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Our thanks go to the committee and staff for all their efforts in making these events a great success. We have purchased some great new equipment this year as well as receiving some lovely donations from the families leaving off our wish list.

All staff have completed some essential courses throughout the year, Safeguarding (and Prevent), First Aid and Food Hygiene. They have also completed a variety of other courses including a course ‘Thriving with 2yr olds’ back in September. This was following our decision to reduce our starting age to 2yrs from September 24. These courses have given the staff an opportunity to gain knowledge and expertise enabling us to help and support the children in our care.

We were delighted to finally launch our new website, just before the end of term. We would like to thank the committee (especially Ben) for all their help in getting it up and running.

The end of the summer term also saw me leaving Rainbows. This was a very difficult decision but I feel the time is right for me to start a new chapter, whatever that may be! I would like to thank everyone for all the gifts, cards and kind words and my lovely farewell party, I felt truly blessed. I can’t wait to go up, up and away on my hot air balloon ride soon!

We are delighted to be welcoming Mandy to Rainbows as our new manager. I have known Mandy for many years, whilst she managed another local preschool and I know Rainbows will be in good hands.

This September Rainbows has enjoyed welcoming a few new families and hopefully some of the parents are here tonight, to hear all about what we have been up to and possibly join our committee!!

...... and finally, I would like to say an especially big thank you this year to our staff, committee and admin as without their support and commitment we wouldn’t have the fantastic Outstanding preschool we can offer today.Tracy Gilmour

Manager

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Treasurer’s Annual Report – Sept 2023 - Aug 2024

In the year 2023-2024 Rainbows made a profit of £9,637.30. There were a couple of reasons for this:-

• Compared to last year our income increased by £9,300

• We were granted an EYE Grant supplement totalling £6,259.19

• Staff wages for the Spring term were £9,500 less than for Spring 2022/23

• Increase in grant rate from £4.97 to £5.61 for 3/4 year olds, and from £5.94 to £7.81 for 2 year olds

At the end of the year (2023-2024) we had 38 children enrolled.

It was decided to grant the 8 permanent staff members a £200 bonus (totalling £1600) in August 2024, and once the end of year finances had been completed the staff bonuses were awarded a bonus totalling £7,337.29. This bonus was paid to the staff in October 2024.

This year Rachael (Deputy Manager – Business & Finance) set up a new savings account and closed the HSBC account so that we didn’t have to pay the monthly banking fees. It was decided to open a UTB bank account, which was set up January 2023. £75,000 was transferred from the HSBC account by 23 January 2024 and the HSBC account was closed in January 2024. There are still £15,000 in reserves the Coop account as cash flow.

I would like to thank Rach for all the hard work that she has put in and the many hours that s he spent sorting out our finances and providing valuable support to myself as Treasurer.

The reserves required for redundancies and running costs were reviewed this year. The parent fees were also reviewed and a increase from £5.00 to £5.50 was introduced from September 2024. The National Living Wage increased in April 2024 to £11.44 and the staff pay rates were increased in April 2024 to ensure that all pay was above NLW.

The preschool remains in a very secure financial position but going forward will need to see how the introduction of 2 year old funding for working families will affect the preschool.

The capital at the end of the year stands at £27,305.12 in the Co-Op charity account and £75,000 in the UTB business account, totalling £102305.12. There is also £20 in petty cash held at the setting.

The accounts for 2023-2024 have been independently examined by Juliet Acklam.

The accounts for 2023-2024 have been independently examined by Juliet Acklam.

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Signed accounts

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Declaration

The Trustees report has been approved by the Management committee and signed on their behalf by

Irene Anderson & Ellie Ashton – Co-Chairs

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