Trustees’ Annual Report
Registered Charity Number: 1159920
Year Ended 31[st] August 2024
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 Christmas, Easter and It’s Your Move Wonder Spaces .......................................................................... 4 |
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| 3.3 Pastoral Mentoring ................................................................................................................................ 4 |
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| 4 | PUBLIC BENEFIT .................................................................................................................................................... 5 |
| 5 | FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE .................................................................................................................................. 5 |
| 6 | FUTURE PLANS ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 |
| 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 2024.
Regenerate is a charity supported by local churches and working in the schools of Yate and Chipping Sodbury. Our mission is to be an agent of change, living out and proclaiming the good news, unconditional love and hope of Jesus Christ, through serving our local schools.
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 six trustees in post as of 1st September 2023. Catherine Coster stepped down at the 2023 AGM and both Tricia Gailey and Ruth Wallace (Chair) stepped down during the year.
Regenerate Board of Trustees as at 1st September 2024:
Ian Hodgson (Treasurer) Nicola Bright (Secretary) Sharon Toogood (Safeguarding Lead) Hugh Wilson Rachel Moors Paul Belcher
As required by Regenerate’s Constitution, one third of the Board will retire at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) and these Trustees are:
Ian Hodgson
Sharon Toogood
Ian Hodgson is retiring from the Board at the AGM and our thanks are extended to him for all his hard work as Treasurer on behalf of Regenerate during the past 5 years. Hugh Wilson has agreed to take on the role of Treasurer.
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Sharon Toogood has been nominated for re-election and has agreed she is willing to stand again; she is therefore seeking election by the Charity’s members at the AGM.
Our thanks go to Ruth Wallace for all she has given to overseeing the work of Regenerate since 2014. She has been a fantastic Chair of Trustees. We are looking to recruit a new Chairperson.
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 now employs two part-time workers: a Primary Schools Worker, Rachel Rogers and a Pastoral Mentor, Deborah Williams. We were pleased to welcome Deborah Williams as an employee of Regenerate in Dec 2023 in a job share role with Rachel. Deborah had volunteered for Regenerate for many years prior to her appointment.
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 wellbeing from a Christian world view;
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To empower children and young people to overcome obstacles in their lives;
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To support school staff in the delivery of pastoral care for children and young people;
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To be a supportive ‘listening ear’ for staff, pupils and students within our local schools.
Our schools work for the 2023/2024 school year is summarised in the table below.
| SCHOOL | Collective Worship |
Student Mentoring sessions |
Christmas Wonder Space |
Easter Wonder Space |
It’s Your Move Wonder Space |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abbotswood KS1 KS2 |
6 6 |
66 | | | |
| Broadway | 6 | ||||
| North Road | 4 | ||||
| Old Sodbury | 5 | ||||
| Raysfield KS1 KS2 |
3 3 |
48 | | ||
| St John’s Mead | 6 | | | | |
| St Mary’s | 6 | ||||
| St Paul’s | 6 | ||||
| **The Ridge ** | 6 | | | | |
| Tyndale | 6 | 96 | | | |
| Wellesley | 6 | | | | |
| Woodlands | 6 | 54 | | | |
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3.1 Collective Worship
This year we visited our primary schools every term to lead Collective Worship on the themes of bravery, Christmas, the power of our words, Easter, fresh starts and kindness. We shared the Bible stories of Daniel, Jesus’ birth, Jesus welcoming the children, Jesus’ death and resurrection, the lost sheep and Zaccheus. We appreciate the opportunities we have had to pause with our school communities, giving space for them to reflect on their own stories.
This year we have enjoyed singing You Will Never Run by Rend Collective, plus we re-visited My Lighthouse at Easter!
3.2 Christmas, Easter and It’s Your Move Wonder Spaces
We invite Year 4 classes to our Christmas Wonder Space, Year 5 to our Easter Wonder Space and Year 6 to our transition Wonder Space.
Class teachers have commented this year that our seasonal events are a chance for their classes to have some calm space in the bustle of school life. We cherish this feedback!
