Stoke Gabriel Pre-School Committee Meeting

28^th February 2007

Present: Laura K, Luke P, Kelvey A, Emma Y, Vicki P, Alison M

Apologies: Alex D, Sam M,

Treasurer’s Report: see below.

Recruitment
In the last couple of months there have been some changes with the staff at the pre-school. Unfortunately Katrena has left the pre-school officially, but luckily for us she has agreed to come in and help out in times of staff shortages. We would like to thank Katrena for her wonderful work at the pre-school and she will be much missed by both children and staff. The committee would now like to officially congratulate Suzanne on applying for and getting the job of pre-school deputy supervisor, after an excellent application and interview. This then left us with the role of assistant to fill and after another round of advertising and interviewing we would like to officially congratulate and welcome Sarah Credland to the pre-school. Sarah is now in Suzanne’s old position sharing the role of assistant with Caroline.

Matters Arising

Recently the PCC informed us that they wanted to close the Old School Rooms for bookings on 13^th to 17^th June inclusive in order to put on a flower festival. The committee has responded to this by informing the PCC of the difficulty and costs this causes us. We are awaiting their response. We will hopefully, in the not too distant future, seek a more official booking agreement for our use of the Old School Rooms.
Due to the current period of high numbers of children at the pre-school there is only space for bookings for over three’s on a Thursday morning and a Monday afternoon , and a few spaces left for any age children on a Wednesday afternoon. All other sessions are full.

Our pre-school, like all pre-school’s, must adhere to the current Funding Code of Practice in order for us to get the government funding. The code specifies that funding comes on a per session basis for each child and that each session is 2.5 hours long. Currently our session times are not standardised to this and we will soon have to change our session times in order to maximise access to sessions. We do not expect this to be a very big change and details will be coming shortly.

· The admissions policy is currently under review.

Fundraising Update

At the time of writing the 70’s Night went ahead with a great turn out, fantastic entertainment, good food, excellent costumes and much drunken fun had by all (well certainly me anyway). Details to follow about how much money was made. This was a superbly arranged evening and we would like to thank everyone involved, particularly all those that ran the entertainments on stage with such hilarity and Vicky and Alex (+helpers) for once again doing so much hard work to raise money for the pre-school.

At the moment a Bonnets and Boaters Easter event is planned for Sat 31^st March. Like last year this is designed as a family fun afternoon with food and drinks.

Another of the very popular Pamper mornings is in the early stages of planning. Details soon.

Carnival plans are already under way (it is only 5 months away) and again we will hoping to put on the Pet Show, Fancy Dress and of course the Parade.

Important Notice

For all of us who have attended and supported the excellent and invariably great fun events put on by Vicky and Alex (+helpers) over the last couple of years now is an opportunity to join them and help them in their work. They are desperate for helpers and there is no need for you to officially be on the committee of the pre-school but just be part of a less formal fundraising sub-committee. Please see Vicky or Alex with offers of help.

Staff Contracts

With the relatively successful period the pre-school is enjoying we as a committee believe that our success is mainly down to the committed and highly motivated staff we have and therefore we feel that some changes to their contracts are in order. The details of the changes will be made clear to the staff but the agreed changes are in the areas of increased Sickness Pay, Bank Holiday Pay and a good, above inflation, pay rise. We have felt that with the quality of staff we have and the relatively poor wages for workers in the field of childcare and education we could afford to be a little more generous and become slightly better employers taking us some way towards offering the sort of benefits they might get from working elsewhere.

Finally......

Very Important Notice

The Pre-School AGM is on Monday 23^rd April

At the Old School Rooms

Arrivals at 7:45pm to start for 8:00pm

The meeting is for all parents/guardians to come and support and find out what is going.

This year we hope that we already have enough volunteers to fill all the required roles on the committee so please just come along, if you can make it, to support our pre-school.