Trustees’ Annual Report
Registered Charity Number: 1159920
Year Ended 31[st] August 2022
Contents
| 1. | INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 1 |
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| 2. | STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................ 1 |
| 3. | AIMS, ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS................................................................................................................ 3 |
| 3.1 Collective Worship .................................................................................................................................. 4 |
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| 3.2 Advent Adventure, Easter Experience and It’s Your Move..................................................................... 4 |
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| 3.3 Chaplaincy ............................................................................................................................................... 4 |
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| 4 | PUBLIC BENEFIT .................................................................................................................................................... 5 |
| 5 | FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE ................................................................................................................................... 5 |
| 6 | FUTURE PLANS ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 |
| 7 | CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................................... 6 |
| APPENDIX: INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT ON ACCOUNTS................................................................................ 7 |
1. INTRODUCTION
The trustees of Regenerate have pleasure in presenting their report and the audited financial statements of the charity for the financial year ending 31st of August 2022.
Regenerate is a charity supported by local churches and working in the schools of Yate, Chipping Sodbury and surrounding areas. Our mission is to be an agent of change, living out and proclaiming the good news, unconditional love and hope of Jesus Christ in order to bring wholeness to the children, young people and families in Yate, Chipping Sodbury and surrounding areas.
2. STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
Regenerate became a registered charity on the 5th of February 2007, number 1117820. On 13 January 2015, Regenerate’s application to reconstitute as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) was approved by the Charity Commission. As a result a new registered charity was formed (no. 1159920) and the previous unincorporated charity dissolved with its assets transferred to the new charity.
The charity is managed by a Board of Trustees who are proposed and elected by the members of the charity on an annual basis. The membership consists of representatives of local churches in the area. There were eight trustees in post as of 1st September 2021 with Mike Philpotts stepping down at the AGM in October 2021.
Regenerate Board of Trustees as at 1st September 2022:
Ruth Wallace (Chair) Ian Hodgson (Treasurer) Sarah Herrick (Secretary) Anthony Bradley Nicola Bright Catherine Coster Mark Lawrence
As required by Regenerate ’s Constitution, one third of the Board will retire at the forthcoming Annual General M eeting (“AGM”) and these Trustees are:
Sarah Herrick Anthony Bradley Catherine Coster
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Anthony Bradley and Sarah Herrick are retiring from the Board at the forthcoming AGM and thanks are extended to them for all their hard work on behalf of Regenerate over many years. Catherine Coster has been nominated for re-election and has agreed she is willing to stand again; they are therefore seeking election by the Charity’s members at the AGM.
When new trustees are appointed, they are provided with copies of the constitution, recent accounts and minutes and are inducted by existing trustees into the affairs of the charity.
The Trustees meet on a regular basis to administer the affairs of the charity and there are no sub-groups acting for them. None of the trustees benefit financially from the operations of the charity.
The charity employs one part-time worker: a Schools Team Leader.
The trustees appraise the work of the employees on an annual basis and seek to provide support and training to both paid employees and volunteers as necessary.
The charity has a Safeguarding Policy and all paid employees, volunteers and trustees are DBS checked and approved.
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3. AIMS, ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
The aims of Regenerate are:
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To enable children and young people to explore their spiritual, moral and emotional well-being from a Christian world view.
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To empower children and young people to overcome obstacles in their lives.
During the 2021/2022 school year we began to re-establish our in-person work after the restrictions of the last two years. The work is summarised in the table below.
| SCHOOL | Collective Worship videos and in-person |
Student Mentoring sessions |
Christmas Reflection Space |
Easter Reflection Space |
It’s Your Move Reflection Space and books |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abbotswood KS1 KS2 |
6 6 |
43 | � | � | � |
| Broadway | 5 | ||||
| Horton | 2 | � | |||
| North Road | 5 | � | |||
| Old Sodbury | 6 | � | |||
| Raysfield | 3 | � | � | ||
| St John’s Mead | 4 | � | |||
| St Mary’s | 4 | � | |||
| St Paul’s | 6 | � | |||
| **The Ridge ** | 5 | � | |||
| Tyndale | 6 | 27 | � | � | |
| Wellesley | 5 | � | � | � | |
| Woodlands KS1 KS2 |
6 6 |
� | � |
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3.1 Collective Worship
Over the last year we have gradually progressed from assembly videos back to in-person assemblies as schools became able to host us. It was wonderful to be able to visit all our schools by the end of the year, in one form or another. We are grateful that our relationships with our schools have been maintained.
