Trustees Reporttor Financial Accounts for year ending 30 June 2024 Ahoghill & District Community Preschool Playgroup 80 Cullybackey Road, Ahoghill, Ballymena, BT42 1 LA Charity Number- 100885 Principle Activity of the Charity The aim of the group is to enhance the development and education of the children under statutory school age in the local community. CharityTrustees: Mrs Laura Nelson Mrs Amyscott Mrs Kelly Crawford Ahoghill playgroup is a voluntary organisation managed by a group of parents elected annually and who meet on a monthly basis to discuss issues concerning the group. The playgroups main purpose is to enhance the development and education of the children under statutory school 8ge by encouraging parentsiguardians to underst8nd and provide forthe needs of their children. a) offering appropriate play facilities, with the right of parentslcarers to take responsibility for and to become involved in the activities of the group, thus ensuring th8t the group offers opportunities for all children. regardless of culture. race or means and b) encouragingthe study of the needs of the children and their families and promoting public interest 8nd recognition of the needs of the children and their families in the local area c) support the values and principles of Early Years-The Organisation foryoung Children. Our Public Benefit statement is as documented on the Charity Commissions register and has remained unchanged since our registration on 12112114. The Committee Members/Trustees have had regard to the Charity Commission public benefit for this financial year ending 30106124. We are registered for a maximum of 26 children per day to attend playgroup. For the academic year ending 30106124 we had 24 full time preschool children places that were funded by the Education although one left in Jan 24 which then made it 23 funded full time pre school places from the Education Authority. The following are some of the activities we offered this year to provide the above named are8s of learni ng- We created weekly plans for age appropriate play-based activities to cater for all ages and stages of development of the children within our group. We had lots of visitors; a science teacher. Jo Jingles, Police. Jump Jiggle and Jive. We also had some dress up days. pyjama day and World Book Dress Up. We continued to use the Lending Resources- Library and Physical Packs with some additional funding from Getting Ready to Learn, we purchased some new resources to enable us to make up other packs. We share any availablelrelevant information to the parents via Seesaw about The Gettingto Learn Programme. The importance of redu¢ingscreen time and a good
bedtime routine. We held 3 parent stay and play sessions. these offered the parents an opportunity to see what their child does at playgroup and hear about the learning potentials within these activities. These were well supported and parents expressed how they enjoyed them and asked for another session. We encourage parents to get involved and share their children's learning through becoming a committee member, assist with fundraising. and coming into the group to talk to the children about theirjob e.g. nurse, scientist. postal worker. stay and play sessions, Christmas Concert and Sports day. We had made the decision to let the parents back in the building in September and this was working well at the start but we had some issues with p8rents not following the rules and had to introduce a new system to make sure they adhered to the rules even with the new system it was proving difficultfor parents to adhere to them. An incident took place with a parent so the decision to use the door policy again was necessary to safeguard staff and children in the building. We the staff think this works best as we know who is in the building at all times this helps us keep safety foreveryone a top priority. We encourage parents to use the playgroup mobile number if theywantto discuss any concerns so we can arrange a suitable time and date to talk as this keeps within our confidentiality policy. It 81so helps with a smooth drop off and pick up if parents have already messaged ahead. We provide newsletters and any relevant updates through Seesaw. We 8re still waitingfor the internet to be put into the building so we are running off the mobile data which can be slow at times. So Seesaw gets updated as soon as the internet is available to let us do it. We minimised how many photos we uploaded on Seesaw as this was taking up a lot of the leader's time especially when the internet isn't working. We will continue using Seesaw as what it was set up forwhich isjust to send out group updates, newsletters and any relevant information from other sources e.g. getting re8dy to learn or RiseNI. We sent photos out when we had special events taking place. Duringjune we had visits from Primary One teachers from our local schools. We found these visits very beneficial to the children as they get to know their new teacher forthe year ahe8d. We are also doing shared links with our local primary school where they invited us to their Christmas concert. unfortunately this wasn't possible due to some children still needingto settle in. The children really enjoyed this and it helped them get familiar with whatwill be some children's new surroundings. We held parenvteacher feedback meetings to keep parents in touch with how their child was developing. This provided the parentslcarers with an opportunity to discuss any concerns they have about their child. This year we again took part in the 3+year review. Parentslcarers completed a questionnaire and could make an appointment to speakto the Health Visitor. We did some fundraisingthis year. We did a Christmas raffle, an Easter raffle and Teddy Toddle Walk. Funds were raised by selling raffle tickets and giving out sponsor sheets. The money raised was used to purchase new toys and resources forthe children and pay for anythingthat the playgroup needed. We continue to review our policies and procedures and adhere to these. We have a policy file with all policies available to parents daily if they need to read these. St8ff continuing their personal development by availing of online courses. These include RiseNI, Northern Childcare partnership, First Aid, Fire SafetyAwareness, Safeguardingjchild Protection training.
Our annual inspection by Social Services took place in October 2023 but no report has been issued by social services. We continue to seek parent's comments/feedback during parent meetingsleventsl8t arrivals times and these have been very positive. Parents showed their appreci8tion to the staff at the end of the year with numerous comments made about the high standard of care, dedication 8nd commitment of the staff during their child's year with the group. This would suggest that we are meetingthe needs of both the children and the parents who use ourpl ygroup as outlined in our purpose. rustee) g ..c(..o.wJ..F..o ! (rrustee} Report dated: 09 0? 2*