Combe Pre School



Preschool AGM – 25th September 2012Reading Room, 8pmWelcome: To Committee embers and parents. Apologies from Committee members: Julia Iannou, David Snook, Tanya Baldwin.Chairs Report: Tracey Keeling: Attached.Treasurer Report: Heidi Evans: Attached.Staff Report: Andrea Oliver: Attached. Summary of Committee Member Duties: Committee members described individual roles: Chair: Leading meetings: ensuring they are effective and reflect the needs and wishes of preschool members. Representing preschool where necessary at public events or in meetings with other organisations eg: school, church. Liaising with Methodist representative – Malcolm Bromhall.Support and authorise treasurer in their decisions. Line manager for preschool staff.Treasurer: Payroll and salaries Submitting to payroll clerk. Applying for grants and finding research, funding applications, Submit accounts to charity commission, Managing finances. Keeping a regular diary of items that need to be completed throughout the year,Organising floats for events.Secretary: Agenda, Minutes of meetings, General disseminating information.Other Roles: Fundraising officer – organise fundraising events, laminating posters etc. Courier – writing for courier monthly about events.Parent Rota – Termly. Woodland Explorer – Jen Hurst working with Andrea and staff on developing preschool forest school project.Updating facebook, twitter and general media update of website. Liaising with Methodist Church Representative – Malcolm Bromhall – re: changes and ideas.Keep contact with other village committees – a point of contact with other members.Administration – eg: ordering uniform, booking venues. Purchasing for preschool. Questions: No questions. Committee Resignations: All members resigned from current committee. Including: Tracey Keeling – Chair, Heidi Evans –Treasurer, Julia Iannou – Secretary, Tanya Baldwin, David Snook, Kath Groves, Jen Hurst and Louise DigweedNew committee Elected: Louise Digweed - Nominated by Tracey Keeling , 2nd Susie Kilshaw. Jen Hurst - Nominated by Louise Digweed,2nd- Kath Groves. Ed Robinson – Nominated by Jen Hurst, 2nd -Louise Digweed. Jinous Banous– Nominated by Kath Groves, 2nd-Tracey Keeling. Colin Pratley – Nominated by Heidi Evans, 2nd- Tracey KeelingThomas Clavier – Nominated by Tracey Keeling, 2nd- Heidi Evans.Copy of constitution distributed to new members:Close of AGM – followed by Committee meeting of new members.Chair’s Report, Preschool AGMTues 25th Sept 2012Good evening and thank you for coming this evening. For those of you who may not know, can I start by saying that our Pre-School is now 43 years old, and exists today as a Charity, managed by a group of volunteer trustees, mostly parents from the community, and run by Supervisor Andrea Oliver and her team: Fay Dyer and Sarah Timms. We rent the premises from the Methodist Church and we rely heavily on the families of the attending children to form the Committee and support our fundraising events.***********After a busy, eventful year and a lightning quick Summer holiday we have made a fresh and positive start to this first term. We have welcomed several new families to Pre-school and I am pleased to report that with 16 children on a Monday morning and 22 children on role, September numbers are already up on last year and we expect both session and enrolment numbers to increase as the year progresses.Staff training featured large on our agenda last year; Andrea did the first half of a two year Foundation Degree in Childcare. In January Sarah started a year’s NVQ Level 3 course. Andrea attended Paediatric First Aid training, Fay completed courses in Positive Behaviour, First Aid and Child Protection and Sarah did Child Protection, First Aid and SENco. Thanks to everyone for continuing your training and at times giving up your own free time to do this. At the beginning of last year we recruited Nathalie Chapple, who instigated many positive changes and improvements at Preschool such as outdoor planting with the children, and more efficient use of the limited space we have. Sadly, Nathalie resigned after Easter as she felt unable to sustain a satisfactory work/life balance. Hannah Bowerman also worked with us on a temporary work placement basis while she studied for her NVQ 3. She was a great asset to Pre-School and we were all sorry to see her go. We are currently advertising for a new permanent member of staff and will be interviewing during this term. In the interim period, qualified agency staff are providing the necessary cover. Our relationship with the Methodist Church has remained strong this year despite a rent increase last September! Malcolm Bromhall has been bombarded with requests and suggestions on how we can improve the indoor and outdoor space and he has cooperated with most of them. We can be proud of the aesthetic improvements we made at Preschool last year. In February we redecorated the School Room, giving it a makeover and a Spring Clean. Through this project we met Daniel Logan of Kidlington’s Dulux Decorator Centre. He donated the paint, AND some equipment and even offered to help do the painting; which he did: brilliantly. Daniel was one amongst many local people who mucked in to get the job done – it was a real triumph for community spirit – so thanks again, everybody.We employed Dave Creasey’s expert skills to carry out cosmetic repairs to the Quiet Room, making it much warmer, smarter and safer for everyone.Last month the Quiet Room & Entrance toilet were redecorated and new flooring was laid. This was partly grant funded and partly a donation from Jen & Dave Lyon, whose generosity has really transformed the Quiet Room. Thank you very much.We kicked off last year with a visit to Crocodiles of the World in Crawley, where