Annual Trustees Report 2023-24
CIO: Christian Initiatives in Early Years Education (Love Early Years)
Registered Charity No. 1156884
Address: 100 Heathlands Park, Foxhall Road, Ipswich IP4 5TQ
Trustees
Mrs Ruth Andrews (chair); Rev Brian Andrews; Mrs Lucy Waterman; Rev Peter Michell; Mrs Angela Msumba; Mrs Jo Gilks; Mrs Helen Kear ; Mrs Tamsin Grimmer; Rev Mary Hawes
Objects
The object of the CIO is, for the public benefit, the advancement of education in accordance with Christian principles, in the United Kingdom and such other parts of the world as the charity trustees may from time to time decide.
Aims and Activities
- To nurture and support Early Years practitioners and settings holding Christian values This was delivered through regular newsletters and emails, our magazine Early Days ; our website www.Love Early Years.com .
We continued expanding our 10[th] of the month prayer for early years children to include both Love Early Years’ partners and friends who were provided with topics for prayer and encouraged to pray at home on their own or with others in their locality.
The public benefit is that through nurturing and supporting practitioners we reduce the isolation in which many operate and create meaningful networks.
2.To advocate a holistic approach to Early Years care and education and encourage the highest quality care and education by offering mentoring and training.
We used articles in our magazine Early Days, Zoom meetings and personal contact to encourage and train practitioners.
We kept our partners up to date with current research and campaigns and shared relevant articles via Facebook and Instagram. Our main project continued to be the preparation of a manual that explores how young children develop spiritual awareness. This is approaching completion and we anticipate it being published in the next year.
The public benefit is improved quality as settings reflect on and adapt their practice. This distinctive play-based approach to education with a Christian ethos offers a wider choice for parents.
3. To foster relationships between individuals and organisations holding similar values and rationale, in the UK and overseas.
During the year our presence on Facebook continued to grow and the use of other social media helped to build relationships between partners and with a much wider constituency.
The public benefit is that we encouraged practitioners to learn from national and international settings in order to inform their professional knowledge and understanding which encourages the development of strong practice based on knowledge and understanding of how children learn.
Performance
Our presence was maintained on social media. The practical manual on Nurturing Spirituality in the Under Fives is in its final stages and we anticipate it being published next year when we plan to hold a 20[th] Anniversary Celebration of Love Early Years.
Early Days magazine continued to be a valuable resource to our partners. Due to various pressures we were only able to produce two issues during the year.
There were two Trustees who completed their terms of service at the AGM . Jo Gilks and Lucy Waterman and we are grateful for all their service to Love Early Years and rejoice in their ongoing work with early years children.
We again held our AGM and Trustee Meeting at The Highbury Centre in London in March at which we reviewed the past year and planned our programme for 2024-25.
This report was agreed by the Trustees at their meeting on Monday 24[th] March 2025
Christian Initiatives in Early Years Education Statement of Financial Activities
For the period from 01 September 2023 to 31 August 2024
| Unrestricted | Restricted | Endowment | Total | Prior year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| funds | funds | funds | funds | total funds | |
| Incoming resources | |||||
| Incoming resources from generated funds | - | - | - | - | - |
| Voluntary income | 3,230.66 | - | - | 3,230.66 | 5,248.44 |
| Activities for generating funds | 22.20 | - | - | 22.20 | 20.62 |
| Investment income | 1.35 | - | - | 1.35 | 25.48 |
| Incoming resources from charitable activities | 716.76 | - | - | 716.76 | 297.09 |
| Other incomingresources | - | - | - | - | - |
| Total income | 3,970.97 | - | - | 3,970.97 | 5,591.63 |
| Resources used | |||||
| Cost of generating funds | - | - | - | - | - |
| Cost of generating voluntary income | 445.69 | - | - | 445.69 | 463.72 |
| Fundraising trading cost of goods sold and other costs | - | - | - | - | - |
| Investment management costs | 61.50 | - | - | 61.50 | 61.25 |
| Charitable activities | 2,584.47 | - | - | 2,584.47 | 3,908.00 |
| Governance costs | 488.11 | - | - | 488.11 | 201.08 |
| Other resources used | - | - | - | - | - |
| Total expenditure | 3,579.77 | - | - | 3,579.77 | 4,634.05 |
| Net income / (expenditure) resources before transfer | 391.20 | - | - | 391.20 | 957.58 |
| Transfers: | |||||
| Gross transfers between funds - in | - | - | - | - | - |
| Gross transfers between funds - out | - | - | - | - | - |
| Other recognised gains / losses | |||||
| Gains/losses on investment assets | - | - | - | - | - |
| Gains on revaluation,fixed assets,charity's own use | - | - | - | - | - |
| Net movement in funds | 391.20 | - | - | 391.20 | 957.58 |
| Reconciliation of funds | |||||
| Total funds brought forward | 4,943.55 | - | - | 4,943.55 | 3,985.97 |
| Total funds carried forward | 5,334.75 | - | - | 5,334.75 | 4,943.55 |
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