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Trustees' Annual Report for the period Period start date Period end date 01 Sep 2022 31 August 2023 From To
Section A Reference and administration details
Charity name Freshford Preschool Other names charity is known by Registered charity number (if any) 1153406 Charity's principal address Freshford Memorial Hall Freshford Lane Freshford, Bath Postcode BA2 7UR
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
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Dates acted if not for whole Name of person (or body) entitled
Trustee name Office (if any)
year to appoint trustee (if any)
1 Rhiannon Meredith Chair
2 Elli Bate Treasurer Until 1/9/2023
Jake Treasurer 1/9/2023 onwards
3
Westmoreland
4 Hannah Walker Secretary
5 Sam Fairley Deputy Chair
Carrie Richards Volunteers
6
Coordinator
7 Dudley Hinton Committee member
8 Lucy Sturges Committee member
9 Emilia Lascelles Committee member
10 Pippa Payne Committee member
11 Polly Edelston Committee member
12 Alison Sellers Committee member
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)
Name Dates acted if not for whole year
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Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
Type of adviser Name Address
Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)
Debbie Giles – Preschool Manager from 01/03/2014
Abby Moore – Preschool Business Manager from 15/06/2022
Section B Structure, governance and management
Description of the charity’s trusts
Initial Constitution for Freshford Preschool Charity 1129972 adopted 16th Type of governing document September 2008. Constitution revised and adopted on 13th May 2009, with (eg. trust deed, constitution) subsequent revisions on 21st April 2010, 1st November 2010, 21st September 2011, and 16th July 2013. Freshford Preschool Charitable Incorporated Organisation constituted 16th July 2013 and registered with the Charity Commission as Charity 1153406 on 14th August 2013. All activities of Charity number 1129972 transferred to CIO 1153406 by 27th March 2014, on which date Charity 1129972 was dissolved. Charitable Incorporated Organisation How the charity is constituted (eg. trust, association, company) The Officers and Committee members shall be elected for an initial term of Trustee selection methods two years at the Annual General Meeting. After two years, retiring Officers (eg. appointed by, elected by) and Committee members are eligible for re-election for up to 5 terms in total. In the event of the death or resignation of an elected Committee member, the vacancy shall be filled until the next Annual General Meeting by a Member appointed by the Committee. If the Committee feels that extra committee members are needed to provide additional expertise or to fulfil a new committee role, extra committee members may be appointed between AGMs. To encourage parental involvement, at least two thirds of the charity trustees shall normally at the time of election be family members. ln the event that this figure cannot be achieved however, the CIO may elect affiliate members to make up the balance of the charity trustees. Parents wishing to join the committee between AGMs may approach the Preschool Chair, Preschool Business Manager, or current committee members and offer their services.
Additional governance issues (Optional information)
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Refer to current Freshford Preschool Policies and Procedures found at http://www.freshfordpreschool.co.uk/policies-and-procedures
You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:
- policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
The Preschool has a Child protection policy in place. DBS criminal record checks are carried out prior to commencement of employment, trusteeship or other voluntary work with the Preschool.
All trustees give their time as volunteers and receive no remuneration.
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the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
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relationship with any related parties;
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trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
Section C Objectives and activities
Freshford Preschool works for the public benefit having as its objects the development and education of children and young people by: (1) promoting their care and safety;
Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document
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(2) promoting their education and promoting parental involvement; (3) promoting their health and wellbeing;
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(4) providing services to support them and their families and carers; (5) providing services to individuals holding membership of the CIO; and (6) furthering the aims of the Early Years Alliance.
