An Annual General Meeting, commonly referred to as an AGM,
is a formal meeting which is held once a year. It is a legal requirement for voluntary
organisations that have company status, but it is also good practice for
charities to have an AGM to act as a review of the year and deal with issues
such as the election of committee/board members and reviewing the annual accounts.
This has been my second
year as Chair of the committee, and once again it has been a busy one! We have
been continuing to build on the hard work of the previous few years
educationally and financially and as ever, striving to become an outstanding
setting.
Staffing
This past year has
seen a number of changes in the staffing, with Elaine and Ava leaving last
academic year and Laura joining the team full time as well as Tara supporting
as relief worker to cover staff absence. In addition, this term, Coreen has
left First Steps after 8 years of being a key member of the team as a play worker,
deputy and then leader and we wish her every success in her future. We are very
grateful to Charlotte who has kindly agreed to take on the role of Acting
Leader while we look to appoint a permanent replacement for Coreen, and we
would like to thank her for keeping the preschool running smoothly during this potentially
unsettled time.
In the past year, Hayley
has completed her NVQ level 2 training and so is now able to have her own key
children. She is also our bookkeeper and has been helping our Treasurer Tracey
to keep the financial side of the preschool running smoothly. Hayley and
Charlotte have also both passed their English GCSEs.
Charlotte has
completed her Forest Schools level 3 course and we have booked for Sarah to
begin her level 3 Forest Schools course starting in January. As a setting we
are very keen to implement this training as we have seen the benefit that
Forest Schools has on the children who take part in these sessions.
The staff have all
completed a number of statutory and enrichment training courses run by the
County Council over the last year, covering many differing aspects of preschool
life. Over the coming year, we will continue their professional development,
with a number of courses having already been booked and more in the pipeline.
This year we are
excited to have all staff taking on more areas of responsibility across the
pre-school and to each be focussing on an area of the curriculum, which
Charlotte will go into more detail about in a moment.
Finance
Tracey, our treasurer,
will be detailing our last financial year shortly. With the National living
wage increasing again and workplace pensions being implemented, as well as the
introduction of the 30 funded hours for many families with 3 and 4 year olds,
we have been busy this year looking into what it means for us financially. I
would like to say a massive thank you once again to Tracey for all her hard
work and the countless hours she has spent dealing with all these issues, as
well as the many others that come up. Thank you also to Hayley for her
bookkeeping work to keep our finances organised.
Education
We are very pleased
with how well Tapestry has enhanced the learning and growth of your children
whilst they are at the setting and how much easier it made the transition of
information over to the school for all those who were starting Reception in
September. We hope that those of you who have already got access to this have
enjoyed it as much as we have and found that it has helped keep you up-to-date
with everything going on with your child’s learning within preschool. And for
those of you yet to use it, we hope that after this evening, you will enjoy
using it too!
With the staff each
taking on areas of the curriculum to focus on, we are sure that this will lead
to lots of exciting activities and opportunities for your children and that it
will help us to ensure that we are giving your children fun and exciting
opportunities to play, across all of the areas of the early years curriculum.
Closing
In closing I would
like to thank all the staff for their dedication and hard work to make this the
setting that it is, particularly in the last half term where it could have been
a bit unsettled with staffing changes and absences to cover. First Steps
pre-school wouldn’t be the place it is without all of you. I would also like to
thank the members of the committee for all their hard work, the time that they
have given up for meetings and fundraising as well as tackling the garden and
sheds! And of course, thank you to all the families of First Steps,
particularly those of you here today as without you, we wouldn’t be able to
open!
During the coming year
we will be continuing the good work we have been doing and see the impact of
the staff having particular areas of the curriculum to focus on and develop, as
well as preparing once again for the possibility of a visit from Ofsted. We are
excited to see what the future holds for First Steps Pre-school, and we will keep
you all updated over the next few months with any news and developments related
to a permanent pre-school leader.
Treasurer's AGM Report - 8th November 2017
Tracey Kirkpatrick
The first
recommendation made in last year’s Treasurer’s report was “to seek further ways
to appropriately spend our accumulated fund on equipment and activities”. This is evidenced through the c.£2k spent on
one-off items such as i-pads for Tapestry, £400 on new toys and £457 on
resources for Forest School, new projector etc.
We also
aimed to “to review staff wages, particularly in relation to increases in the
living wage” and from
April 2017 we have funded the increase in the national living wage to £7.50. At the Finance meeting held in March 2017, we
proposed further increases to staff pay that were subsequently approved by
Committee.
