2025-07-31-accounts - The Ark Baby & Toddler Group

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Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Period end date 01 August 2024 31 July 2025

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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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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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.

	• 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.
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)	The trustees have kept in mind the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit when planning events and activities for the year. The Ark runs two groups each week in term time; on Mondays we have a group for Under Ones only and on Wednesdays we have a group for under 4s. This year we trialled a Friday morning group once a month. 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 various churches in the area. Our Wednesday group is offering families and carers of children aged three and under (plus siblings) a structured session based round themes including, crafts, sensory play, small world, construction, role play, exploration, snacks and music session. For the parents we provide a place to be able to meet with other parents and carers. Numbers wanting to attend the Wednesday group have remained high and so places have been allocated by 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. The trial group on Friday, ‘Clare’s Ark on Fridays’, runs similar to the Wednesday group but just for 1 ½ hours. It is run by two of our Team helpers. 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.

•
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.

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)

The trustees have kept in mind the Charity Commission’s guidance on
public benefit when planning events and activities for the year.
The Ark runs two groups each week in term time; on Mondays we have a
group for Under Ones only and on Wednesdays we have a group for
under 4s.
This year we trialled a Friday morning group once a month.
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
various churches in the area.
Our Wednesday group is offering families and carers of children aged
three and under (plus siblings) a structured session based round themes
including, crafts, sensory play, small world, construction, role play,
exploration, snacks and music session. For the parents we provide a
place to be able to meet with other parents and carers.
Numbers wanting to attend the Wednesday group have remained high
and so places have been allocated by 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.
The trial group on Friday, ‘Clare’s Ark on Fridays’, runs similar to the
Wednesday group but just for 1 ½ hours. It is run by two of our Team
helpers.
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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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 Volunteer Team 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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Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

Highlights and Developments of 2024

At the end of July, our last session before the summer holidays, was a party, held this year at Wilburton Recreation ground.
At the end of term we presented/delivered books to our regular children who were starting school in the Autumn term.
• We continued with the Under Ones group through the summer holidays meeting most weeks, as we feel this group needed the continued support and we ran two Wednesday sessions which allowed older siblings to attend as well.
In September Margaret organised a ‘World’s Greatest Coffee Morning’, raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support.
In December we had our Nativity Session and Christmas Party.
• At Christmas we gave out books to the older children and maracas to the under ones.
Our themes for the Autumn Term were Favourite Stories, Autumn, National Nursery Rhyme Week and Christmas.
Highlights and developments of 2025
To celebrate Valentines Day, we gave mums chocolate hearts and to celebrate Mother’s Day, we gave them daffodils.
• At Easter we did an Easter Egg Hunt and gave the children Easter Eggs donated by a local company, DS Smith plc. and also a book on the Easter Story.
For Father’s Day we gave the dads a bottle of beer.
• On May 14th we had our annual outing to Church Farm at Stow Bardolph where we took 88 individuals and a good time was had by all.
Our themes for the Spring Term were; Winter Fen, Birdwatch, Spring Time, and Easter and for the Summer Term; Shapes, pets and Riverbank.
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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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 £2570 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) David Greene Lindsay Frost Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc)[ Chair ] Treasurer Date 23/04/2026

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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 01/08/2024 31/07/2025

Section A Receipts and payments

A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 4,432 1,950 - 313 387 502 - - 7,584 - - - 7,584 1,189 758 2,556 96 1,464 328 157 62 854 7,464 - - - 7,464 120 - 2,450 2,570	Restricted funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -	Endowment funds to the nearest £	Total funds to the nearest £ 4,432 1,950 - 313 387 502 - - 7,584 - - - 7,584 1,189 758 2,556 96 1,464 328 157 62 854 7,464 - - - 7,464 120	Last year to the nearest £
Admission fees	4,432		- - - - - - - - -	4,432	4,356
Donations	1,950			1,950	1,050
Fundraising	-			-	30
Gift Aid	313			313	371
Other Incomes	387			387	8
Outing	502			502	473
	-			-	-
	-			-	-
*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	7,584			7,584	6,288

A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
	-		- - -	-	-
	-			-	-
*Sub total*	-			-	-
*Total receipts* A3 Payments
			-	7,584	6,288

Equipment & Craft Materials	1,189		- - - - - - - - - -	1,189	1,959
Outings	758			758	698
Hire of hall	2,556			2,556	1,908
Insurance & PAT	96			96	138
Snack/Refreshments	1,464			1,464	886
Miscellaneous expenses	328			328	60
Stationery& Printing	157			157	-
Workwear	62			62	128
SundaryExpenses/Gifts	854			854	709
**Sub total **	7,464			7,464	6,486

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*
			-	7,464	6,486

	120	-	-	120	- 198
	-	-	- -	-	-
	2,450	-		2,450	2,648
	2,570	-	-	2,570	2,450

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

25/04/2026

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 B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B1 Cash funds	Details Details *Total cash funds* (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Current Account Cash PayPal Account - Restricted Fund Details Details Details Signature	Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 2,570 - - - - - 2,570 - 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)
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			When due (optional)






			Date of approval
		Lindsay Frost	23/04/2026
		David Greene	23/04/2026

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

25/04/2026