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| Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit) |
In managing the Preschool, the trustees have had regards to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. Freshford Preschool has now been fully operational for fifteen school years. By providing a Preschool within the centre of the village of Freshford we believe we improve the quality of life of both parents and Children locally. The children socialise and bond as a year group which eases the transition of those moving on to Freshford Primary School, just down the road. Parents have a convenient childcare facility close to the village school and Galleries shop & cafe. In addition, we also attract more children from further afield who go on to other local primary schools. These families are attracted by our ethos, our focus on outdoor learning and Forest School and our rural community setting, which helps to create a very positive learning environment. In December 2022, our preschool was once again rated as ‘Outstanding’, as in 2016, which reflects the sustained quality and standards we aim for, from staff, parents, volunteers and children together to create a positive and enjoyable environment. As in previous years, over the 2022/2023 financial year, the Preschool continued to accept the Early Years Entitlement Grant from Bath and North East Somerset Council, (including the extended ‘30 hours’ grant for eligible families) to provide up to 22 hours of free childcare per week for eligible 3 and 4-year olds. This funding can be used for all sessions without any restrictions. The activities at the Preschool have fostered the social, emotional, physical, creative, spiritual and cognitive development needs of each child. The activities have also fulfilled the curriculum guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage and reflected the interests and ideas of the children, with weekly activities being updated by the staff team from ongoing daily observations of the children and their play. With regards to health and wellbeing, examples of good practice include the children following supervised teeth-brushing after snacktime, weekly baking of seasonal snacks for forest school, and activities such as yoga – further ventures and events from the year 2022/2023 are outlined in Section D. Our Preschool is entirely inclusive. We welcome all children, whatever their ability, cultural, religious or social background. We work hard to find out about each child's individual needs, ideally before they start, through taster sessions, home visits and completion of an 'All About Me' questionnaire. This allows us to get the training we need to accommodate everybody. In 2022/2023, with the approval of the preschool committee, we hosted a Ukrainian refugee who came to live locally with her mother and was on our Preschool register for 13 months before joining a local school. Each family with a child attending the Preschool has the right for one parent or carer to vote at General Meetings of the Preschool, to which they are invited, and to join the Preschool committee and trustees. The Preschool committee fulfils a vital role in ensuring the smooth running of the Preschool throughout the year. During 2022/2023 they carried out a wide range of tasks, all on a voluntary basis including appointing new staff; approving changes in the terms and salaries of employment for staff members; maintaining the rota of volunteer helpers; marketing & promoting the Preschool through digital and print media and organising fundraising events. During 2022/2023, the Preschool provided part-time family friendly employment for 5 permanent members of staff from the surrounding area. The Preschool also offered regular supply work to another 4 individuals. At the end of this academic year, the preschool business manager and leader led the efforts to begin recruitment for a childcare apprentice within the setting to not only provide local job training for an individual but also, hopefully, a fresh and contemporary input to complement our current staffing, with a start date of Autumn 2023. |
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Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)
As in previous years, the contributions of the committee, parents and community volunteers alongside the staff commitment outside of their paid hours are manyfold. Without this valuable contribution of time, energy and expertise the successful operation of the Preschool would not be possible.
You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:
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policy on grantmaking;
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policy programme related investment;
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contribution made by volunteers.
Parent volunteers were welcomed to our outdoor forest school sessions this year which run from our main location from autumn-spring terms and then are located on-site at our Freshford Preschool Forest School woodland site in the vicinity. Other parent helpers have assisted in fundraising community events to enable the range of activities offered throughout the year.
The Preschool provides a regular source of income to the Memorial Hall, which helps to ensure its own financial security and ongoing maintenance. We committed a further £2,500 following on from our contributions to the major refurbishment of the hall in 2021/2022. We ran the bouncy castle/slides and a face-painting stall at the annual Freshford & Limpley Stoke village fete in June, contributing to the £5,600 total raised for the hall. Preschool continue to be one of the main users of the village hall and were pleased to able to contribute to this as we benefit from the renovation work.
