Chairs report– Ovingham and district under 5’s
It’s been just over a year since I was elected Chair and in that time the charity has made progress on several fronts. First, we have improved the financial outlook from the 20/21 position where, because of the effects of the Covid 19 pandemic, we declared a loss of £28,370. Although the accounts for the year 21/22 are yet to be finalised, we anticipate declaring a reduced loss, which will be in the region of £6000. In the current financial year, we expect to make a small surplus. Despite this representing a poor financial performance in recent years, we were fortunate to have amassed modest reserves and therefore able to continue to operate. The trustees are confident of the charity’s ongoing viability and the outlook is much more positive as a result of the hard work of the staff and the volunteers.
From this stronger position we are developing exciting plans for the expansion and refurbishment of our building. The trustees are concerned that our building is almost 25 years old and in need of refurbishment. To this end we have secured modest funding from Northumberland County Council to extend and refurbish which we hope will add additional longevity to the building. We are hoping to start the work in summer 2023, subject to securing trades. The extension will provide space for an additional 8 FTE places, and we expect demand for places to increase through 2023 following several closures of pre-school providers in the area. Offering these additional places should restore the reserves of the charity, allowing greater investment in staffing and resources.
During 2022 we reviewed various operational and governance systems and as a result several initiatives have taken place. First, we have installed a new cloud-based IT system, ensuring records are kept in a secure and easy to use way and alongside this, we have launched a new website with access to newsletters, terms dates ad other essential information.
The governance of the charity is overseen by a committee of volunteers comprising of 3 trustees, one of whom is a parent, 4 nursery staff and 2 parent governors as laid out below. The committee met on 9 occasions in 2022 and there were an additional 2 trustee meetings.
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Michael Price | Chair & Trustee |
| Mark Dawson | Vice Chair & Parent Trustee |
| Ronnie Hall | Finance Officer & Trustee |
| Elaine Punton | Nursery Manager |
| Wendy Taylor | Deputy Nursery Manager |
| Sarah Milligan | Nursery Practitioner |
| Catherine Kirkpatrick | Nursery Practitioner |
|---|---|
| Sarah Weaver | *Fundraising Officer |
| Charlie Downing | Secretary |
*I want to thank the outgoing Fundraising Officer, Jill Summers, for all the work she put into the role and to welcome Sarah Weaver to the committee.
Finally, I want to take this opportunity to remind parents that we are a charity and hence, rely on the support of parents and the community. These are difficult time for all early year’s providers, with inflation considerably outpacing government funding, which is the core of our income. Hence, I would encourage all parents to consider what they can do to help us in the forthcoming year – please get in touch with me or Elaine, if you would like to join the committee or can help in some other way. I am particularly keen to hear from anyone with connections to trades who could help us with our plans for extending and refurbishing the building.
I want to thank staff for the work they put in to give each child the very best experience, day in day out. I also want to thank the committee members for the work they have put in as volunteers, particularly Charlie Downing, our secretary, who has been instrumental in helping to review the way we operate. It is pleasure working with such a committed and enthusiastic team.
Dr Michael Price, Chair – Ovingham and district under 5’s.
Email: mike.price@ovinghamunder5s.org
Manager’s report - Ovingham & district under 5’s
I would like to start by saying thank you to the wonderful committee for all the work they have done, and this year they have been really exceptional. Mike Price, who took on the role as Chairperson this time last year has worked endlessly to ensure our financial sustainability. The rest of the committee have worked hard to raise funds and because of this we are now very excited for the intended work to begin on the nursery expansion. We are very lucky that they are all intending to stay on in their roles to support the nursery.
Staffing
We now have four permanent members of staff after saying a sad farewell to Ashley Joscelyne, when she left the nursery to continue her studies at university, pursuing a career in teaching. She will be sadly missed, but we wish her lots of luck for the future.
Due to redeployment of staff to support a child in the setting with additional needs we are now recruiting an apprentice to join us, and help ease the staffing structure.
Also, a big thank you to Jennifer Dawson for filling in as Bank Staff.
Staff Training
Staff have accessed online training provided by Northumberland Early Years SLA including:
Food Hygiene Designated Safeguard Lead Refresher
New to the role of Safeguard Lead Making the most of the School Readiness Passport
Pediatric First Aid (face to face course)
Early Help Assessment
The role of the SENCO
Early Years SEND and Inclusion Networks Managing Challenging Behaviour
The Benefits of Loose Parts Play
Sarah has enrolled on a fully accredited level 3 SENCO course run by OFSTED. It’s great that she is able to attend, as thousands of practitioners applied from all over the UK. The course will discuss issues around Special Educational Needs across all aspects of education. As the course is attended by many professionals from all services for children, this will help increase the profile of the nursery at a strategic level.
Feedback Forms
The feedback forms which were given out at the end of the year came back from parents with a result of: 91% of parents stating they Strongly Agree that their child is happy at nursery, and is happy with the care their child received.
Fundraising
We have only been able to hold a small number of fundraising events (mainly due to the ground works taking place in the school) a huge thank you to all who helped organise or contributed to the Christmas tea-towels, and Raffle. We had our local photographer in attendance for Christmas and the end of year photographs; as ever she was very generous with her commission contributions.
