Chairperson’s report Nov 2021
Thank you for attending Newcastle preschool playgroup AGM this evening. We hope you all feel welcome tonight.
We are pleased to welcome our preschool leader Grace back from back from maternity leave.
It been a challenging year with Covid and I want to take this opportunity to thank Catherine, Esther and Caroline for keeping everything running smoothly and efficiently in the midst of a pandemic.
The preschool has been fortunate to gain a grant from the engage 2 programme. It is to enable the preschool to bring outside professionals in to run inhouse sessions to widen the children’s experiences, e.g. drumming and mindfulness. We are excited to start welcoming them into our playgroup.
We have also applied for a grant for junk art units, but we are yet to hear the outcome of this.
We recently moved rooms in the centre as we had to vacate the old preschool room. This is due to the plan to demolish the back building in the new year. We were very grateful to have the opportunity to remain in the Newcastle centre.
Unfortunately, from the new year we will no longer have access to the outdoor space attached to Newcastle centre. Thankfully we live in an area that offers great outdoor spaces. We intend to use the playpark and green space at islands park, the beach and the promenade for the children’s outdoor play.
Currently, the preschool is unable to run the usual afternoon pre-preschool playgroup in the new year as the new room does not allow for the lower staff ratio of only two staff members to run safely. To attempt to make up for the loss in earnings from this group we are exploring the option of taking up to 6 more children in the morning class.
Fundraising is a key to the continued running of the playgroup. Sadly, due to covid restrictions our fundraising ability has reduced, and we need to start to think of alternative ways of raising funds. We will be running our Christmas raffle and a Christmas fun day for the children during the preschool hours. We have already received some donations from local businesses for prizes. However, if anyone here has any prizes they would like to donate or can think of anyone to ask we would be very grateful and would appreciate parents and the local community supporting us in the event.
Thank you for coming here this evening. We are very grateful for your time.