AGM MINUTES
Held in the computer suite in Eyemouth Community Centre, Wednesday 28th September 2016
Present: Stephanie Patterson (Chairperson), Miriam Lindsay (Manager), Julie Windram (Administrator),
Marie McQuade (Early Years Development and Support Officer)
Avril Bell, Angie Hanson, Rachel Davidson, Marina Batista, Jayne Gibbs, Ingrida Kvizikeviciene,
Katie Murray
Apologies:- Sarah Maltman (Vice Chairperson) Laura Chisholm, Douglas Greenshields (Trustee)
1. Introduction
ML opened the meeting by introducing Marie and thanking everyone for coming, she told everyone that it was really appreciated that they had given up their time to attend as she understands that we all have busy lives.
SP informed the meeting that although she had thoroughly enjoyed her time as chairperson she now felt that it was time for her to stand down from her position.
Douglas Greenshields had asked to inform the group that due to work commitments he could no longer be considered as a Trustee, as he could not guarantee when he would be home.
ML gave thanks to SP & DG for all their work, time and help that they had given the nursery during their time in their roles.
2. Change of Manager and staff changes
ML thanked everyone for supporting her when she took over the role as manager, for taking the changes on board and making her feel welcome. The following staffing changes were noted;
Gemma Tones is now employed on a 10 hour contract.
Lisa Slicer has increased from a 12 hour contract to 18 hours.
Abigail Emblen has been employed on a 0 hour contract at the moment, to help the nursery with staffing.
All children have been assigned with a key worker, all parents should have received a letter confirming who is their childs key worker, ML asked parents to contact her if they have any queries.
3. HMI Inspection and Improvements we have planned for the forthcoming year
ML informed the meeting that we received positive feedback, that the inspector was impressed that she had self evaluated effectively and outlined what needed to be implemented within the nursery and improved upon, and had set the wheels in motion to start this work off. Staff had taken the changes on board and moved on with the new observations.
3.1 Planning
ML informed the attendees that we have moved on to child centered learning, that the children learn more through engagement and enjoyment and therefore we base our planning around the children’s interests. If the children express an interest in something we base our learning around it as soon as practicable whilst we still have the children’s interest. The ideas and requests from the children are logged into our Floorbook, which is available for parents to view at any time.
3.2 Journals
Observations are now being placed into the children’s Journals which is one of the new procedures which has been implemented, to ensure the tracking and observation of each child’s individual progress. The new folder structure is working well with the children, they all love having their own folder, this gives the children a sense of ownership, and builds builds the children’s self-confidence.
3.3 Observations and next steps
The observations taken by staff are linked to the Curriculum Of Excellence and the next steps for each child are planned from there.
3.4 Outdoor provision
The outdoor area has moved on quite a lot since the last AGM, the wetpour is now in place and the pirate boat has been built which the children love playing on. ML informed the meeting that we had been given approval from SBC to allow us to start planning the extension to our railings at the entrance to the nursery. We plan to extend the railings along from where they currently stop, along to the wooden fence. This will give us the opportunity to provide free-flow play for the children, where they can move freely between playing in the outdoor area, through to the indoor play room by themselves.
3.5 Plans to decorate
The nursery is in need of a freshen up, we are currently fundraising with the aim of using the funds raised to paint the nursery during the next summer holidays.
4. Finance Report
JW presented the 2015-16 Accounts to the meeting, which included a breakdown of the income and expenditure for the year. The following points were highlighted;
Income – the nursery raised £560 through fundraising for this year, fundraising events were the sponsored Halloween fancy dress party, the danceathon, Christmas mugs and photos. This money was used in normal day to day running costs of the nursery.
We received £1983 in donations: £150 from RS McColls, which will be spent brightening up our outdoor area once the railings have been extended, £1500 from the COOP which the nursery used to purchase the Kiddibus and £300 from Unisong who were a local musical group who had decided that they no longer wished to operate and decided to donate the funds left in their bank account to a local charity. We were delighted that they chose our nursery! We decided to use this money to purchase musical equipment and have bought drums and other musical instruments so far, with the remainder of the funds to be spent on a ‘surprise’ during the festive period – more information on this to follow!
The main expenditure on this years accounts was the £6293 spent on the wetpour flooring in our outdoor area, money which was provided by the Big Lottery Trust and received in last years accounts.
Fees – are generally being paid on time by the majority of parents/ carers but there are a few people who are in a habit of letting them build up. Being a small charity run nursery we rely on prompt payment of fees to ensure that the running costs of the nursery are met.
A number of parents pay the fee’s digitally either as a 1 off payment, or set up weekly standing orders which the nursery encourages! If anyone is interested in this please see JW for bank details.
Discussions took place regarding Christmas fundraising ideas, ML/JW to gather more information to be discussed at a later date.
5. Election of Committee
Marie McQuade explained the duties, roles and expectations of a chairperson, and the committee.
ML explained that due to SP resigning her position, and due to SM’s child leaving to start school we were now in a position to recruit a chairperson and vice chairperson, and were also looking to recruit an active committee, possibly a fundraising sub-committee.
ML informed the group that Laura Chisholm had asked to be considered for the role of chairperson and asked if anyone else in the meeting would be interested in any of this role. Rachel Davidson, Jayne Gibbs and Katie Murray all volunteered to take on a role.
SP proposed that Laura Chisholm be accepted in in the role of Chairperson – this was seconded by Angie Hanson.
SP proposed that Rachel Davidson be accepted in the role of Vice Chairperson – this was seconded by Avril Bell.
SP proposed that Jayne Gibbs and Katie Murray be accepted in the role of trustee’s and the fundraising sub-committee – this was seconded by Marina Batista.
New committee was confirmed – Laura Chisholm as Chairperson, Rachel Davidson as Vice Chairperson, Jayne Gibbs and Katie Murray as trustee’s and fundraising sub-committee. Marie McQuade will contact LC and RD to arrange a date to discuss their roles in more detail.
AOB – JW to forward email addresses of LC and RD to Marie McQuade