Section D Achievements and performance
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Section D Achievements and performance
Summary of the main During the (pre-)school year of 2022/2023, Freshford Preschool operated achievements of the charity successfully for its 14[th] year. With a dedicated staff team led by Debbie during the year Giles and a new-in-post, committed business manager, Abby Moore, and a supportive group of trustees with a new incoming chair, Rhiannon Meredith, Preschool navigated its way through the year despite the challenges of Ofsted and major renovation work to its home base at the Hall. The preschool is a valued part of the village community and through its longstanding reputation and happy children, it attracts families from not just Freshford and the surrounding villages but also further afield. A major milestone in the year was our Ofsted inspection in December 2022, days before we finished for the Christmas holidays. The inspectors found preschool to be a typical hive of activity that day with road safety demos, local police visiting the children in the setting and pre-Christmas games and activities set up. Ofsted’s ‘’Outstanding’’ grading of our preschool reflects the effort and dedication of the staff team, together with parents and their children. We believe this also demonstrates the continued excellence of our preschool setting similar to our previous inspection in 2016. The inspector’s opening comment that ‘’ Children bounce in happily, greet the staff with smiles and eagerly go and seek out their favourite activities” is testament to the preschool environment we strive to create in Freshford. Following on from our Ofsted inspection, we officially added ‘’Freshford Preschool Forest School’’ registration site to our setting, enabling us to meet at our nearby woodland location all year round without prior enrolment at our main Hall before forest school activities that day. The preschool started the year 2022/2023 with a number of significant changes to its staffing and smooth running: Abby Moore took over as Business Manager the summer before term started and Rhiannon Meredith started as new Preschool Chair. With staffing, our former Deputy manager, Christie Bennett, left the setting at the end of the autumn term due to a change in family circumstances. In addition, two longstanding part-time staff members, Jo Carter and Kath Bowman finished their contracts at preschool, although the latter remains as a supply member of staff for 2023-2024. Gemma Hooley joined our permanent team, after starting as a supply team member, in February 2023, & we welcomed back Kerry Sherlock, our former Deputy Manager, from maternity leave. During the 2022/2023 year, the preschool was 95% subscribed (23 children) from the Autumn term onwards. Our main preschool intake is in September and when/where applicable, we can have a smaller additional intake in January. We find this helps the children to settle into preschool life rather than a continual open intake throughout the year. For September 2023, we are 87.5% (21 Children) subscribed and this increases to 100% (24 Children) with our January 2024 intake. At the end of the summer term, we ended the preschool year in celebration at our mini-graduation ceremony in the park with 19 children leaving the setting ready to start their primary school journeys. Our fundraising endeavours last year built on our previous year’s successes including Autumn and Easter walking & activity trails around the village, preschool leader running the Bath Half marathon, an Easter crafts and tea afternoon, Christmas card sales, a festive raffle and the annual fireworks cake stall. We raised just over £2600 in 2022/2023. Monies raised were used for regular weekly sports sessions with Up and
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Section D Achievements and performance
Under Sports which prove to be very popular with our children and take place on the field in the adjacent playpark next to our gardens, yoga lessons with a qualified local instructor, and music lessons from a local teacher who works with babies and toddlers in particular. Fundraising also paid for events to take place at preschool including the Bristol-based Explorer Dome, whose costs we shared with the Reception year class at the local primary school. Excursions outside the preschool setting could also be offered to parents for free and included trips to the local Roman Baths, a workshop in Bath Abbey, seeing the animals at Bath City Farm and visiting Bradford–in–Avon library on the train. At the end of the preschool year, the committee approved the purchase of 4 new Samsung S6 Lite tablets, one for each main practitioner to enable them to take better quality photos and quickly upload their observations and comments to the parents/carers for each individual child. We hope to really see the benefits of this investment from the autumn term 2023 with a large intake of new children to the setting which will require intense effort from the staff and particularly the nominated play partner for each child, who uploads near-daily observations and comments for parents as their child settles in to preschool life. Our Leader, Debbie, continues to have a good working relationship with KS1 teachers, particularly the Reception class teacher at the local Freshford Primary school. The school yet again said how well the children from Freshford preschool were prepared for school and complimented our amazing staff team on all they do to ease the transition into formal education. The Preschool promotes British Values daily. As part of the focus on selfconfidence and self-awareness within Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Freshford Preschool staff encourage children to know their views count, to value each other’s views, and to talk about their feelings. Staff choose opportunities to demonstrate democracy in action, for example, children sharing views with a show of hands. Staff provide activities that involve turn-taking, sharing and collaboration. Children are given opportunities to develop enquiring minds in an atmosphere where questions are valued.
