2024-07-31-accounts - The Ark Baby & Toddler Group

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Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Period end date 01 August 2023 31 July 2024

From

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name Other names charity is known by The Ark Registered charity number (if any) 1178356

The Ark Baby & Toddler Group

Charity's principal address Aldreth Village Centre High Street Aldreth Postcode CB6 3PQ

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year	Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (ifany)
	David Greene	Chair
	Susan Greene	GroupLeader
	LindsayFrost	Treasurer
	Victoria Leeks
	Margaret Duffield	Craft Co-ordinator

Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

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March 2012

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)	Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)	Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
Type of adviser Name Address




Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document

Constitution adopted on 06/12/2017

(eg. trust deed, constitution)

Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) How the charity is constituted

(eg. trust, association, company)

Trustees are appointed or reappointed for a period of three years at the Trustee selection methods Annual General Meeting held in April by the existing trustees.

(eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

policies and procedures 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 are appointed for a term of three years. The initial appointments have been given staggered terms so that not all trustees come up for re-election in the same year.
There is a child protection policy in place. All Trustees & other volunteers helping run the group(s) have been DBS checked and are given copies of current policies.
At induction all volunteers are given a safety briefing and description of their role and are required to sign that they have understood it and will comply with the charities safety policy.
All trustees and volunteer helpers give their time voluntary and receive no remuneration or other benefits.
trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.

Section C Objectives and activities

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

The objects of the CIO are to promote development, education and socialisation of children aged 0 to 3 and to provide support to their parents or carers by:

providing a regular group, or groups, where they can meet in the community and build relationships with others
ensuring that such groups offer equal opportunities to all families with appropriate aged children, regardless of race, culture, religion or means

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March 2012

providing activities for 0 to 3 year olds that stimulate, challenge and develop them both cognitively and physically
providing information and raising awareness on matters relating to health and general wellbeing of 0 to 3 year olds by the provision of suitable books, signposting other organisations and training.
introducing the Christian Faith and its values in an age appropriate way through storytelling, songs and craft activities.

The trustees have kept in mind the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit when planning events and activities for the year.

The Ark now run two groups each week in term time; on Mondays we have a group for Under Ones only and we are continuing with our Wednesday group for under 4s.

This year we ceased running our bi-monthly Saturday group for dads, called Who Let The Dads Out due to low attendance.

The main aim of these groups is to provide a safe and welcoming environment where the children can explore and discover new life skills, physical skills or educational skills in a fun and safe manner and their carers can relax, share concerns and experiences with each other or voice questions and be directed to agencies that will offer them further support.

The Ark is a Christian based group, run mostly by Christians who attend Summary of the main various churches in the area. activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to Our Wednesday group is offering families and carers of children aged these objects (include within three and under (plus siblings) a structured session based round themes this section the statutory including, crafts, sensory play, small world, construction, role play, declaration that trustees have exploration, snacks and music session. For the parents we provide a had regard to the guidance place to be able to meet with other parents and carers. issued by the Charity Commission on public Numbers wanting to attend the Wednesday group have increased benefit) exponentially in recent years and we have had to introduce a booking system to manage the spaces for the 28 families that we can safely accommodate in our building.

The Monday group for Under Ones is a quieter session with opportunities to relax, chat and share experiences with other parents while their children explore various sensory and active play opportunities.

At all our groups, parents/carers are encouraged to interact with their children in all the different activities and can therefore share activities that they may not wish to do or be able to do, at home. This is an important part of building child – parent relationships.

As a Christian group we build some of the sessions around Biblical themes introducing values such as ‘Caring for others’, ‘Forgiveness’ and Sharing.

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

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March 2012

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

policy on grantmaking;
policy programme related investment;
contribution made by volunteers.

This work is only possible because of the huge commitment of our Volunteers and Trustees. We are extremely grateful for the many hours volunteers have spent setting up, moving boxes of toys, serving food and drink, sweeping floors and being available to chat, support and encourage all our families, not to mention the many hours of work that go into preparation and planning each term. None of this would be possible without them.

We are very grateful, too, for the massive ongoing support we have received in running this group. We have continued to receive donations of money from supporters, both regular and one-off, for which we are very grateful.

We have also had many donations of toys, clothes & equipment that we have been able to distribute to families during this year; thank you to all of you for your support.

