Cold Ash Pre-school growing big xdeas Trustees Annual Report 2024-25 Committee Year
Annual General Meeting: 13 October 2025
Introduction and Chair’s Report
This academic year has been another busy one for CAPs building on what was a transitional year for 23/24 it has been a stable year for us.
The Trustees have all worked together throughout the year and the committee has been an excellent team, working closely with all of the staff at CAPS.
Staffing was a lot more stable than the previous year and we have been able to keep a good level of bank staff, which has been called upon less than the previous academic year. Towards the end of the summer term Amy went off on maternity leave and welcomed a new baby. Alongside this two of our own committee members also welcomed new children to their families and we wish them all the best. The decision was taken to recruit again with Amy being on maternity leave but this has proven challenging. We have had a few applicants but have been so far unable to fill the position. This position will again be advertised and we hope to welcome a new member of staff soon to help expand the team and allow us to grow further and offer further opportunities for families who are wishing to enrol at the Preschool whilst also growing the number of 2 year olds we can accept.
We have had another very exciting year at CAPs. We were again invited to view the St Marks Christmas performance and was enjoyed by all. Our own Christmas performance was well supported again with the children performing amazingly and our raffle having another good variety of prizes. The programmes that were produced went down well and provided a keepsake for families. We also put on a number of other fundraising events including a Mother’s day and Fathers day event alongside the sponsored bounce. We were again in a position to be able to provide the Farms2Ewe experience for the children. It is an event that the children all get excited for and one that the Pre-school has been able to fund as a thank you to all the support for the rest of the academic year. The biggest change this year was the securing of our new classroom, which was built during the summer term and was opened this September. This was achieved through funding from West Berkshire Council and I will be hosting a visit from them in November to show them what we have built. The new classroom project could not of been completed if not for the support from the staff, Cold Ash Pre-school committee and the Acland Hall committee all of whom supported this endeavour and I have no doubt has further secured Cold Ash Pre-schools future and ability to provide a fantastic environment for both children and staff.
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In March 2025 we had our latest Ofsted inspection. The staff all pulled together amazingly and we achieved a ‘Good’ rating. This was the last inspection under the old criteria and we will be building on
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this going forward in preparation for the next inspection. I met with the inspector after completion and the feedback I received was extremely positive.
Caitlin and all the staff have worked extremely hard to create a plan for this academic year. They all attended an inset day at the beginning of term to ensure that they hit the ground running. A parent information evening was held and was very well attended allowing parents to talk with staff and key workers with the information being sent out to all parents to view. I have no doubt that all the children attending this year will again thrive under this staff.
Staff training as always has been a priority and we will always endeavour to provide training when and where we can as this not only benefits and develops staff members it also benefits the setting and the children. Lisa started her Level 2 qualification and is working through the final stages of that with nothing but positive feedback received. We have also agreed for Caitlin to enrol on a Level 5 qualification, which she will be enrolling on this year.
A year that has shown marked development from the previous and has set a foundation for a strong future. It couldn’t have been done without the support of parents and committee members but more importantly without the efforts of all staff members. Thank you.
Robert Allum, Chair, Cold Ash Pre-school Management Committee
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Finance & Funding
Fund Balances
| Account | Balance 31/08/25 |
Balance 31/08/24 |
|---|---|---|
| Main | £97,270 | £80,497 |
| Fundraising | £13,006 | £9,275 |
| Deposit | £60,000 | £60,000 |
| Cash | £19 | £19 |
Income/Spend Summary
| Budgeted | Actual | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income | £113,289 | £151,969 | ||
| Expenditure | £140,849 | £131,464 | ||
| Net | -27,560 | £20,505 |
Treasurer’s report
Overall, we have had a very busy but successful year at CAPs. We have been careful with our spending, recognising the change in which the government now funds children’s places at preschools, and the impact we might have seen on numbers in setting because of the lower age (from 9 months) parents can now receive funding for, and also to make sure we are well prepared for anything that comes our way, such as the higher than forecast 9.8% National Living Wage increase that took effect on 1[st] April 2025. We have also seen some changes to changes to the staff team due to maternity leave. The staff have worked well as a team, and this was highlighted in our recent OFSTED report. As a result, we were able to offer staff bonuses this summer in recognition of their efforts over the past year and increased their pay for the year ahead.
Although our overall fundraising income from events has been lower this year, we were successful in gaining external funding for our new outdoor classroom through the Good Exchange and Greenham Trust. This has enabled us to ‘kit out’ the classroom too. This classroom will support us in futureproofing ourselves, should we choose to enrol 2-year-olds in the future.
Cold Ash Pre-school has a healthy reserve which needs to be carefully protected when budgeting for the year ahead. It is important that we prepare for this to ensure the Pre-school can continue to run in the future. It is still unknown what the effect will be on our pre-school with the introduction of the 2-year-old childcare funding (and younger) and how this will impact our intake going forward. So, although our funds look healthy at present, we need to remain mindful of how quickly this can change and take care to safeguard our budget for contingencies.
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Cold Ash Pre-school: Trustees Annual Report
Fundraising: Events, Donations & Matched Funding
Over the last year, we held several fundraising events and activities including our Christmas Raffle, Easter Event, Sponsored Bounce and we created many beautiful things for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. The Christmas Carol and Raffle event was particularly successful with the children singing a great collection of songs, a beautifully produced programme that received generous donations from attendees, and of course an amazing collection of prizes donated from many different companies.