A focus on managing feelings and behaviour well has always been central to Freshford Preschool’s ethos. Staff provide opportunities for children to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and increase their confidence in their own abilities. Through the Preschool's Philosophy for Children work and Sunshine Circle activities, staff encourage a range of experiences that allow children to explore the language of feelings and responsibility, reflect on their differences and understand we are free to have different opinions. Overall high levels of wellbeing and involvement can be seen in the children through both staff observations and the children’s day-to-day behaviour: they are confident, relaxed and settled. As part of the focus on people & communities, managing feelings & behaviour and making relationships, the Preschool staff team create an ethos of inclusivity and tolerance where views, faiths, cultures and races are valued and children are engaged with the wider community. The children are encouraged to acquire a tolerance and appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures. They also learn about similarities and differences between themselves and others from different families, faiths, communities, cultures and traditions, and share and discuss practices, celebrations and experiences. Through circle time activities, staff encourage and explain the importance of tolerant behaviours such as sharing and respecting other’s opinions. Staff promote diverse
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Section D Achievements and performance
attitudes and challenge stereotypes, for example, sharing stories that reflect and value the diversity of children’s experiences and providing resources and activities that challenge gender, cultural and racial stereotyping. We have an annual topic focus on different countries and cultures, where we encourage parents to share their knowledge, experience and artefacts of other countries where they have lived and travelled and children enjoy this input from their respective homes. Parents are also encouraged to share recipes for the children’s baking during the year, particularly family recipes or those from other countries their families are linked to. Preschool provides parents with access to their child's online learning journal on the Tapestry app. Parents can log on securely and view their children's observations and photographs and upload their own observations of WOW moments recorded at home. They also receive weekly email digests of observations for their child, and their child’s complete learning journal as a downloadable PDF when their child leaves the setting. At the end of each week, the preschool leader emails parents a summary of the week and sets out plans for the following week, including updates to activities based on the children’s developing ideas and details of visitors or trips planned. In late Spring of this year, parents were again asked to anonymously fill in a survey asking them to rate many aspects of preschool life and their child’s experiences from the year. This information is discussed by staff team and preschool committee and any recommendations or suggestions proposed can then be implemented in the final term of preschool for their child. Results from 2022-2023 again showed a very high level of satisfaction across the board with the preschool setting and their child’s journey through the year.
Section E Financial review
The Preschool our policy is to keep a reserve of £40,000, which based on Brief statement of the current spending represents 5 months’ worth of expenditure to cover our charity’s policy on reserves normal operational costs. This will allow us to meet staff notice and redundancy costs if ever needed and will put us in a better position to absorb any temporary fluctuations in income due to unexpected decreases in child numbers, or difficulties in bill payments. The Preschool's unrestricted reserves are currently £62,303.62 Following a donation of £5,000 to Freshford Memorial Hall during 2021-2022 for the major heating/glazing and cladding external renovations, we have given a further £2,500 for internal renovations and improvements. In the coming year, repairs are needed in the garden and play areas and we plan to launch a fundraising initiative to renovate the preschool garden and outside play areas for future years. As a committee, we decided to implement pay rises for our staff in April 2023 in line with living wage guidelines. This cost is borne partly from our reserves
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Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees FRESHFORD PRE-SCHOOL On accounts for the year 31[st] August 2023 Charity no 1153406 ended (if any) Set out on pages One page attached
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/08/2023.
Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
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the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
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the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
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the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Signed: F B Meaking Date: 22[nd] October 2023 Name: Fiona Baden Meaking BA(Hons) FCA CTA Relevant professional ICAEW & CIOT qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 5 Bloomfield Road, Bath BA2 2AD
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Section B Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .
None
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