Fish and Bricks Pre-School – Annual Report 2022, for year ending Dec 2021.
This year Fish & Bricks has probably gone through more changes than ever before and I can only be thankful for the way God has kept his hand on us through this year – in every change or anxious moment we have seen Him provide solutions and a continued peace for all involved.
We started the year knowing that we would have to recruit for a new Manager/Supervisor which would always be a daunting task but again God provided and we interviewed an existing member of staff, Nicky Snelling, who was keen to take over the role and develop it. We were so impressed with Nicky’s enthusiasm for the challenge and were delighted to offer her the position. We were able to ensure that Nicky started shadowing Janie in the role from Easter 2021 and was able to work alongside her for the summer term to have the best possible handover before taking up the reins following Janie’s retirement in July 2021.
We also faced the challenge of losing another long-standing team member, Jackie Manley, who felt the time was right to move away to support family. Jackie had also acted as our book-keeper for many years and we faced another daunting task in needing to fill the role; but after much prayer we appointed Clare Hobbis which we are very thankful.
These changes meant that we had 2 further vacancies to fill; we interviewed again in June and have been pleased to welcome Flis Brown and Gabi Thompson to the team – both starting formally in September.
In terms of our usual activities we started off the year in great form after an amended Christmas celebration performed without an audience but shared via a private YouTube link due to the restrictions. Term continued as normal; but with the restrictions of Covid-19 through the year many of our external events had to be suspended such as the annual parents and carers day, and our usual Fisher’s Farm visit. We have also had to juggle the difficulties of staff and families testing positive through the year and the necessary isolations, but thanks to the extremely flexible staff we have not had to close at any point which has been amazing. As restrictions eased we were able to take part in a couple of Town Council events which were great fun and a wonderful way to raise our profile in the community. We were also delighted to organise an afternoon tea as a surprise retirement event for Janie where staff old and new came together to celebrate her 20-year contribution to our pre-school.
Throughout the autumn term we considered and planned how we would be able to celebrate Christmas in the light of ever-changing restrictions but eventually we were able to host our normal event with limited ticketing and also shared via ‘Zoom’ – and we received some lovely feedback from the parents who were able to join us this way.
The Management committee remain indebted to our staff team for their hard work and dedication – the team has a lovely family feel and our new members have felt welcomed into this family. We
were able to offer a further pay-rise working towards forthcoming minimum wage increases and we are grateful to God for his provision as always.
Further changes are afoot for 2022. We really do need some more faces on our committee; it is my intention to step down as Chair at the end of this academic year and we would love to hear from you if you would like to find out more about how you can be involved with the pre-school. No experience is necessary and full support and assistance will be provided – please do speak to me if you would like to find out more.
Finally, and I say this every year; please continue to remember Fish & Bricks in your prayers, they are so valuable to all who are involved with our wonderful and thriving pre-school, and we are very grateful for all the support we receive.
Claire Coffey Chair, Fish & Bricks Management Committee