# **Rowandale Integrated Primary School & Community Playgroup Parents Council (Rowandale Parents Council)** 

## **Trustees Annual Report** 

## **for the year to March 31st, 2023** 

Rowandale Parent Council Rowandale Integrated Primary School & Community Playgroup Parents Council 18 Clarehill Road, Moira, BT67 0PB 

rowandalepc@gmail.com www.rowandalepc.co.uk 

**Charity No: NI100427** 



## **Annual Report for the year ended March 31st 2023** 

The trustees of Rowandale Integrated Primary School & Community Playgroup Parents Council (Rowandale Parents’ Council) are pleased to submit their report and accounts for the period April 1st 2022 to March 31st 2023. 

## **1. Objectives & Activities** 

## **a. Objective of Rowandale Parents’ Council** 

All parents, guardians and carers of children at the school or playgroup are automatically considered members of the Parents’ Council. This can be extended to include any person over the age of 18 wishing to offer appropriate support or help to the school/playgroup and who is accepted by the Committee as a Member. 

The purpose of the Parents Council is to advance the education of pupils in the school in particular by; 

- Developing effective relationships between the staff, parents and others associated with the school; 

- Engaging in activities or providing facilities or equipment which support the school and advance the education of the pupils. 

We are governed by our Constitution and we are legally bound to upload our independently examined accounts and annual reports to The Charity Commissions of Northern Ireland (CCNI). 

Our Parents’ Council has a committee of seven elected members (trustees). As a committee, we: 

- Ensure we have thoroughly and robustly complied with CCNI regulations and legalities. 

- Ensure we have followed our constitution which is a legally binding document. 

- Provide a link between parents and school in terms of helping parents to understand school policies and procedures. 

- Help parents to articulate and school to understand practical issues that are important to parents. 

- Help to build relationships with the local community and help the school to play its role within the local community. 

- Pursue and support social opportunities for staff and parents to meet. 

- Raise funds for equipment and services to support the school and advance the education of the children. 

- Manage the allocation of those funds appropriately. Each decision to spend any funds is voted on with a majority of votes deciding the outcome. 

- Engage in activities to support the school in building its sustainability in terms of prospective enrolments. 

- Recruit and support HOPE Reps (Class Reps) to play a key role in all of the above. 

2 



**2. Activities, Achievements & performance** 

## **a. April 1st, 2022 to August 31st, 2022** 

## _i. May 2022 Sports Day_ 

This was our first sports day following the pandemic so there was great excitement that we were finally returning to a sense of normality. Rowandale Parents Council funded sports day medals for every child in the school costing £295.20. We provided refreshments for parents, grandparents and staff at no cost. 

## _ii. June 2022 School Leavers Show, Gifts, Hoodies & Colour Run_ 

We funded school leavers gifts and a colour run event costing £403.81 in total so the Year 7s could leave Rowandale with something to remember. We also provided refreshments for all the family at the Year 7 Leavers’ Show. We organised and ordered the leavers hoodies with Parents’ Council purchasing the hoodies upfront and parents reimbursing the full payment. 

## _iii June 2022 End of year Discos_ 

Our End of Year Discos are always a huge hit, particularly with those leaving the school and heading off to secondary. As usual, our DJ was our fabulous parent volunteer at no cost. Our only costs were the hire of the hall at £90 for the night and the cost of our tuck supplies at £605.01. The tuck supplies refer to full tuck supply costs for the year, we recouped the full amount through sales at our various events. 

## _iv June 2022 RIPS 5K & Family Fun Run_ 

On the 24th June 2022, we ran a super fun run event for all the family that got us all out to our local park and the blood pumping! Our parent volunteer and runner enthusiast Catherine Hammill led the way in organising this fantastic event from start to finish. We were supported by our local running club Jog Moira, who acted as marshalls and officials and we had help from other local clubs, organisations and churches, as well as our local council in relation to ensuring all relevant risk assessments, licences and car parking were in order. We sold 87 tickets in total raising £848.00, minus a ticket fee payable to the platform Trybooking.com of £42.40 resulting in a total of £805.60. 

## _v Donations_ 

Two very special families, the Multescu and Leeman’s very kindly donated two Google Chromebooks to the school to improve our ICT resources at a cost of £300 each, £600 in total. 

_vi September 2022 September Fun Day_ 

3 



Rowandale started the academic year off in fun. We held a ‘Welcome Back Fun Day’ on the school grounds. This fantastic school event was enjoyed by all our parents and children. Volunteers provided hand craft activities, face painting, cakes and refreshments. We even had reptiles and furry friends come to visit. The focus of the event was to bring us back together following the pandemic but we still managed to raise £270. 

## _vii December 2022 Quiz Night_ 

A fabulous social evening to bring our parents together again at the local Fat Gherkin in Moira. Olwyn and Sarah who so generously hosted us, provided amazing platters of cheese, cured meats, biscuits and more at no charge with allowed 100% of the £400 raised to go directly to our school. Thank you to parent volunteer Mary Hammill who was our quiz master. 

