AGM MINUTES

 

Held in the Computer Suite,  in Eyemouth Community Centre, 4^h November 2019

 

Present: Anna Jones, Georgina Short, Leevi Brown, Megan Carpenter, Sarah Ponton, Nicola Burgon (Trustee, Danielle Laing (Chairperson)                                

 

 Miriam Lindsay (Nursery Manager), Julie Windram (Office Manager)

 

Apologies: Katy Simm (Vice Chairperson)

 

 

1.       Welcome

 

ML opened the meeting by welcoming everyone 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.

 

 

 

ML introduced herself to the group in her role as Nursery Manager, JW as Office Manager, DL as Chairperson and informed everyone that KS had given her apologies as Vice Chairperson.

 

 

 

2.       Staffing

 

PUPS Room;

 

In January 2020, AE will start her maternity leave, she is hoping to be able to stay and work up until Christmas.

 

 

 

EB has started working in the Pups room as AE’s maternity cover, and will continue to get to know AE’s key children as she will take over as their key worker when AE finishes at Christmas time.  We employed EB earlier than needed to allow her time to get to know the children and staff, and to allow AE to give a full hand-over.

 

EB contract will be reviewed by the end of the academic year.

 

 

 

LF and RC continue to work in the Pups room, 4.5 days each.

 

 

 

SEALS Room;

 

LW is leaving at the Christmas holidays, to start working as a childminder, we wish her the best of luck in her new venture!  IM has been employed early, to allow a full handover.

 

IM contract to be reviewed by the end of the school year.  IM has indicated that he is very keen to stay on and progress through the levels of childcare available, he has great ambition!

 

AJ and MC both voiced their approval of having a male worker within the nursery environment, to have a positive male role model, as not all children have a male regularly in their lives.

 

 

 

AM and JR both continue to work in the Seals room, 4.5 days each.

 

 

 

When LW leaves, to maintain our staff:child ratio’s, we need to have 4 members of staff in the Seals room, ML will be on ratio to cover when needed.

 

 

 

JW is office based, although she completed her Level 2 Childcare training a couple of years ago, on the English side, but the SSSC would not accept this qualification, on the Scottish side.  So she has decided to do her SCQF Level 7 training through Borders College.  She will need to carry out placement hours in the playroom, so when the additional 4^th member of staff is required, the time will be split between ML and JW.

 

 

 

GT has had a year off due to health issues.  ML offered her a gradual, phased return to work, of 2 hours per day.  GT came back for a couple of days, but found it too much.  Her circumstances and outlook has changed so has decided to leave for now, while she focusses on herself.

 

 

 

3.       Training

 

JR started off her employment on a part time basis, covering breakfast club.  She has really come on and progressed in the time she has been with us, and is now working a full 4.5 days per week, she is keen to further her learning and has applied to study the SCQF Level  7 through Borders College.

 

 

 

IM is keen to study his SCQF Level 7 through Borders College, and will apply to start to do this in January as you have to have been working in a nursery environment for 6 months before the college will sign you up for the course.  In the meantime he has signed up to study Mental Health Awareness in Early Years.

 

 

 

EB is also keen to study her SCQF Level 7 through Borders College, and will apply to start this in January aswell.  In the meantime she has signed up to study Challenging Behaviour in Children.

 

 

 

ML needs to complete additional units to maintain her SSSC registration, as she gained her degree in England, so has to study certain units in Scotland.  She is considering applying to study another degree in Scotland this time, online, possibly starting in January.  ML may study additional modules the following year.

 

 

 

JW is waiting for a start date for the SCQF Level 7, all forms have been submitted and funding has been sourced.

 

 

 

4.       Progress Report

 

 

 

The pups room has been a great success since we opened it a year ago. We are completely full in there until summer 2020.  The difference in the staffing and the learning opportunities provided for the children has been incredible.  We start to teach the children the early level of the curriculum in the pups room, before they move through to the seals room when they are 3.

 

 

 

Inspections

 

We have had no inspections this year, although we have received the questionnaires from the Care Inspectorate, so we will be expecting one in the near future.  We welcome the inspections, we are very open when the inspectors visit us and they always appreciate that.  It is vital that we work with the Care Inspectorate, and share best practice so that we evolve as a nursery and continue to provide a high quality learning environment.

 

HMiE usually inspect every 10 years so we do not expect to see them soon.

 

 

 

1140 hours

 

 

 

The 3 to 5 year olds and funded 2 year olds are entitled to 1140 funded hours of Early Learning & Childcare each year.  We feel that we are very flexible with parents/ cares and offer a variety of ways to allow them to use their funding.  It has been a new process for us, we have adapted our working day to be able to accommodate the requirements of all the parents/carers.

 

In the morning session, we find that the children are very enthusiastic and eager to learn, everyone is very engaged in their learning and busy.

 

The Care Inspectorate are currently looking at providers’ lunch time, and how we all manage it.

 

We keep our lunch time very calm by switching the lights off, we put tea-pots out with water and milk in them, to build the children’s independence, the pre-school children pour out the milk or water.  The new care standards state that children should not be rushed at meal times, and we do not do this.  We allow the children as much time as they need to finish eating their lunch.

 

We allocate a member of staff to sit at the 2 year olds table every lunch time, to offer them assistance should they need it.

 

We allocate a member of staff to be around the 3 and 4 year old children’s tables, talking to them and offering assistance wherever needed.

 

After lunch is finished we invite the children to sit or lie down and listen to a story, to allow their bodies the time to digest their food, to offer them some time to relax, whilst members of staff work to clear away the lunch debris, and to make the area safe for the children, to allow us to open up continuous provision.

