2023-07-31-accounts

Woodcote Pre-School Group CIO Report of the Trustees for the year ended 31 July 2023

The trustees present their annual report and unaudited financial statement for the year ended 31 July 2023 and confirm they comply with the Charities Act and associated guidance.

This information was presented at the Annual General Meeting held on 6 December 2023.

Charity Information

Charity Name Woodcote Pre-School Group CIO Charity Registration Number 1180857 Address Woodcote Village Hall Reading Road Woodcote RG8 0QY Website: www.woodcotepreschool.co.uk Board of Trustees Maxine Townsend Chair Russell Page Treasurer Jade Powell Secretary Wendy Powell Trustee Hayley Cook Trustee

Volunteers

Miranda Elsome Helen Lesinski (voted in on 6 December 2023 returning after maternity leave) Natasha Lusty Sophie Ayres-Norman

Accounts Verifier

Benjamin Callaway

Woodcote Pre-School Group CIO Report of the Trustees for the year ended 31 July 2023

Our Aims

To enhance the development and education of children under statutory school age in a parent-involving community-based group.

To continue to provide a valuable community asset in a rural setting as we have done for over 55 years.

Our Objectives

Woodcote Pre-School’s objectives are to develop and educate children by:

• Promoting their care and safety

• Promoting their education and promoting parental involvement

• Promoting their health and wellbeing

• Providing services to support them and their families and carers

• Providing services to individuals holding membership of the CIO

• Furthering the aims of the Early Years Alliance

Our Structure

Woodcote Pre-School is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) that operates under a constitution, last amended in September 2018. The charity is overseen by the trustees, supported by a committee of parents and former parents (the volunteers). Trustees and volunteers are recruited from our membership structure. Our members are the families, individuals and organisations that support our purposes and wish to have a say as to how we achieve our purposes through our work.

We have two categories of membership:

1. Each family that has a child registered to attend our childcare provision is entitled to Family Membership.

2. Any other individuals or organisations that are interested in supporting us in furthering our objectives, can make an application to our trustees for Affiliate Membership.

The Pre-School is managed on a daily basis by the Pre-School Manager and Deputy Manager, supported by three Pre-School Assistants and a Cook.

Performance and Achievements

Children

We have had twelve new children join since the last AGM. We currently have twenty-two children on register, with a further two starting in January 2024.

Staff

We have six members of staff. One is Early Years Level 4 qualified, four are Early Years Level 3 qualified and we have two qualified SENCOs. Congratulations to Gina who achieved her Level 3 qualification in June 2023 and to Tanya for achieving a five star rating for food hygiene in July 2023.

Thank you to Wendy, Sophie, Sarah, Tanya, Nikki and Gina for all of your hard work and dedication to preschool this year. The team have continued to provide a caring environment for the children to learn, grow and most importantly have fun.

Woodcote Pre-School Group CIO Report of the Trustees for the year ended 31 July 2023

Holiday Club

After the success of last year, we held a Holiday Club in both the Easter and Summer holidays in 2023. Holiday Club was open for four days at Easter and three weeks in the Summer, for children aged 2 to 8 years. Pre-payments for the Summer Holiday Club were taken during this financial year (July 2023). The sessions were well attended and well received within the community.

Baby & Toddler Group

Woodcote Baby and Toddler Group is run by volunteers from the committee on Monday mornings in the Village Hall. We provide toys, games and messy play along with a snack for the children and a place to meet and gain support for the parents and carers. We have a lovely group of families attending each week and have also arranged for the Health Visitor to attend every fortnight.

Fundraising

Our pre-school relies on fundraising to top up the government funding for childcare. In this financial year we have raised £5,296.92. We have held stalls at a number of events providing facepainting, glitter tattoos, jolly jars, games and activities for children. We also held our annual Christmas Raffle in December 2022 that was very well supported by the local community.

In February 2023 we received the Everyone Active grant from South Oxfordshire District Council. This enabled us to upgrade the resources used by the children at both Pre-School and Baby & Toddler Group to provide some new sports, balancing and climbing equipment and some interactive construction and sensory toys. Through these items we hope to enable play and exploration, whilst helping the children to develop coordination and muscle control and encourage collaborative play.

Referrals Scheme

Following on from feedback from our family members we have introduced a referrals scheme. When a member refers another child to our Pre-School, who then signs up to attend, we will give the member two free sessions for their own child.