Our
staff pension scheme (commenced 1st August 2016) continues to be
funded by 2% employer contributions to all staff, irrespective of
earnings. This will be reviewed during
2017-18 to reflect the statutory increases in contributions from April 2018.
We
also aimed “to review the impact of the
increase in funded childcare hours for 3 & 4 year olds from 15 to 30 hours
by September 2017” and subsequently made sessions available on Thursday
afternoons. This was in part made
possible by the introduction of Tapestry.
The
majority of our income is received from Dorset County Council and this year
totalled £66,638. Our fees brought in £15,950. This totalled an increase of c.4% for total
income.
We also raised
£776 through fundraising plus more that was directed to petty cash to fund
supplies.
Our
expenditure totalled £83,955; the majority of which was staff wages and
associated employment costs at £73,305. We
have commenced paying 2% pension contributions for all staff and our forecasts indicate that our current
income should cover these increased annual costs going forward, however, this
is based on the current level and timing of take-up of places and current
staffing levels.
The
combination of increased take-up of places earlier in the academic year and the
fact we have budgeted to contain our expenditure within our annual income, has
resulted in a healthy financial position and a small profit. This is all down to the hard work of the
pre-school staff.
During
2017/18 we will need to continue to absorb the financial impact of any
increases in our costs whilst forecasting our income to ensure this is
financially viable.
The pre-school has two Lloyds bank accounts, a current account and a savings
account. As at the end of August 2017
the current account balance was £34,653.14 and the savings account balance was £11,389.61;
a total of £46,042.75 invested in total.
Recommendations:
i)
To
forecast income and expenditure for 2017/18 and ensure all financial
commitments can be met;
ii)
To
continue to allocate funds towards improving the training and resources
available to staff and children; and
iii)
To
implement on-line banking and payments; facilitated by an improvement in the
electronic banking services available to us.
|
First
Steps Accounts Analysis
|
2015-16
|
2016-17
|
Sub Total
|
Total
|
Surplus
|
|
DCC Income
|
61,306.62
|
66,638.28
|
|
|
|
|
Session Fees (including vouchers)
|
18,019.12
|
15,949.74
|
|
|
|
|
Earned Income:
|
|
|
82,588.02
|
|
|
|
Fundraising/ donations/ interest
|
677.55
|
775.65
|
|
|
|
|
Recharges
|
311.19
|
796.83
|
|
|
|
|
Other Income:
|
|
|
1,572.48
|
|
|
|
TOTAL INCOME:
|
|
|
|
84,160.50
|
|
|
Wages & HMRC
|
56,701.73
|
70,305.20
|
|
|
|
|
NEST - Pensions
|
0.00
|
551.42
|
|
|
|
|
Staff Training
|
1,781.52
|
916.60
|
|
|
|
|
DBS Checks
|
200.10
|
52.29
|
|
|
|
|
Bookkeeper
|
0.00
|
624.00
|
|
|
|
|
Payroll Provider
|
300.00
|
855.00
|
|
|
|
|
Staff Costs:
|
|
|
73,304.51
|
|
|
|
Manor Park Rent & Landscaping
|
3,557.80
|
2,547.08
|
|
|
|
|
Insurance
|
651.81
|
983.00
|
|
|
|
|
Internet & Wifi Installation
|
775.20
|
704.64
|
|
|
|
|
Bank service charges
|
295.55
|
315.56
|
|
|
|
|
Fire Inspection
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
|
|
|
|
Information Commissioner & Ofsted
|
85.00
|
85.00
|
|
|
|
|
Charitable Donations &Gifts
|
108.30
|
36.60
|
|
|
|
|
Unpaid cheque
|
26.40
|
0.00
|
|
|
|
|
Other Costs:
|
|
|
4,671.88
|
|
|
|
Hope Education/ Forest School
|
1,859.46
|
274.37
|
|
|
|
|
Lynx/De LageLanden Copier
|
986.19
|
1,182.24
|
|
|
|
|
Consortium
|
947.26
|
1,107.41
|
|
|
|
|
Tapestry Licence & i-pads
|
947.00
|
284.97
|
|
|
|
|
Wainwright & Davies Engraving
|
727.18
|
526.37
|
|
|
|
|
Concorde
|
0.00
|
196.29
|
|
|
|
|
Weymouth Fencing & Sheds
|
606.00
|
0.00
|
|
|
|
|
ArtScreen – tea towels
|
0.00
|
138.60
|
|
|
|
|
Oxford University Press
|
261.14
|
0.00
|
|
|
|
|
Fun Factory – Leaver’s Party
|
0.00
|
222.60
|
|
|
|
|
Tesco Bikes/ Echo Job Advert
|
189.96
|
208.00
|
|
|
|
|
Petty Cash
|
600.00
|
1,200.00
|
|
|
|
|
Other Supplies - refunds
|
663.57
|
637.42
|
|
|
|
|
Supplies & Services:
|
|
|
5,978.27
|
|
|
|
TOTAL EXPENDITURE:
|
|
|
|
83,954.66
|
|
|
SURPLUS:
|
|
|
|
|
205.84
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I include with this report a copy
of the First Steps Annual Accounts for 2016-17 which have been independently
examined by Ian Smith; a Chartered Management Accountant and Accountant at Dorset
County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Leader's AGM Report - 8th November 2017
Charlotte Hillier (Acting Leader)
Since last years AGM we have had lots of changes
within the pre-school.
