2024-08-31-accounts

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period

From 1[st] September 2023 Period start date To 31[st] August 2024 Period end date

Charity name: St Andrew’s Preschool Caversham

Charity registration number: 900218

Objectives and Activities

	SORP reference
Summary of the purposes of the charity as set out in its governing document	Para 1.17	The aims of the Pre-School are to enhance the development and education of children under statutory school age. We support our parents and carers by: A) offering appropriate play, education and care facilities, family learning, together with the right of parents to take responsibility for and to become involved in the activities of such groups, ensuring that such groups offer opportunities for all children whatever their race, culture, religion, means or ability: B) encouraging the study of the needs of such children and their families and promoting public interest and recognition of such needs in the local areas: C) instigating, adhering to and furthering the aims and objectives of the Early Years Alliance.
Summary of the main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit, in particular, the activities, projects or services identified in the accounts.	Para 1.17 and 1.19	St Andrew’s Pre-School main objective is to continue to provide a safe and stimulating environment and to produce happy and confident children as they move on to the Foundation stage at school. This is achieved by: 1. The provision of appropriate Preschool play and educational facilities 2. Fundraising to support the objectives. 3. Close liaison with the Early Years 1 Professionals and Providers. 4. Support and guidance for families attending Pre-School. 5. Maintaining detailed records and observations for each child to ensure that they achieve their full potential. 6. Liaising with parents to discuss learning opportunities for their child and how to extend these at home.
Statement confirming whether the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity	Para 1.18	The Committee consider the following when making decisions on matters such as financial reinvestment, admissions policies, and fee

	Commission on public benefit		reviews  To ensure we ofer an inclusive and afordable childcare setng to all, with no restrictons of catchment, faith or personal background.  All fnancial investment improves the level of childcare on ofer, increases chance of retaining qualifed early years practtoners, or supports the learning and development needs of all children.  Any decisions to increase fees are only done to ensure the contnued fnancial viability of our setng.  Provide a consistent approach to all families on any questons or concerns by publishing and circulatng our policies. This is to ensure we can contnue providing the public beneft of being an Early Years educaton setng.

Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:

SORP reference Para 1.38 Policy on grant making Para 1.38 Policy on social investment including program related investment Para 1.38 Contribution made by volunteers Other

Achievements and Performance

	SORP reference
Summary of the main achievements of the charity, identifying the difference the charity’s work has made to	Para 1.20	In 2023/24 there were a total of 34 children at St Andrew’s Pre-School. Throughout the year the Pre-School supported both the children and their families as they started in the educaton system and transitoned 18 of the children on to local primary schools. The transiton process includes involvement from the local schools,

the circumstances of its beneficiaries and any wider benefits to society as a whole.		with the feeder schools sending staf to Pre- School to meet the children, as well as discussing the development and progress of the children joining the school. We stll use multple start dates for children throughout the academic year to ensure we are accessible to all families with children aged 2 years and 6 months. This also allows us to fll any available places as the year progresses. In 2024/25 we had new 28 starters in September, 5 in January and 1 in April. The staf have worked closely with the Brighter Futures Early Years team to stay up to date with the local Childcare guidelines, including completng relevant training courses and atending conferences. Training undertaken this year includes Mental Health Aware, Trauma Informed Practce, Grow Your Own Stories, Children’s Language and Communicaton Development Through Music, and the necessary Safeguarding and First Aid training. Having recruited heavily in 2022/23, we onboarded a new Manager and qualifed Early Years Practtoner in September. We promoted one of our existng team in October and recruited a further qualifed EYP in January to backfll this promoton. Due to carrying this vacancy from September, we created a temporary Pre-school Assistant role to cover kitchen and food roles allowing our Key People to focus on childcare. This role was successful and due to our strong fnancial year, we were able to retain the role for the full academic year. This team structure under the new leadership team has been exceptonally successful. We contnue with successful practces implemented in previous years such as Home Visits, setling in sessions, the inducton process and contnue with the ‘In The Moment’ planning with a weekly theme. We have moved to a more ‘free fow’ beginning to the day and have re- introduced small group work sessions and shared snack prepared within Pre-school. We contnued to constantly review our practce, regularly updatng our RA and ensuring that we support and protect both our Pre-school families and our staf. To ensure the best care is provided to the children with additonal needs the Staf team liaise as appropriate with Reading SLT (Speech and Language Team), the Brighter Futures For Children advisory team and atend the SENCo Network sessions. An ongoing efort is made each year to improve both the level of care provided to the children and the business practces employed by the Pre- School. To ensure that these changes are