In welcoming classes to a local church setting, we offer a chance to pause and reflect on a Bible story. Then in small groups, led by a Regenerate team member, the children explore stations with wondering questions and activities.
This year our Year 6 leavers workshop resources, including Scripture Union booklets, were generously sponsored by our local churches. Each child was able to take away an It’s your Move booklet and a keepsake keyring with a bead saying ‘hope’ on it which they made.
3.3 Pastoral Mentoring
Deborah’s appointment this year as Pastoral Mentor has enabled us to work more closely with two more of our community schools. Rachel still runs mentoring sessions in Abbotswood and Tyndale and Deborah mentors in Raysfield and Woodlands. We are privileged to be welcomed into each of these schools for one afternoon a week to work one-to one with children chosen by school staff.
It has also been a wonderful opportunity to journey with the whole school community and it has proved valuable to the children and staff who have been so grateful for our input. We have had feedback and stories of increased confidence in the children we have been working with.
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4 PUBLIC BENEFIT
The Trustees believe that the input into the lives of the children in our local primary schools has a lasting impact morally, spiritually and emotionally. This is through Christian values and lifestyle presented through collective worship, our termly events held in local churches for whole year groups and our oneto-one mentoring provided in some schools. We aim to help address some of the Adverse Childhood Experiences that some children have encountered as well as supporting the post Covid recovery needs.
As Regenerate is an inter-denominational organisation it means that trustees, employees, and volunteers come from a variety of church backgrounds. Each of these worshipping communities seek to be of benefit to the local community. Their support and encouragement of Regenerate is a vital component in its success in the local schools.
5 FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
The Regenerate budget for 2023-2024 predicted that the Charity would end the financial year with a final balance of £14,469.
Church and regular individual supporters have continued to underpin our core activities and provide a base from which to expand further, with an 11% increase in the overall value of their gifts. The cost of materials for the ‘It’s Your Move’ wonder space was this year met through additional gifts from our supporting churches. Expenditure has reflected the start-up costs for a second schools worker, to support new trustees and volunteers, and to extend the full programme to reflect the return to 30 working hours per term week. As a consequence, we have been able to maintain our balance at an adequate level, with a substantial sum placed on deposit which has shown a valuable return.
Our balance at 31st August 2024 is now £18,651.81, above the level predicted. The intention is to hold sufficient funds to maintain our core activities, and to support our pastoral mentoring provision for at least another year, while adhering to our internal Finance and Reserves Policies. Thereafter, Regenerate would have to pull back on pastoral mentoring unless the steady erosion of its accumulated funds is not addressed.
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6 FUTURE PLANS
We have seen how beneficial the Mentoring work we are doing can be to those children we have worked with and this has been recognised by the schools we are working in. We want to continue and grow this work and have 2 volunteers training to expand our capacity. Being in schools more regularly, using the Chaplaincy model has enabled Deborah and Rachel to come alongside staff and offer a listening ear of support as they navigate the demands of school life.
We are aware we need to urgently seek funding to continue our valuable work in our primary schools beyond August 2025. The Trustees are forming a working party specifically to apply for funding to organisations that support Christian work in schools.
Our local churches funded the It’s Your Move books this year. We will be encouraging them to continue and where possible increase their financial support of this mission of God that grew out of a vision of the Churches Together in Yate and Chipping Sodbury.
7 CONCLUSION
A huge thanks go to Rachel Rogers, Deborah Williams and their team of volunteers as they have provided collective worship in most of our community schools, provided reflective ‘Wonder Spaces’ at the Christmas, Easter and It’s Your Move in term 6. There has been positive feedback from the teachers that attended. Rachel & Deborah in their job share roles have been able to grow our mentoring offering and have had positive feedback from staff on the way these children have grown in confidence or been able to settle into the classroom more easily.
We believe that God’s love for the children in our community is at the heart of all that we do and our presence in the schools is ‘regenerating hope in young lives.’
Approved by the Trustees on
Signed by Order of the Trustees
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APPENDIX: INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT ON ACCOUNTS
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