## _viii December 2022 Santa letters, cups and cards_ 

Once again our Christmas-related crafting activities and gifts were organised by our Parents’ Council and raised £335. 

## _viii February 2023 Bingo Night_ 

We teamed with the Quirky Bird Cafe and had a night of giggles, fundraising and a sumptuous dinner and we also managed to raise another £130 in the process. 

## **b. September 1st 2022 to March 31st 2023** 

The Trustees of Rowandale Parents Council produced a bumper Rowandale community newsletter to celebrate the activities, achievements and performances of Rowandale Parents’ Council. Prior to our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in June 2023, we circulated it to our wider community via all our social media channels and school messaging system. The newsletter referenced activities, achievements and performances between September 2022 to June 2023. Please follow this link to enjoy it: **- https://heyzine.com/flip book/Rowandalefundraisingsummary2023.html** 

## **3. Financial Review** 

Income generated for the year end 31 March 2023 was £15,668 in total, expenses paid out were £14,783 generating a surplus of £885. There was a prior year adjustment charged to the income and expenditure account for 31 March 2022 of £933, resulting in an overall deficit for the year of 

4 



£48. On review of the financial records and reconciling the key control accounts it was discovered that specific transactions during the period May 2021 to October 2021 were omitted in error. This prior year adjustment now corrects this omission. 

## **4. Reserves Policy** 

As per Charity Commissions guidance our charity holds a separate reserve bank account which holds £1,000 at all times. At present we do not have a written ‘Reserves Policy’ but this will be a priority going forward as per CCNI guidance ‘Developing a reserves policy’. 

## **5. Risk management** 

As per CCNI guidance we continually monitor and assess risk. We have created risk policies for individual events to support us to identify risks and take appropriate action which was then communicated to relevant parties. 

## **6. Investment Policy** 

We do not have an investment policy as we do not require it. 

5 



## **7. Plans for the future** 

We will continue to grow and strengthen the systems and processes of the charity to ensure the overall direction and effectiveness of the organisation. We will continue to develop and create new and existing policies and procedures to ensure a high standard of governance and accountability continues. We will continue to create a monthly newsletter which celebrates all of Parents’ Council’s achievements and performances regularly which also aids in building transparency and openness with all stakeholders. 

We will thoroughly support our major fundraising events coming up such as ‘Stars in their Eyes’ on April 1st 2023 as well as our smaller and social fundraisers such as Bingo and Quiz nights as well as our hugely popular twice yearly discos. We plan to run other fundraising events such as a style event night in which a parent volunteer will provide advice on style and colours. We also plan to run an intergenerational event to bring all generations together to enjoy each others’ company. 

We will continue to develop our volunteer base to support relationships between school and parents which helps with the smooth running of everyday life for us all e.g. we have two HOPE Reps (Help Our Parents to Engage) assigned to every class who support parents in their class to engage with school and Parents’ Council. Other examples in which parents volunteer to support the school every day is ‘Kiss and Go’ in which parents and staff work together everyday to ensure that our children arrive at and leave school safely every day. 

Our volunteer base also extends to subcommittees such as ‘Forest Maintenance’ Group and ‘Grants subcommittee’. We will continue to develop both of these groups to support the maintenance and accessibility to our school forest and to raise funds via securing grants to purchase required equipment and resources for the school. 

## **8. Organizational Structure, Governance & management** 

In relation to public benefit, the Trustees have complied with the duty to have regard to the guidance issued by the Commission under section 4(b) of the Charities Act. 

Our examined and published accounts are currently based on an accounting period of 1 April – 31 March. Our finances have been independently examined by a qualified parent volunteer. 

Our seven trustees have responsibilities to ensure that our PC operates safely, that we enhance the reputation of the school and playgroup, and that we prioritise activities that help us achieve our purpose, over any others. List of trustees are as follows: 

|**April 2022 – June 2022**|**June 2022 – March 2023**|
|---|---|
|Emma McGreevy– Chair|Laura Gordon – Chair|
|Laura Gordon – Vice Chair|Ursula McTaggart – Vice Chair|
|Vacant - Secretary|Elaine Graham – Secretary|
|Emma McGreevy– Treasurer|Emma McGreevy– Treasurer|
|Leanne Beckett - PR|Charlene Turkington - PR|
|Ursula McTaggart - Volunteer Support Lead|Nicole Bell – Volunteer Support Lead|
|Ciara Payne - FundraisingCoordinator|Ciara Payne - FundraisingCoordinator|



6 



We recognise that none of the work of the Parents’ Council is possible without the goodwill, skills and knowledge of our volunteers and committee, for this we are very appreciative. We would also like to thank the Principal and staff in Rowandale Integrated PS for their constant support, guidance and shared working. Thank you to the office staff who are always there to lend a hand and to our Board of Governors for their support. 


## **20.01.2024** 

_________________________________________ _______________ Signed on behalf of Rowandale Parents’ Council Date 

Laura Gordon, Chair, Rowandale Parents Council 2022/23. 

7