ARGOED PLAYGROUP TRUSTEES, REPORT 2024/2025
Address:- W.I. Hall, Chambers Lane, Mynydd Isa, CH7 6UB
Charity Number: - 1184038
Trustees:-
Alys William - Secretary
Victoria Mann – Chair (stepped down September 2025)
Rebecca Ashbrook – Treasurer
Responsible Person – Lynne Ingman
Supervisors:-
Natalie Jones- Playgroup Supervisor
Tracy Porter – Playworker (left August 2025)
Bianca Simpson – Relief Playworker
Objectives
The aims of Argoed Playgroup are to provide a happy, safe and relaxed environment for children to learn and develop their skills through play and structured activities. We support children’s development and ease the transition to school with the support of qualified staff.
The playgroup exists to provide pre-school education from the ages of 2 – 4. This takes place in the form of a wide variety of activities both indoors and outdoors. During sessions we help to develop fine and gross motor skills, basic maths and language skills, learning of the Welsh language and social interaction with peers. We deliver Early Education with the support of the Local Authority.
To keep our fees at a realistic level the committee and parents fundraise and this in turn raises our profile in the community.
Staff
Playgroup Supervisor Natalie Jones has Level 3 in Children’s Care, Learning and Development. Natalie has a BAHons in Early Childhood Studies and has an up-to-date DBS, Paediatric level 3 First Aid and Food Hygiene certificates. Natalie has also attended Child Protection Awareness training and has completed the Curriculum for Wales Modules and has attended various Early Entitlement training courses. Natalie has also completed Speech, language and Communication training, Leuven Scales of Wellbeing and Involvement, Interacting or Interfering Training, ACE’s training and recently attended a Childcare Development Seminar.
Playworker Tracy Porter has NVQ Level 3 & 4 in Children’s Care, learning and Development, CACHE Level 3 in Childcare & Child Development, Working in Partnership with parents and has attended Child Protection Awareness Foundation Training (level 1) and Atrium Basic Paediatric First Aid Training. Tracy has completed Food Safety in catering (level 2), a 3-day Early Entitlement Flintshire Training for the Foundation Phase and also, various training organized by Early Entitlement and Flying Start. What’s more, Tracy has attended Speech, language and Communication training, Leuven Scales of Wellbeing and Involvement, Interacting or Interfering Training and completed the Curriculum for Wales Modules.
Bianca Simpson is our relief worker. Bianca holds a DBS for Argoed playgroup and has attended a Child Protection Awareness Training. Bianca is working towards a Childcare qualification.
Argoed playgroup work to ensure all the staff are well qualified and experienced. We are open to new ideas and to make the most of opportunities that enable us to acquire knowledge and develop our expertise. This enables us to share responsibilities and ensures the smooth running of the playgroup.
We have implemented Planning in the moment. We let the children choose what they want to do, join them and support them in their pursuits. We work closely with the children and observe their interactions and choices. We then use this knowledge to extend a child’s learning in the moment. We identify when a child first shows an interest/fascination in something, then we wait for the opportunity to extend the child's interest by asking open-ended questions and thinking of ways this interest can be applied to other areas of teaching. We document the observations and what we did to support that
child on their focus week page in their learning booklets. We have appropriate storage to allow the children to have free access to a variety of resources, they can
access and explore everything independently. We observe and alter areas within the playgroup to further a child’s learning, by adding or changing resources.
Premises
The W. I. Hall provides the group with a large indoor space where a good number of activities can be laid out for each session. We have use of the kitchen in which we have a table top fridge to store milk and snacks. There are also two toilets for the group’s use. There is a large grass area to the side of the building which is fenced off. This is used daily for part of the playgroup session when the weather permits.
Resources
The playgroup has a wide selection of resources to stimulate the children’s learning which enables the supervisors to change the activities available to the children regularly. Before moving to the W.I. Hall we had to purchase two large sheds which are at the back of the hall. Many of the resources are stored in these two locked sheds and we are able to keep some of the larger items on half of the staged area in the hall.
Sessions
We open for four morning sessions form 9:15 – 11:45, Monday – Thursday.
Finances
The fees for this year were set at £12.50 per session. From January we benefitted from EE funding for some of our children.
Wage slips are produced for us by AVOW and the wages averaged out over twelve months.
We have continued to fundraise this year, holding a successful Halloween event and toy tombola at a local summer fair.
We benefitted from several grants this year from Flintshire County Council – including one for sustainability.
Committee
We currently have four members on the committee – three members take up the
officer positions of Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. The committee meet regularly and often invite the supervisor to join us at these meetings.
Policies
All the necessary policies are in place and we annually review these to make sure they are up to date.
Constitution CIO – we have used the Early Years Wales constitution template and have adapted it to be suitable for our playgroup setting.
The trustees are selected from members of the committee – between September 2024 and August 2025, the trustees were the chair, secretary, treasurer, and responsible person.
Outside Agencies
We are supported by Early Years Wales and have regular contact with our development officer. We are also supported by Flintshire County Council Early Education advisory teachers. We are registered with Care Inspectorate Wales who monitor childcare and early education.
| Argoed Playgroup | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Income and Expenditure Report |
|||
| Year ended 31st August 2025 | |||
| Income Sheet | Snack Sheet | Total | |
| Income | £ | £ | £ |
| PlaygroupWeeklyFees | £ 10,847.00 |
£ 65.00 |
£ 10,912.00 |
| Grants | £ 3,852.00 |
£ 3,852.00 |
|
| EarlyEntitlement Funding | £ 9,616.00 |
£ 9,616.00 |
|
| Fundraising | £ 1,052.90 |
£ 125.00 |
£ 1,177.90 |
| Total Income | £ 25,367.90 |
£ 190.00 |
£ 25,557.90 |
| Expenditure | |||
| Wages | £ 16,678.93 |
£ - |
£ 16,678.93 |
| Rent | £ 2,599.00 |
£ - |
£ 2,599.00 |
| Insurance | £ 427.80 |
£ - |
£ 427.80 |
| AVOW -payroll fees | £ 255.32 |
£ - |
£ 255.32 |
| Data Protection | £ 35.00 |
£ - |
£ 35.00 |
| LotteryLicence | £ 20.00 |
£ - |
£ 20.00 |
| Courses/Training | £ 208.00 |
£ - |
£ 208.00 |
| Toys, Equipment and Stationery |
£ 73.35 |
£ - |
£ 73.35 |
| Sundry | £ 97.90 |
£ - |
£ 97.90 |
| Memberships | £ 155.40 |
£ - |
£ 155.40 |
| Snack(incl. cleaning) | £ - |
£185.31 | £ 185.31 |
| Total Expenditure | £ 20,550.70 |
£185.31 | £ 20,736.01 |
| Net Position | £ | £ | £ |
| 4,817.20 | 4.69 | 4,821.89 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpeningBank Balance | £ 3,755.58 |
||
| ClosingBank Balance | £ 8,572.78 |
||
| snack balance 1/9/24 | £ 46.30 |
||
| snack balance 31/8/25 | £ 50.99 |
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