the children learned about various species of crocodile and even had an opportunity to hold a baby croc. Thanks to Juliette Gilleard for arranging this.Spring saw the launch of ‘Woodland Explorers’, led by Jen and Andrea. This involved introducing the children to mini-beasts and all Nature’s wonders amongst the long grass and trees on the perimeter of the playing fields. This proved to be a big hit with adults and children and is scheduled to be repeated this year. The long anticipated Ofsted inspection befell us last year and caused some controversy and frustration when our Good rating was reduced to Satisfactory. We were of course disappointed with the outcome, but on analysis the misdemeanors pointed to paperwork shortfalls and whilst steps have been and continue to be taken to improve this area, we are happy that fundamentally, the quality of childcare at our Preschool is not in question. I would like to thank the families at Preschool for their consistent support and loyalty throughout this period.We purchased a new printer/photocopier and were very lucky to have a new PC kindly donated by Howell Rees of Dragon IT. We opened a Facebook page and a Twitter account to make Pre-School accessible to as wide an audience as possible.We secured a grant at the end of the year of ?2000 to fund resources aimed at 2 year olds and many new items have since arrived at Preschool that will doubtless entertain all the children. We have also purchased two outdoor storage units.Our fundraising calendar was as busy as ever and we raised over ?2,700; a tremendous result. We ran the ever-popular Halloween party and Christmas Shopping Evening, Mothers Day Draw and Easter Egg Hunt. The Pirate Treasure Hunt was more fun than ever with a mini fete at the Reading Room. The Summer Fete was wet but wonderful this year and our Cream Teas made a record sum, after Sarah Dawson so kindly made a record sum of scones for us. In the midst of all this we also contributed in a small but entertaining way to the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations in June, by running a kids’ obstacle course on the Green. This was not a fundraiser, but a valuable community service and proved to be great fun. Thank you so, so much to the committee, staff and the families who contribute EVERY time, often year after year and whose gifts of time, effort, and generosity make these events so successful and such fun for our children. After three years on the Committee and two as Chair it is time for me to step away and welcome some new members to take the Pre-School forward. There is still a lot to do; and that is as it should be, as we continue to aim high. I have enjoyed being a part of my children’s early years education and am thankful that I have had the opportunity to be at the heart of it. I sincerely hope that anyone considering joining will take the same opportunity offered to them here this evening.Thank youTracey KeelingChair 2010 - 2012Combe Pre-school AGM Tuesday 25th September 2012Supervisor’s Report The September 2011 term began with approximately 17 children and we entered the summer term with 28 children on roll, with 11 children attending the Rising five session. Our six main topics for the year were: pets, festivals, under the sea, patterns, materials and people who help us. The children have continued to benefit from the popular Saltbox music sessions and have enjoyed a fascinating visit to Crocodiles of the world, where they had the opportunity to stroke and hold a snake and a baby crocodile.The staff have had a very challenging year especially when Ofsted came for their three yearly visit in October. We also had the difficult task of asking the children to perform in the Nativity play, which was no mean feat as we had more younger, than older children. In January, the Rising 5 sessions began, thankfully with a smaller group of children, although this was a still a challenge for all the staff involved. The children were always very enthusiastic to participate in the more challenging PE session, proving that this is still one of the most popular activities. This year with the help and support of Jen Lyon, the children have enjoyed exploring the outdoor environment for the Woodland Explorers sessions, which have been well received by the children and genuinely enjoyed.Malcolm Bromhill kindly introduced and arranged the Bears and Prayers sessions on Wednesday mornings, so that the children can listen to Bible stories and they have enjoyed learning some new sing songs with actions. Malcolm is already organizing these for the coming year, but they may well be held on a different day. Back in February we had our Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) carried out by our Early Years Advisory Teacher and a fellow college. This was completed to help us improve the Pre-school environment for the 2 year old children. As a result we were informed that we could apply for a ?2000 grant from Oxfordshire County Council to purchase some new resources, which have already started to arrive. We ended the year by saying goodbye to our Rising Five children at the end of term party, where Ali from Saltbox kindly provided the entertainment.Future Aims for 2012/2013To work with the New updated Early Years Foundation Stage 2012 to ensure that all the children make progress in their learning and education in readiness for their transition to school.To carry out the new 2 year old progress check and work with parents to help meet their children’s individual needs. The staff will be working together to put into place the recommendations from our Ofsted and ITERS reports to help improve the standards of care and education that we provide at Pre-school. ................
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