Section D Achievements and performance

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March 2012

Section D Achievements and erformance p

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

Highlights and Developments of 2023

At the beginning of July 23, we hosted an area at the Haddenham Beer Festival where we had a play area for the under 5s as well as fundraising activities.
• At the end of July, our last session before the summer holidays was a party outside but due to bad weather it had to be diverted back to the hall! This year we will be holding it at Wilburton Recreation Ground as sadly, Pocket Park in Haddenham is no longer available.
• At the end of term, we presented/delivered books to our regular children who were starting school in the Autumn Term.
• We continued through the summer holidays with the Under Ones group meeting most weeks as we felt this group needed the continued support and we held two Wednesday sessions which allowed older siblings to attend as well.
• Our themes for the Autumn Term were Harvest, Autumn, Colours, Snowmen, Birds, Nursery Rhymes and Christmas.
• In December we had our Nativity Play and finished the term with a Christmas Party.
• At Christmas time we gave out books to the older children & mini maracas to the under ones.
Highlights and Developments of 2024 • Some of our themes for Spring & Summer Terms were Springtime, Flowers, Rainbows, Butterflies, Farming and At the Seaside.
• To celebrate Valentines Day, we gave the mums chocolate hearts. • In March we celebrated Mother’s Day by giving all the mums daffodils and a card.
• At Easter time we did an Easter Egg hunt with the children and gave them all an Easter Story Book.
• For Father’s Day we gave all the dads a bottle of beer. • On May 15th we had a Pyjama Day and raised £50 for the Addenbrookes Charitable Trust
• On May 22nd we had our Annual Outing to Church Farm, Stow Bardolph, where we took 76 individuals and a good time was had by all, despite the wet weather.
Community Involvement We do try to support our families in various ways and when we suddenly get emergency needs, we use a Christian Charity called Acts 435. We are also authorised agents for distributing Food Bank vouchers to families experiencing difficulties.

We strongly encourage recycling baby & children’s clothes, equipment and toys, with a ‘free’ table during sessions. Anything we can’t re-home we pass onto the local Baby Bank and we support them by encouraging parents to use them.

We run two Facebook groups for our two groups where we try to direct our families to various things which might be of interest to them. I have also set up a local Facebook group called ‘Ely Area Baby &Toddler Groups’ where families can see posters for various local groups suitable for babies and toddlers. We always encourage families to try different groups, especially at the Under Ones.

We are building a strong community in the groups where friendships are made and nurtured and children feel relaxed and secure.

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March 2012

Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

Our Reserves Policy requires us to hold sufficient cash reserves in the current account to ensure that our core actives could continue during any period of unforeseen difficulty or period of lower income and that we would be able to meet any unexpected costs that may arise. To this end we aim to keep one month’s typical expenditure available.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;

Our current bank account balance is £2199 all of which is unrestricted funds.

Our principal source of funding is from the small attendance charge we make for the group and donations from supporters. All of the money raised goes towards running costs, new equipment and engaging with our families. We have no paid staff.

investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.

Section F Other optional information

Future Plans

We hope in the coming year to be able to develop what we offer families at both the Wednesday Group and the Under Ones sessions.

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Full name(s) Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Date
	David Greene	Lindsay Frost
	Chair	Treasurer

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March 2012

Charity Name No (if any) The Ark Baby and Toddler Group 1178356 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period Period start date Period end date To from 01/08/2023 31/07/2024

Section A Receipts and payments

A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 4,356 1,050 30 371 8 473 - - 6,288 - - - 6,288 1,959 60 1,908 138 1,584 709 - 128 - 6,486 - - - 6,486 - 198 - 2,648 2,450	Restricted funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -	Endowment funds to the nearest £	Total funds to the nearest £ 4,356 1,050 30 371 8 473 - - 6,288 - - - 6,288 1,959 60 1,908 138 1,584 709 - 128 - 6,486 - - - 6,486 - 198	Last year to the nearest £
Admission fees	4,356		- - - - - - - - -	4,356	4,072
Donations	1,050			1,050	1,592
Fundraising	30			30	207
Gift Aid	371			371	217
Other Incomes	8			8	568
Outing	473			473	461
	-			-	-
	-			-	-
*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	6,288			6,288	7,117

A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
	-		- - -	-	-
	-			-	-
*Sub total*	-			-	-
*Total receipts* A3 Payments
			-	6,288	7,117

Equipment & Craft Materials	1,959		- - - - - - - - - -	1,959	1,810
Fundrasingfor other Charities	60			60	467
Hire of hall	1,908			1,908	2,012
Insurance & PAT	138			138	205
Outings & Snack	1,584			1,584	1,725
Miscellaneous expenses	709			709	493
Stationery& Printing	-			-	95
Workwear	128			128	-
Governance	-			-	-
**Sub total **	6,486			6,486	6,807

A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
	-		- - -	-
	-			-
**Sub total **	-			-	-
*Total payments* *Net of receipts/(payments)* A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end *Cash funds this year end*
			-	6,486	6,807

	- 198	-	-	- 198	310
	-	-	- -	-	112
	2,648	-		2,648	2,226
	2,450	-	-	2,450	2,648

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

30/04/2025

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets	Signature Details Details Current Account Cash PayPal Account - Restricted Fund Details Details *Total cash funds* (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details	Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 2,450 - - - - 2,450 - OK OK Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name Lindsay Frost David Greene	Endowment funds to nearest £
			-
			-
			-
			-
			OK
			Endowment funds to nearest £
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			Current value (optional)
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			Current value (optional)
			-
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			When due (optional)






			Date of approval
		Lindsay Frost
		David Greene

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

30/04/2025