Trustees. Annual Report for the period
I Period start date
Period end date
31"
', 2024
2025
From
To:.
Section A
Reference and administration details
Charity name
Poplar Pre-school (CIO)
Other names charity is known by
Registered charity number (if any)
1160862
Charity's principal address
Giddyhom Lane Pavillion
Poplar Grove
Allington
Postcode
ME16 ODE
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
Dates actod If not for whole
ear
Trustee name
Office (rf any)
Name of person (or body) entitled
oint trustee
ifan
Denise Ellis
Jennifer
Dharmalingham
Lynne Davies
Teresa Hatfull
From 16th July 2021
From 22nd February 2018
From June 2020
From 16th July 2021
From 17th July 2023
From 17th July 2023
Hayley Young
Kanli Davies
10
15
16
17
18
19
20
Names of the trustees for the charity, if anyp (for example, any custodian trustees)
Name
Dates acted rf not for whole
ear

Names and addresses of advisers {Optional inforniation)
e of adviser
Name
Address
Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)
Denise Ellis
Section B
. Structure,
overnance and mana
ement
Descrlption of the charity's trusts
Constitution
Type of governing document
How the charity is constituted
Charitable Incorporated Organisation
Trustee selection methods
eg. apoo'.i.terl. h,,
Trustees are elected
Additional governance issues (Optional infomiation)
You may choose to include
additional information, where
relevant, about:
policies and pro￿dureS
adopted for the induction and
training of trustees.,
the charity's organisational
structure and any wider
network with which the charity
works,.
relationship with any related
parties.,
trustees, consideration of
major risks and the system
and prO￿dureS to manage
them.

Section C
Ob"ectives and activities
The charity works for the public benefit having as rts objective the
development and education of children and young people by:
1. Promoting their care and safety
2. Promoting their education and promoting parentsl involvement
3. Promoting their health and well being
4. Providing SeNi￿S to support them and their families and carers
5. Providing ServI￿S to individuals holding membership of the
Charitable Incorporated Organisation {ClO)
6. Furtherin
the aims of the Earl Years Allian￿.
Summary of the objects of the
charity set out in its
governing document
In considering the activities of the charity the Trustees have had due
regard to the guidance on public benefit that has been issued by the
charity commission.
The main activities are summaries as:
Provide accommodation and equipment.
Raise money to pay for the charity's activities.
Make such payments as shall be ne￿SSary
Fix and collect the fees payable in respect of the children
attending the groups.
Subject to adheren￿ with all applicable legislation, control the
admission of children to the groups run and rf appropriate, require
parents or guardians to wtthdraw them.
Set aside funds for special purposes or as reserves against future
expenditure.
Maintain and pay for membership of Early Years Alliance.
Ensure adequately insured.
Employ and remunerate staff as are ne￿SSary for carrying out
the work of the charity.
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)

Additional details of objectives and activities
O tional infomiation
You may choose to include
further statements, where
relevant, about:
policy on grantmaking"
policy programme related
investment.,
contribution made by
volunteers.

Section D
Achievements and performance
During the year. we have supported the children in our care to develop
through play and following the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum.
46 children moved on to Primary school at the end of the year.
We again identified a significant number of children with special
educational needs and used the guidance and support of the specialist
teaching sen4ice, alongside other professionals, to put in place additional
support to improve the outcomes for these children. This obviously has
had a financial implication for the pre-school.
Summary of the main
achievements of the charity
during the year
This year we concentrated on improving the environment for the children.
We replaced the tlooring throughout the building and upgraded the
children's toilets for both halls. The impact of this is to create a calming
'environment for the children and to improve their independen￿. We
spent £11,100.00 for the flooring and £10.150.00 for the bathrooms
which accounts for large increase in maintenance costs.
We continue to balance our intake taking into account age groups and
cohorts to ensure that we have even numbers moving on to primary
school and those staying. This ensures that we do not experien￿ large
numbers of children leaving and not enough'children joining.