Going forward we are looking to reinstate our Annual Bunny Bounce, and cake stall, plus support the efforts of the committee fundraising officer and assist with their fundraising events.
Education
September’s transition to school for the reception class went well and they seem to have settled into school life quite comfortably. We plan to integrate more with reception class from next term to extend the transition period.
The nursery curriculum mainly uses ‘in the moment planning’. This way of planning ensures that the child is always at the forefront of the skilled Early Years Practitioners minds.
Following attendance of training we all think loose parts play is fantastic, as it allows us to not only offer open-ended activities to the children, but we can also do our part at re-using items which would have otherwise been thrown away. All the items used for our loose parts play are either donated or sourced locally.
Tapestry is going well and although we may only have a small proportion of families contributing to Tapestry in the way of evidenced – photographs and written observations from home, this is something we will continue to focus on. Parental input and feedback is essential to give us a wider understanding of each child’s learning styles and experiences. The verbal feedback from parents about using Tapestry has been positive and says it gives them an insight to what their child has been doing whilst at nursery.
Parents as Partners
We endeavour to improve our parental involvement levels. This is the first year in a long time that we have been able to carry out a more planned settling in period for new children, with very flexible start/finish times, home visits for children with specific learning concerns, and face to face parental meetings to discuss the children’s development. We are in the process of introducing volunteer reading sessions, to bring parents or grandparents into nursery to enhance our love of books.
With Covid restrictions relaxing we were pleased to be able to hold our annual summer trip to Daniel’s Farm, using the train, and it was such a lovely day. We were delighted that parents could join us and help supervise the very excited children.
Numbers
Our numbers for this academic year, although slow to progress are pleasing and evidence that Ovingham & District Under 5’s reputation is continuing to attract new families to the setting. Out of the 108 sessions we offer, at present we have 12 x 3hr sessions available over the week, these all being afternoon sessions predominantly Tuesday’s and Thursday’s.
We also envisage our numbers will increase when the planned extension is completed.
Thank you
Finally, I would like to thank my staff team for being so passionate, for sharing my vision and supporting me through so many changes over the past year, their hard work is invaluable to the setting. To the committee for their endless support in the setting, on the phone, and during committee meetings. And lastly, to all the families who attend and support the nursery with their children – the fact is we couldn’t do any of this without you.
Elaine Punton
Ovingham & District Under 5s
Ovingham & District Under 5s
Financial Statements
For the year ended 31 July 2022
Charity Registration Number 1176119
1
Ovingham & District Under 5s
Cashflow Summary from 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022
| Business Receipts | £71666 |
|---|---|
| Business Payments | £78335 |
| Cash Generated by the Business | £0 |
| Bank and cash balance at 1 August 2021 | £4688 |
| Bank and cash balance at 31 July 2022 | £9050 |
| Decrease in bank and cash balances for the period | £6669 |
2
Ovingham & District Under 5s
Income and Expenditure
Year Ending 31 July 2022
| Income Grant Income £57978 Fee Income £13367 Other Income HMRC Job Retention Scheme Grant £301 Paypal Refund £6 VAT Refund £13 Interest from Deposit Account £1 Total Other Income |
£71345 £321 £71666 |
|---|---|
3
Expenditure
| Staff Costs Wages/Salaries £61350 HMRC £5675 NEST Pension Contributions £3779 Total Staff Costs Non-Staff Costs Tapestry Online Learning Journal £121 Training & Development £115 OFSTED Registration £50 Riding Mill Pre-School £151 Telephone/Broadband £916 Portable Appliance Testing £205 Prime Membership £79 Class Fundraising Products £162 Galt Playthouse £348 Personalised Polo Shirts £60 Resource Materials £3038 Consumables £227 Council Tax £69 Paypal Adobesystem £197 Fun Farm £263 Digital Camera £89 Fencing £1188 Garden Storage Cabinet £103 Garden Storage Bench Box £150 Total Non-Staff Costs TOTAL OPERATING COSTS Deficit |
£70804 £7531 £78335 £6669 |
|---|---|
4
Ovingham & District Under 5s
Statement of Assets and Liabilities as at 31 July 2022
| Monetary Assets | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bank Current Account | £9050 | £4688 | £19061 | £13758 |
| Bank Deposit Account | £0 | £11031 | £25028 | £25015 |
| Cash | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| TOTAL | £9050 | £15719 | £44089 | £38773 |
5
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
| Report to the trustees/ members of On accounts for the year ended Set out on pages |
Ovingham & District Under 5s | Ovingham & District Under 5s | Ovingham & District Under 5s |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 July 2022 | Charity no (if any) |
1176119 | |
| 2-5 of attached Financial Statements |
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/07/2021. Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report 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 have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below *) 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.
- Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.
Signed: Ray Marley Date: 22/05/2023
Name: Ray Marley Relevant professional n/a qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 79 Kenton Lane, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 3BS
Oct 2018
IER
1
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 .
Oct 2018
IER
2