relevant and support our community we invite regular and open feedback from staff, committee, families and any third parties with an interest in Pre-school. We use several methods of communication including email, Tapestry and a physical presence of staff and committee in the playground each day. In addition to this we have a formal parent survey which was issued at the end of the academic year. This year parents raised questions about our start and end timings as they no longer align with the longer primary school days. Committee took this action into the following academic year for review. During 2023/2025 we raised £2,096 from fundraising. Funds were raised through the Autumn Fair in conjunction with the church, a Christmas raffle drawn at the Nativity Play, Mother’s and Father’s Day creative pieces, Bingo Night and multiple cake sales. Funds from this were used to purchase new equipment for staff, carry out essential maintenance on our storage garage and offer enrichment activities for the children such as an onsite Farm visit. We continue to try and contribute back to the local community by partaking in research projects such as the ‘See and Eat’ study run by Reading University and Burford Research.

Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:

Achievements against objectives set	Para 1.41
Performance of fundraising activities against objectives set	Para 1.41
Investment performance against objectives	Para 1.41
Other

Financial Review

Financial Review
Review of the charity’s financial position at the end of the period	Para 1.21	The total cash balance at the end of the fnancial year was £110,679.27. Total expenditure for the 2022/2023 fnancial year was £128,956 and income came to £145,646. Therefore, the surplus made by Pre- school amounted to £16,690. Full details in the treasurer report detailed at the end of this document.
Statement explaining the policy for holding reserves stating why they are held	Para 1.22	We hold reserve funds for the case of an emergency closure. The amount held is calculated using redundancy payment owed to current staf members and one full term of forecasted expenditure to enable a controlled shutdown and provide all families with sufcient notce.
Amount of reserves held	Para 1.22	£71,577
Reasons for holding zero reserves	Para 1.22
Details of fund materially in deficit	Para 1.24
Explanation of any uncertainties about the charity continuing as a going concern	Para 1.23

Additional information (optional)

You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:

The charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising)	Para 1.47
Investment policy and objectives including any social investment policy adopted	Para 1.46
A description of the principal risks facing the charity	Para 1.46
Other

Structure, Governance and Management

Description of charity’s trusts:
Type of governing document (trust deed, royal charter)	Para 1.25	2011 Consttuton adopted 8th May 2015
How is the charity constituted? (e.g unincorporated association, CIO)	Para 1.25	Unincorporated charity
Trustee selection methods including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees	Para 1.25	Commitee members are nominated and seconded prior to electon by parents at the AGM and following the Consttuton regulatons. Each family has one vote. Nominee with most votes appointed to role. Each year a minimum of 5 must be appointed and the 3 ofcer roles flled. All commitee members must become trustees.

Additional information (optional)

You may choose to include further statements where relevant about: Policies and procedures adopted for the induction and Para 1.51 training of trustees The charity’s organisational structure and any wider Para 1.51 network with which the charity works Relationship with any related Para 1.51 parties Other

Reference and Administrative details

Charity name	St Andrew’s Preschool Caversham
Other name the charity uses
Registered charity number	900218
Charity’s principal address	St Andrew’s Church Hall, Albert Road, Caversham, Reading RG4 7AW

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

1 2 3 4 5 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)
	Frances Loar	Chair	Sept 23 – Aug24
	Jack Casserley	Treasurer	Sept 23 – Aug24
	Rose Beattie	Secretary	Sept 23 – Aug24
	Laura Lawless	Fundraising	Sept 23 – Aug24
	Sarah Magor	Committee Member	Sept 23 – Aug24

– Corporate trustees names of the directors at the date the report was approved Director name

Name of trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity

Trustee name Dates acted if not for whole year

Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others

Description of the assets held in this capacity

Name and objects of the charity on whose behalf the assets are held and how this falls within the custodian charity’s objects

Details of arrangements for safe custody and segregation of such assets from the charity’s own assets

Additional information (optional)

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of Name Address adviser

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

Katherine Yarwood - Manager

Exemptions from disclosure

Reason for non-disclosure of key personnel details

Other optional information

Declarations

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

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signed on behalf of the	charity’s trustees
Signature(s)	Frances Loar	Lynne Whipps
Full name(s)	Frances Loar	Lynne Whipps
Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc)	Chair	Secretary
Date	03/06/2025

Treasurer’s Report Annual General Meeting, 20[th] May 2025 Financial Year 2023/2024 Accounts

Annual accounts for the financial year ended 31[st] August 2024 have been completed. They have been approved by the Pre-school Committee and signed-off by an independent assessor, as required by the Charities Commission.