 

Mid-afternoon, we call the children over and complete a yoga session, before an afternoon snack is provided, then home time.  Yoga has been proven to be very effective in promoting mental health and mindfulness in early years.

 

 

 

ML asked for feedback from the parents at the meeting as to how they felt that the lunches that are provided from the Tavern were being received by the children? 

 

·         MC said that her child was eating much better at home, being more confident and understanding healthy foods, and was mentioning it at home. 

 

·         Other comments were that the children were trying more foods at home, were keen to try new foods.

 

ML said that her plan was to invite the parents into nursery for lunch with their child, when the weather was a bit better.

 

Expansion for next year

 

 

 

ML informed the meeting that going forward next year, we propose to open the nursery all year round.  We propose to open the nursery 12 months of the year, only being fully closed for the 2 weeks at Christmas.  We also propose to be open from 8am to 6pm to allow us to be available for working parents.  ML had held consultations with staff and the staffing we could offer would cover the full 12 months.  Some staff would prefer to stay to term time contracts, some staff would prefer an all year round contract. 

 

The 1140 hours of funding from SBC could then be divided over the 12 months or 50 weeks, if parent’s required it.  If they wished to top up the hours that their child attended, they could do so by paying for additional childcare.

 

ML will put through a variation on the Care Inspectorate website if the proposal was given the go-ahead.

 

ML put the proposal to parents, that we open up for 50 weeks of the year, open earlier and stay open later;

 

SP – yes

 

NB – yes

 

MC – yes

 

AJ – yes

 

LB – yes

 

DL – yes

 

GS – yes

 

 

 

Proposal agreed – ML to enter variation through Care Inspectorate.

 

 

 

 

 

5.       Finance Report

 

JW presented a copy of the 2018-19 Accounts to the meeting, which includes a breakdown of our income and expenditure for the year.  She explained that the original accounts and documents were at the Accountants but was hoping for them to be returned soon. 

 

The following points were highlighted;

 

We are extremely proud to be able to announce another successful year for Seashells!

 

Although we started the academic year with rather upsetting news that the newly acquired, decorated and furnished pups room had been broken into and vandalized, which completely ruined it.  We were overwhelmed by the generosity of the local community who pulled together and donated money, replacement items and offered their time to help us get the room back up and running again.  Although we lost income during this period, we were able to claim from our insurance company.

 

Our income from fee’s has increased again, rising to £26.5k from £25.7k last year.  The funding we receive from SBC has considerably increased from £42.2k in the previous year, to £130k in this academic year.  This is due to the increase in funded hours to 1140.

 

We have held some successful fundraisers over the year;

 

·         Pups room fundraiser during summer holidays                  £86

 

·         Sponsored Halloween walk                                                         £300

 

·         Christmas Fayre                                                                                                £274

 

·         Nativity Tickets & raffle                                                                 £160

 

·         Cake Sale                                                                                             £250

 

·         Mothers Day pampering                                                               £70

 

Overall it has been a very successful year for fundraising and give the parents/ carers a massive thank you for this!  We plan to start the improvements in the Seals room soon.

 

6.       Improvement Plan

 

ML reminded the group of our Vision, Values & Aims;

 

·         Our Vision is to provide Love, Integrity & Aspiration

 

·         Our Values;

 

o   Love – At Seashells we foster genuine love for children in our care.  Love is not just something we all say but more so what we do.  From a warm welcome on arrival to a hug when needed most, to spending time listening to children’s interests and curiosities.  We see Seashells as a loving community where individuals matter.

 

o    Integrity – We do what we say we will do.  As a charity nursery. We are not a business in it for profit.  We are committed to being honest with each other- our parents and families, our staff and our team around us.

 

o   Aspiration - We firmly believe in aspiring to do better with excellence in everything we do. We are constantly evolving and looking to improve and continue to do so. We value parent contribution, opinions and are always open to listen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

·         Our aim is to provide high quality experiences where children are at the heart of everything we do.

 

o   To create an inspiring nursery environment, both in nursery and the natural beauty surrounding us for children to thrive and learn.

 

o   To build secure and trusting relationships with children and their families.

 

o   To celebrate diversity, appreciate and respect each child is unique.

 

o   To be safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included citizens.

 

o   To continuously strive to improve into the best that we can be 

 

 

 

We will continue to promote the wellbeing indicators – SHANARRI, parents will see more of these coming home in the coming months.

 

We will develop our staff knowledge of pedagogy, the theory, practice and approach to our teaching/ learning.

 

ML passed around our improvement plan, asked them to take the time to read it and feel free to make any comments they feel is necessary.  

 

7.       What could we do better?

 

ML asked if she felt that we as a nursery, provided them with enough information relating to their children’s learning in nursery?                        Unanimous decision – yes

 

ML said that she plans to hold parent’s consultations for children in their pre-school year.

 

The younger children’s parents would be invited to a stay and learn session, where parent’s could come into nursery, learn about what their child has been learning, go through their folders, chat with their child’s key worker, and play with their child.                               Everyone agreed that this was a good idea.

 

MC said she would like to have her child’s folder home more often throughout the year – ML to look into this.

 

7. Election of Committee

 

As the children of the current committee are not due to leave nursery for school for another year, ML asked whether the current committee would be interested in continuing in their current roles?

 

DL as Chairperson – agreed

 

KS as Vice Chair Person – agreed prior to meeting

 

NB as trustee - agreed

 

It was noted that KS is now married! We give our congratulations KS and her family!! She will now be referred to as KV.