Future plans

Our future plans are as follows:

• Continue to provide a pre-school at the heart of the village

• Further community involvement in Baby & Toddler Group including facilitating regular access to the local Health Visiting Team

• Continue to provide a Holiday Club in both the Easter and Summer holidays

• Provide training and development for the team of staff

• Increase our financial reserves

• Fundraise in 2023/2024 for role play, phonics and IT equipment

Financial Review

The accounts presented at the AGM and in this report run from August 2022 to July 2023.

Year-End Accounts

At the end of our financial year the Pre-school made a profit of £5,353 which is much improved from the loss of £5,168 we made last year.

Woodcote Pre-School Group CIO Report of the Trustees for the year ended 31 July 2023

Total income has increased by 23% from £73,479 to £90,570 . This was due to having more children in the school which provided us with more fee income, a good level of fundraising, and the holiday clubs. Grant income increased slightly.

Expenses increased by 8.3% from £78,647 to £85,217 with increases to most of our costs, especially food, waste disposal and village hall rent. There was also a large increase in salaries (and associated NI and pension contributions) which came into effect in April.

The bank balance to be carried forward to the new year is £12,501 . It is important that the Pre-school has a bank balance of this size because otherwise it would have to borrow to cover the expenses in the late summer and early autumn months when there is no grant income.

Gift Aid

An application for Gift Aid has been made and should be confirmed shortly. Cash or card donations over £30 will require the donor to complete a Gift Aid Declaration, those under £30 do not. This will enable us to receive an additional 25% from HMRC.

Forecast for Next Year

Looking ahead to next year we start off in a good position with money in the bank, but there are challenges. There will be a further 9.8% additional salary/ NI/ pension cost from April 2024, and an effective 11% increase in rent which came into effect in October 2023.

From April 2024 2-year-olds will receive 15 free hours (where both parents work at least 16 hours per week). From September 2024 this will be extended to children aged 9 months to 2 years, and there will be 30 hours for all children from September 2025.

There will be increased grant funding from September 2023 and parents on universal credit will receive additional funding for childcare which will be paid up front, instead of in arrears as presently. There is the option to reduce the minimum staff-to-child ratio for 2-year-olds from 1:4 to 1:5 from Sep 2024, however the Pre-School has decided not to implement these reduced numbers.

We have started the year with higher numbers than this time last year, and if we maintain these and obtain the increased grants we believe that we can maintain our fees at the current rates for the remainder of the year.

Our full financial report follows.

Profit and Loss Woodcote Pre School Group CIO Forthe year ended 31 July 2023 Turnover Holid8ytiub OtherR&nu4 7978.21 Prexhodfees 37￿.62 46AOi83 TotalT¥mo¥er Cost of Sales Food FUndia5￿n8[OSts W3Ste Diskwl 30322 1.765.92 270.00 Totalcostofsalas &703.47 Gross Profft 40.599.36 Administrative Costs AdvertI￿ng&Markettr￿1 JJdlt&k£wntarolees BankFees 593.05 EmpkyersNaiional 1￿M￿l￿e Entertainment.I0￿bJF￿5% 1895.76 GeT￿al Expenses Pen￿onsc0S[S IW7.65 I910￿0 Postage. FrQ￿ht&c0urier 7.331.10 6L.410.72 SaL4ries Staff Tr*nlng Subscrfptions Telephone&lnternet TOtal￿tt￿niStrOt￿ec94ts L55.40 2.029.98 404.76 79A14.67 Operating Profft 13&915.3ll Other Income Donations EWy￿￿AtheGrarnt Fundrailng Grants 10.43 1.078.12 41,754.88 1132.801 Schooltrip TotalOlhqrlrKome 44J68.63 Profrton OrdlnaryActiviiies BeforeTaxation Profit afterTaxatlon 353.32 Pwkofi

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of Woc(Icote Presch(K)l Group CIO On accounts for the yèar ended 31# July 2023 Charity no (if any) 1180857 Set out on pages NIA I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above Charity (Ihe Trusf) for the year ended 3110712023 Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basls of raport of the accounts in accordan￿ wth the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (Ihe Acr). I report in resped of my examinatron of the Trust's a¢counts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in orying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by Charity Commission urKler sedion 145(5}(b) of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no m*erial matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gNes me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. accounting records wer8 not kept in accordan￿ with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting rewrds Independent examinerfs ststement I have no ¢onc8ms and have rxxne across no other matters in connection wrth the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. . Please delete tho words in the brackets rfthey do not 4DpIy. Signed: Date: Namo: Benjamin Callaway Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (If any): NIA Addr88S: ¥ QIC IER October 2018

Section B Disclosure Only complete rf the examiner needs to highlight matters of concem (see CC32, Independent examination of chanty accounts.. directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief detai16 of any items that the examinerwlshes to disclose. IER October 2018