Section E
Financial review
The trustees have agreed a reserves policy to hold a minimum
unrestricted funds level of £40,000. This is to cover the costs of
redundancy and 3 months rental in the unlikely event that the setting
needed to close.
Brief statement of the
charity's policy on reserves
Details of any funds materially
in deficit
Further financial review details (Optional inforniation)
We made a profrt of £9,114.00. This was due to careful budgeting and an
increase in 2 year old govemment funding. This money has been
transferred into the reserve account to cover up coming expenditure on
the building as it ages.
Wages increase due to cost of living pay rise and the minimum wage
increase.
The refresher First Aid training was carrÉed out and we updated the DBS
checks for all staff.
We have changed to online safeguarding training for staff which has
reduced our costs in this area.
You may choose to include
additional infomiation, where
relevant about:
the charity's principal
sources of funds (including
any fundraising).
how expenditure has
supported the key objectives
of the charity-
investment policy and
objectives including any
ethical investment policy
adopted.

Section F
Other optional information
Section G
Declaration
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees, report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity's trustees
Signaturels>
Full namels)
Position (eg Secretaryi Chair,
etc)
Denise Ellis
Lynne Davies
Managerrrrustee
Trustee
Date
202

ort for AGM- 28th A
ril 2026 7.30
Attendees
Trustees - Dee Ellis, Jenny Dharmalingam, Hayley Young, Lynne Davies, Kanli
Davies,
staff - Katy Sephton, Wendy Han￿, Steph Powell
Parents - Naomi Bridgeland, Keely Jones, Rebecca Harrison, Elle Marshall, Daniel
Tindell, Alix Smith, Wing Chan, Rebecca Down, Sonal Redgrove, Rebecca Dowling,
Vicky Green, Abel Odiagbe, Fran￿sS Ilenre-odiagbe, Katie Newman, Shaun Hill,
Kailas Suresh Chaudari
Thank you for joining us this evening so that we can carry out the AGM processes
that we are legally required to do as a registered charity.
Last
ears accounts- Se
tsmber 2024 to Au
ust 2025
Last year was a comfortable year financially with a profit of just over £9k. This was
after paying for the bathrooms and flooring which costjust under £23K although the
flooring costs were put aside from the previous year.
From April, the minimum wage rose by over 6.5 % meaning a substantial pay rise
again. On top of the minimum wage rise we were also hit with the National Insurance
rise which meant our contributions increased considerably. We didn't increase fees
this time enable us to continue to balan￿ the books but will need to look at this
again for September this year.
We have continued to actively monitor cohorts to ensure a balan￿ on different ages.
This has meant that On￿ we had enough children in a cohort, we did not offer any
new pla￿S to that age group even ifwe had spa￿s. We have been patient and
waited for children of the age group that we need to apply.
We feel that we have successfully managed to balan￿ the cohorts and this has led
to more balanced accounts. Hopefully we will no longer experien￿ peaks and
troughs in our accounts.
In the Autumn tem, we experimented with reducing the number of pla￿S per day to
redu￿ the pressure on the staff as we continued to have a high level of SEN
children to support. However, we decided to take more children in the January as we
became nervous that our numbers and we finished the year at almost full capacity in
both rooms.
Throughout the Autumn tenn we had the flooring repla￿d throughout most of the
building which has had a positive impact creating a calming feel in the setting. At the
end of the year, during the summer holidays, we had the children's bathrooms

refurbished with new low children's toilets and sinks. We also had new quiet
children's hand dryers installed along with the reminder of the new flooring. The new
bathrooms have also had a very positive impact and have enabled more children to
attend to their own toileting independently, especially those toilet training.
Last year was our 50th Anniversary as a preschool and we enjoyed ￿lebratiOnS at
the end of the summer term including street paty lunches. You may have nOti￿d
that we have had some banners made to acknowledge this which are on the fen￿.
tsmber 2025 to Au
ust 2026
We continue to actively balan￿ our cohorts as this has proved beneficial.
In the Autumn term, we changed how many children we had had each day in the
rooms to balan￿ the children across the setting. Squirrel room currently has a max
of 22 children instead of the previous 24 and Hedgehog has a max of 21 instead of
20.
Later this year we are hoping to re-open some of the many skylights that are in the
ceiling throughout the building. This should improve the natural light in Hedgehog
room, the back corridor, Squirrels bathroom and the staff room. We also aim to
convert two of Hedgehog's skylights into openers to improve the heat and airflow in
the summer months.
As I have previously spoken about, I will be retiring at the end of the July term and I
will also retire as a trustee at this time. Steph Powell who will be stepping into my
shoes as manager and will also become lead Trustee.
Andrea also retires at the end of the July term and she will be repla￿d by Denise
MacBean as our finance administrator. Denise currently works in Squirrel room.
Policies
Policies have been reviewed and will be adopted this evening.
Trustees
All of our Trustees, Lynne, Teresa, Jenny, Kanli and Hayley have kindly agreed to
continue for the next school year. And I'd like to thank them for their continued
support. Lynn plans to resign from her post in the Auknn term so we will look to
recruit one or two new trustees during the Autmn term.