We have introduced deep breathing at the start of our assemblies, which we hope gives everyone an opportunity to pause and come into a place to be able listen and respond well. Our themes have been Thankfulness , God’s Light , Hope , Our Messy World , We are all Important to God and We are Amazingly Made . Each term we have shared a bible story and invited the children to consider what the story means them.
3.2 Advent Adventure, Easter Experience and It’s Your Move
This year our seasonal events have evolved into reflection spaces. These spaces place an emphasis on allowing children to explore and express their response. For example, our Easter Reflection Space began with a poignant ‘ Godly Play ’ style telling of the Easter story after which the children were led in small groups by a Regenerate team member around interactive stations. Our Passover station explored friendship and we discussed whether Jesus’ disc iples were good friends to him and wondered what makes a good friend and what we appreciate about our friends.
Thanks to our generous supporters we were able to purchase 450 ‘It’s Your Move’ booklets from Scripture Union, which we delivered to all our schools in Term 6 to support Year 6 children’s transition to secondary school.
3.3 Chaplaincy
Once schools were able to receive visits, we were able to resume our student mentoring sessions. Abbotswood and Tyndale Primaries were happy to accept our offer of one afternoon a week to work with individuals of their choosing. These afternoons were opportunities to build relationships with staff and to make a difference to vulnerable children.
It was a privilege to be with children on some of their most challenging days, to provide whatever they needed: a listening ear, a calming craft or fun and laughter over a game. Feedback from staff is that the sessions are proving extremely beneficial for the children we are working with.
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4 PUBLIC BENEFIT
The Trustees consider that the work that is done amongst children and young people is of direct benefit to the public. This is through Christian values and lifestyle taught formally and informally at meetings and through one-to-one personal relationship as well as through the encouragement and inspiration of events. The fact that the project is inter-denominational means that the trustees, employees and volunteers involved are from a variety of church backgrounds and the ethos of these churches, which each seek themselves to benefit the public, is a vital component in the success of the project.
5 FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
The Regenerate budget for 2021-2022 predicted that the Charity would end the financial year with a final balance of £15,898.
We have received one unexpected and generous gift towards our work during the course of the year, alongside our regular individual and church giving. Residual support from the Government Job Retention Scheme allowed us to compensate for the restrictions on our activities while access to schools for nonessential visitors was restricted. As a consequence, we have been able to maintain our balance at a healthy level.
Our balance at 31st August 2022 is now £16,323, 3% above the level predicted. The intention is to hold sufficient funds to maintain our core activities, and to support our chaplaincy provision for at least another year, while adhering to our internal Finance and Reserves Policies.
6 FUTURE PLANS
Coming out of the impact of the Covid lockdown, we are aware of children who are really struggling in school. It is recognised by educationalists that ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) need to be addressed as soon as possible so that children can overcome the difficulties they have encountered, particularly during lockdown. There is a great opportunity to come alongside the staff who are dealing with difficult and exhausting demands in their daily work.
We recognise that the emotional needs of youngsters becomes more challenging once they reach secondary school. Regenerate can have a vital input into the lives of these young people. We believe that it is right to seek funding to employ a part time Secondary Schools worker and are pursuing a number of funding applications to support this work. Many of these bodies ask for evidence that the local churches are financially supporting this vision as well and therefore we will be asking our churches to embrace this vision and enable us to employ a new member of the team within the coming year.
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7 CONCLUSION
This past year has been one of regaining ground in our schools after the limitations that the pandemic placed on Rachel and the volunteer team. In Term 1 (2021) Rachel and the team were welcomed back into most of the schools, although it was a slow start with rebuilding relationships with the schools. Rachel was able to start mentoring children identified by the school as needing extra support and this has proved very successful.
By Term 2 (2021) Rachel and other members of the team were able to provide collective worship in person to 9 schools. A number of schools welcomed the Christmas reflection spaces but Covid began to be more widespread again. Rachel showed her versatility in adapting assemblies to be online again. By summer 2022 Rachel and the team were booked by 11 schools to do assemblies in person and Rachel was providing mentoring to a number of children in two schools. She adapted the “It’s your M ove” workshop to be more interactive and more than five schools brought their Year 6 pupils to this event.
In summary, this has been a year of consolidation, being able to be adaptable to meet the needs of the schools, and also rebuilding trust in Regenerate’s strapline of ‘regenerating hope in young lives’.
A huge thanks goes to Rachel who has the challenge of working in difficult circumstances, and also to the commitment of her team of volunteers who have supported in many different ways.
Approved by the Trustees on
Signed by Order of the Trustees
Ruth Wallace, Chair of Trustees
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APPENDIX: INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT ON ACCOUNTS
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