Staffing - Elaine, Ava and Coreen have left us and
we have employed Laura full time and Tara as bank staff who provides us with
cover for staff absences.
Hayley has completed her NQV and I have completed
Forest Schools leader qualification. Sarah is also about to start her journey
to become a Forest School leader.
Looking forward, we have allocated each staff
member a particular area/s of focus these are:
PSED and Understanding the world- Sarah
Expressive arts and design- Hayley
Maths- Laura
Communication and language and Literacy- Kimmaree
All staff are responsible for physical
development
All staff are enthused with their new roles and
are actively embracing them planning how to improve their areas ensuring that
our pre-school is the best it can be.
Staff have also been given more roles:-
Designated Safeguarding lead - Charlotte
Deputy Safeguarding lead - Laura
SENco - Charlotte
Deputy SENco - Kimmaree
E safety champion - Hayley
ENCO - Sarah
On top of this and our mandatory training, all of
our staff attend enrichment courses throughout the year. We pride ourselves on
our continuous professional development and are very proud to have a staff team
who are willing to further their professional development.
This year's transition for school starters has
gone extremely well and they all seem to have settled into their daily life at
big school.
We try to ensure that the transitions to school
are as smooth as possible. We do weekly visits to the library for our school
leavers as well as being invited over to attend Caterpillar Cafe. We also use
the school hall for our performances throughout the year and have access to
their Forest Schools site.
Our new starters at pre-school have settled in
very well and have quickly found their place within the pre-school. Same goes
for our existing children - most now being the older children, they have
taken this responsibility in their stride and do what they can to help the
younger ones.
Our numbers for this academic year are pleasing -
we do still have some availability on different days so if you would like to
increase your child’s sessions please do not hesitate to discuss this with us.
Out of a possible 250 sessions we offer each week, we only have 28 which are vacant. We also have a healthy looking waiting list
for the next academic year.
We have had several parents show interest in
joining us on our Committee this year which is fabulous. If you would like to
join us then please do not hesitate to discuss this with us also.
Tapestry - we are in our 2nd year of Tapestry and
the feedback has been astounding. We have a much better relationship with our
families due to the instant communication link we now have with you all. Those
of you who have not yet received your log in details please stay behind after
this meeting as we have a small presentation and a waiver we need you to sign
before we can hand these out. Parents are also able to post their own observations
which we can then link into the Early Years curriculum. We have had feedback
from parents that they don’t know what to post so we have decided to set
‘Tapestry challenges’. These will be in the newsletters and on our Facebook page
and will give you a guide to what sort of things you could post, eg can you find
a number outside - so this could be your door number, a number plate etc.
Hopefully this will then give you all the confidence to start posting.
Tapestry not only gives us that instant link with
yourselves but also allows me to do the tracking much quicker at the click of a
button as opposed to flicking through all of the learning journeys. This has
been a very valuable resource.
All staff have worked extremely hard to ensure
they have developed good relationships with their key children’s families. This
allows us to communicate better with you about how your child is doing and if
there are any concerns from either side, you are comfortable to speak to us
about these.
We do encourage families to come in and help for
a session (or a few). If you are able then please do speak to us and we can
arrange a time suitable.
Finally I would just like to thank our amazing
team, their dedication to their jobs really is second to none and the hours
spent at home preparing various different resources ready for the next day
whilst juggling family life really is outstanding.
Over the last 5 weeks everyone has mucked in and
taken on that little bit more than previously to help lighten the workload for
me and the general running of the preschool. I really really do appreciate all
you have done and I’m sure will continue to do throughout the year.
I would also like to thank the Committee for
their hard work and continued support and all of our families who attend and
support our pre-school with their children.