Our constttution dictates that a trustee's term is 2 years and they can serve a total of
5 terms. As all trustees were voted in 2 years ago we need re*lect them today.
Jenny Dhamalingam
Proposed - Katie Newman
Seconded - Rebecca Down
Lynne Davies
Proposed- Wing Chan
Seconded - Rebecca Dowling
Teresa Hatful
Proposed - Rebecca Harrison
Seconded - Hayley Young
Hayley Young
Proposed - Kanili Davies
Seconded - Vicky Green
Kanli Davies
Proposed- Wing Chan
Seconded - Teresa Hatful
I would like to thank all the parents, staff and trustees for their support.
Would anyone like to ask questions at all?

CHARITY COMMISSION
FOR ENGLAND AND WALES
Po?hZI-, re￿¢..00] {n!n!
o li, zniyl
Receipts and payments accounts
CC16a
For the period
from
0110912024
3110812025
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestrlcted
funds
to the nearest
Restricted
funds
Endowment
funds
Totsl funds
Lastyear
tr> the n￿reSt£
to the nearest £
to thè noarnst £
to thg nearest £
A1 Receipts
Fees
Donations
Fundraising
Uniform Sales
Intsrest Earned
Grant- Ukraine Child￿n
Collaboration
2S1,719
251.719
238,858
4,721
89
4,n1
4.206
1.107
850
3,000
Sub total (Gross income for
AR)
257,210
257.mo
248,021
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
Sub totsl
257.210
257.210
248.021
A3Pa
ents
Direct Cost5
Payroll Expenses
Rent
Insuran￿ PLA
Repair5 Cleaning & Waste
Water. Light & Heat
Phone. Computsr & PPS
Subscript'ons, DBS & Training
Legal & Professional
Bank Charges
Advertising - Jobs
Christrfias Events - Staff & children
General Admin
4.720
181,030
15.344
1,318
32,294
6.366
5.225
7,800
176,300
15,388
1,296
17.638
6.890
5.456
2,412
316
118
181.030
15,344
1.318
31294
5,225
316
156
316
156
150
714
150
714
70
543
Sub total
234.226
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
Sub total
248,096
234.226
Net of receipts/(payments)
A5 Transfers between funds
A6 Cash funds last year end
Cash funds this year end
9.114
9,114
13,794
94,156
103.270
94.156
103.270
80,362
94,156

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Unrestricted
funds
to nearest £
Restricted
funds
to nearest£
Endowment
funds
to rtear¢st £
Categorfes
Detsils
B1 Cash funds
Bank PfLount
31,468
Dwsit kna)unt
71.781
C8sh
21
Total cash fiinds
103.270
(s)) OK
Unrestricted
funds
to EWmt£
217
Restricted
funds
to n•ar•st £
Endowment
funds
to nearest £
Detsils
FiWTe & Fitbngs
82 Other monetary assets
Office Equipment
451
Fund to which
asset belon
Current Value
tional
Details
Cost {optional)
Fund to whlch
asset belon
Currènt valu8
tlonal
Detalls
Cost {optional}
B4 Assets retsined for the
charlty's own use
Fund to which
Elabili
relates
Amount dve
tiona
When dug
tlonal
Details
B5 Llabllltles
Signed by one or trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
Signature
Print Name
Date of
roval