Our records show that our Fundraising income totalled £13,182 this year. As mentioned previously, a large proportion of this has been through grants for our new classroom. We continue to be generously supported by parents, staff, members of the local community and local businesses with donations and services provided. We are very grateful for all the support received over the past year.
In addition, we have received a steady flow of donations via our online donation platforms:
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Easy Fundraising
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West Berkshire Lottery
A huge thank you to everyone who has generously donated to our fundraising and volunteer requests, the support is always gratefully received and monies are spent carefully.
Children
In the academic year 2024-25, we had 41 children enrolled at Cold Ash Pre-school. We said goodbye to 21 this Summer who left us to start school. Of these, the majority went to Cold Ash St. Marks and the rest to other local schools. There are 45 children enrolled for the academic year 2025-26.
Governance & Leadership
We had 7 parents on the committee this year. We met every 4-6 weeks as necessary.
We worked extremely hard on a number of aspects including the banking and reserves, our Safeguarding audit, updating and adding to our policies and procedures, ensuring staff were looked after and supported and ensuring our facilities were maintained and updated where necessary.
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Marketing & PR
We have been very active on our Facebook page this year; this is a public page where we have enjoyed sharing what we’ve been up to at CAPs with the wider community and prospective parents. We’ve also had lots of activity in our private parents’ group (CAPs Members), which is a welcome form of communication for parents. Our leader has aimed to post weekly updates with pictures of what the children and staff have been doing in setting that week. After receiving feedback about our Facebook page and not everyone having access to the site the staff have also adopted Microsoft Sway as a way of keeping parents updated. Our white board provides updates and again has been out everyday so far this term.
The website is also under constant review. We will also shortly be sending out a full list of dates of events to parents to give them as much notice as possible to allow them to make arrangements if they wish to attend. We know how much of a struggle it can be to rearrange commitments at a weeks notice.
Parent Partnership
We have a good relationship with parents and this is shown by how well supported all of our events throughout the year are.
We have continued throughout the year to remind parents of our ‘open door’ policy. We have encouraged parents to call or email our staff anytime to arrange a meeting or phone call if they have any queries or concerns regarding their children or the pre-school. Rob (Chair) or Tracey (Vice-Chair) have also been available throughout the year to help parents if they have any questions or concerns.
We have continued to utilise Tapestry this year and this has been received positively. There is definitely more that we can do with this system and we will be adopting more options from it such as the ability to take the register this year and will aim to expand it’s utilisation even further. Not only for parents to see their child’s learning journey but also help with the children’s move into Reception as many local schools use Tapestry. All staff (not just key workers) are able to contribute to the children's learning journeys. We are also encouraging parents to upload to Tapestry. This will enable the staff to engage wit the children more and enhance their learning. In such a small setting we have the advantage of all the setting staff getting to know all the children extremely well and sharing in their growth and development.
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Human Resources
This year we have welcomed new bank staff to the Pre-school. Recruitment has been a struggle and this is being seen across the industry so it is not isolated to Cold Ash Pre-school. We continue the recruitment drive to expand our staffing levels.
Operations & Administration
We have fundraised throughout the course of the year and have been spending this throughout the year on supplies for the Pre-school. We will now build for the future utilising the facilities put in place this academic year and will aim to grow Cold Ash Pre-school further.
We would also like to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported Cold Ash Pre-school this year.
Staff:
| Caitlin Dalgleish (Leader) | Amy Chambers | Gemma Allum |
|---|---|---|
| Natalie Williams (Deputy Leader) | Helen Barnes | Olinka Hanks |
| Clare Wormald (Business Manager) | Lisa Wyatt | |
| Carol Terry | Donna Fordham | |
| Committee 2024-2025: | ||
| Robert Allum (Chair) | Jarrod Price | Richard Hanks |
| Tracey Bell (Vice-Chair/Treasurer) | Eloise Pilbrow | |
| Beth Cooper (Secretary) | Carlie Kowalski |
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Cold Ash Pre-school: Trustees Annual Report
Cold Ash Pre School
Accounts For the year ended 31 August 2025
| 2025 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| Receipts | ||
| Main activities | 137,691 | 165,650 |
| Fundraising activities | 13,184 | 2,932 |
| Uniform | 701 | 674 |
| Interest | 393 | 477 |
| Gift Aid | 0 | 0 |
| Total receipts | 151,969 | 169,732 |
| Payments | ||
| Main activities | 131,464 | 126,136 |
| Fund raising activities | 0 | 0 |
| Total payments | 131,464 | 126,136 |
| Net surplus for year | 20,505 | 43,596 |
| Opening balance | ||
| Current account | 80,497 | 47,580 |
| Fund raising account | 9,275 | 8,596 |
| Deposit account | 60,000 | 50,000 |
| Cash book | 19 | 19 |
| Net (deficit)/surplus/ for year | 20,505 | 43,596 |
| 170,296 | 149,791 | |
| Closing balance | ||
| Current account | 97,270 | 80,497 |
| Fund raising account | 13,006 | 9,275 |
| Deposit account | 60,000 | 60,000 |
| Cash book | 19 | 19 |
| 170,296 | 149,791 |
0
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND ANO WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trustees Cold Ash Pre-scool On accounts for the year ended 31 August 2025 Charity no (if any) 1174604 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity ("the Trust") for the year ended 3110812025 Responsibilities and basis of report As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the 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 havè examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act., or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records" or 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: Date.. 15.4.26 Name: Emma Thomas Relevant professional qualification{s) or body (if any): ICAEW Address: EJ Business Consultants Ltd 2 Toomers Wharf, Newbury, RG14 1 DY IER Oct 2018
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. IER Oct 2018