The total cash balance at the end of the financial year was £110,679.27 . Approximately 47% of this amount was being held in our current account with Santander so that we had sufficient cash on hand for day-to-day operations. The remaining 53% was held in a Nationwide savings account.

An amount of £71,577 could not be touched as it is our reserves fund (essentially money to cover any predicted deficit and costs that would have to be paid in the event of an unforeseen closure – i.e. redundancy costs, rent, costs to remove equipment and other expenses). Hence a more accurate picture of our surplus is £39,103 (on 31[st] August 2023).

Total expenditure for the 2023/2024 financial year was £128,956 and income came to £145,646. Therefore, the surplus made by Pre-school amounted to £16,690 . The budgeted spend was £128,618 in 2023/2024. Therefore, the Pre-school’s actual expenditure of £128,860 equates to an overspend of less than 0.2% of the budget. Overtime and pensions were higher than budgeted. However, we received a significantly higher sum from Brighter Futures EY Entitlement. Brighter Futures EY Entitlement budgeted income was £59,688 and actual income was £95,364. Budgeted income for private fees was £61,208 and actual income was £39,832. When combined, total budgeted income for Brighter Futures EY Entitlement and Private Fees was £120,896 with actual income of £135,196, resulting in unplanned extra income of £14,300 .

During 2023/2024, we raised £1960 from fundraising . With a total income of £2096 and total expenditure of £136. The pre-school would like to thank everyone involved, especially Laura Lawless, the Fundraiser for that year.

In addition to the £39,832 received in private fees, we received £2211 in Voluntary Contributions and £527 from HMRC Gift Aid . We would like to thank the parents for their generous contributions.

Looking at the current financial year, due to the increase in National Minimum Wage, pension contributions and taking into account that several key staff members had not received a wage increase over the last few years. A significant portion of the existing surplus will be used to increase staff wages, bringing staff wages up in line with the National Minimum Wage.

Costs are expected to continue increasing, so the committee will be looking to make changes to fees in 2026.

If you would like to know any further details about the income and expenditure, or for further details of our budget, please feel free to get in touch. Ting Rawcliffe Wong Co-Treasurer

St Andrews Pre School Accounts

Income and Expenditure Account

For the period 1st September 2023 to 31st August 2024

	Net Income
Santander No.1 Current Account:	Income Expenditure (Expenditure)
	£ £ £
Rent	19,006.93 -19,006.93
Staff & Training (excluding pensions)	100,035.93 -100,035.93
Pensions	2,538.21 -2,538.21
Milk	34.04 -34.04
Consumables	1,603.02 -1,603.02
Deposit/Holding Fees	2,700.00 -2,700.00
Equipment	299.99 -299.99
Fundraising Expenses	136.44 -136.44
Grants	0.00 0.00
Miscellaneous Purchases	853.13 -853.13
Personnel	40.84 -40.84
Insurance/ Subscriptions/ Renewals	1,707.41 -1,707.41
EYP (Early Years Provision - RBC)	95,363.82 95,363.82
HMRC Gift Aid	526.45 526.45
Fees	39,832.21 39,832.21
Voluntary Contributions	2,210.74 2,210.74
Holding/Deposit Fees	3,750.00 3,750.00
Registration Fees	740.00 740.00
Milk	24.10 24.10
Other	0.00 0.00
Fundraising	2,096.10 2,096.10
Interest	1,102.21 1,102.21
	145,645.63 128,955.94 16,689.69
	16,689.69
Balance Sheet:

Santander No.1
current account
no. 64575704		52,516.16
Nationwide
business savers
account no.
11358713		58,163.11
		110,679.27
Accumulated
Fund
Balance31st
August 2023of
total
Accumulated
Fund		93,989.58
	Net Income
	for the
Plus:	year	16,689.69
Accumulated
Fund on31st
August 2024		110,679.27
Budgeted Spend
2021-2022		100,529.66
Reserve fund
(redundancy
costs, closure
and cash flow)		71,576.60
Surplus		39,102.67

I certify that I have reviewed the above Income and Expenditure Account and Balance Sheet, it shows a true position of the school fund account for the year 4[th] September 2023 to 31[st] August 2024 and are in accordance with the books and records of the fund.Signed: !

Dated: