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Stoke Gabriel Pre-School Meeting
17th November 2004
Present: Helen Tattersell, Luke Peakman, Julie Goodall, Thomas Goodall, Claire Turner, Carolyn Sharp, Sarah Toon, Kate Peakman, Sue Stacey, David Stacey, Jo Sedgeman, Mary Huxter, Nessie Woodleigh-Smith, Sam Marnie
Apologies: Kate Hill, Alex Dunn
Minutes of last meeting - approved
Chair’s Report – see attached
Treasurers Report – see attached
Supervisor’s Report
First of all thank you to all the people who sponsored the children on their walk. It was a very successful event, unfortunately due to lack of adult helpers we were limited on how far we could walk, but thank you to Claire and Luke who did help. The sponsor money does need to be in at the end of this week, we have only had five back at the moment.
On Monday 22nd of November we have arranged for the Totnes Times and the Herald Express to come and take photos of the children for completing the sponsored walk and raising lots (we hope) of money. We need a final sum so please remember the sponsor money. This is also a great chance for some publicity for the pre-school and we hope it will bring more children in next term.
Can I remind you about our Christmas dinner/party. We need to know numbers for the end of the week (by Friday 26th November).
I have now sent off the pictures to be made into address books and they should be back in a couple of weeks. They will be £5 each. All the parents have ordered at least one which I am really pleased about as all the children put a lot of effort into them, so thank you.
Matters Arising
The PLA representative will be attending the next pre-school meeting.
Claire would like to say that due to the recent crisis that has faced pre-school and all the uncertainty that was caused by her resigning there has been a lot of talk and unnecessary chatter. She would like to emphasise that any grievances must forthwith be forgotten and we will all move on and work together to build a happy pre-school.
The pre-school Christmas nativity play featuring your children will be on Wednesday the 8th of November.
Carolyn raised the issue of confidentiality about matters involving individuals and their children in the context of pre-school. This is an important issue for us to be aware of and it was decided that the chair must be made aware of all issues but only inform others in the committee or staff if seen as necessary and in instances of very serious issues only upon the permission of the person(s) involved.
Parent helper rota – although not an exact rota was agreed several parents came forward and offered that they would be available to come into pre-school and help out in the event of staff shortages. If there are any others who feel they could help out please just mention it to Claire. Younger siblings not already at pre-school can come too.
New chair/committee
We follow the Pre-School Learning Alliance (PLA) constitution. Kyrie Edwards and Sarah Bromige have officially stepped down from the committee and we all thank them greatly for their time, help and efforts for the pre-school over the last few years. In January Claire will be stepping down as Chair and Helen Tattersell has gloriously offered to stand as Chair of the pre-school as of January and Claire has offered to be the vice-chair. Jo Sedgeman, Carolyn Sharp and David Stacey have all offered to be on the committee of the pre-school as well. Luke Peakman nominated all these people en bloc and Nessie Woodleigh-Smith seconded and the motion was carried.
Claire would like it officially known that Helen must be well supported in her new role as the chair and the committee must do all they can to help. It is also up to the parents to realise that support is needed to keep this pre-school running.
Numbers of children in sessions
At the moment the pre-school has a good deal of 2.5 year olds whose number of sessions is low and after Christmas we will lose another lot of children to Primary school and it these older children whose number of sessions/week is high. We either need to increase the number of sessions current pupils are attending or increase the number of children at the pre-school or both to reach sustainable funding levels. We will be advertising in the local shop, the parish news, mail drop a letter around the village, get posters up around the community. Also we will get posters to libraries in Torbay and Totnes and other community places.
Fundraising
On Saturday 11th November there is the Christmas bazaar. Parents have already come forward and offered to arrange stalls on the day. It would be great if parents could supply cakes, any home baking things e.g. pickles, fudge etc, raffle prizes for the various fundraising stalls. Claire, Helen and Julie will be coordinating things so approach them if you can help in any way.
Christmas carolling – this is an event that we are hoping to do in the week before Christmas. We need as many parents and children as possible to join a pre-school choir and entertain around the village.
Sadly the 70’s night has been cancelled for the time being.
Stacy Hurst is going to arrange a sponsored head shave to raise funds for the Parent and Toddler group. She has offered to go halves on the proceeds of the event if it was supported by the pre-school and some parents came forward to have their heads shaved. We agreed to go ahead and go in on it; so step up parents the hairier the better.
David mentioned that Chris and he would like to arrange a sponsored triathlon style event in the spring or summer. Possibly we could have a picnic/barbeque and canoe rides.
It was also suggested that we try to seek some more long term funding by approaching the lottery. There is apparently a place in Totnes where we can seek advice on getting grants and funding. We could also ask the PLA for advice.
Refurbishment Update
Mike Webster, the secretary of the Parochial Church Council, has been approached and he says that we must agree a final plan for the work and go to the PCC with a list of our specifications for the fixtures and fittings. Once the details of the work have been approved by the PCC and a rough idea of the cost has been obtained from builders we can move forward and start finding the funding for the work.
On the sub-committee for the refurbishment work we have Luke, Julie, Claire, Nessie, Kate and Sarah.
A.O.B.
Stoke Gabriel pre-school will be running a first aid course soon. Please enquire with Claire if you are interested.
Parents will be reimbursed for the afternoon session of Monday 22nd November that has been cancelled.
The date for the next meeting is Wednesday 9th of February 2005 at 7:45pm in the V and A.
As I’m sure most of you are aware that, although Claire is still officially our chair, she will be leaving the role as of January and this was the last meeting that she chaired. She will be staying on as vice-chair but Helen gave an enormous thank you to Claire from us all for her massive efforts and contributions to the pre-school as chair over the last three years. She has done a wonderful job and put so much work into something that she loves and wants to see work. I am sure that everyone involved in the pre-school would agree that she deserves our deepest thanks for what she has achieved.
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