Agenda item

Mr Mike Newman, Kimpton Pre-School, thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the Committee and gave a verbal presentation regarding their grant application.

The Chairman thanked Mr Newman for his presentation.

Audio Recording – Start of Item – 18 minutes and 20 seconds

Mr Mike Newman, Chairman of Kimpton Pre-School Management Committee, thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the Committee and gave a verbal presentation regarding their grant application.

·                     Pre-school run by a group of 7 parents and ex-parents;

·                     Funds were needed for IT.  They were reliant on EYFS and Herts for Learning to send information.  Had to be sent to one of the parents to reformat the document to enable it to be read;

·                     Voted outstanding OFSTED premises from 2015-16.  The pre-school was the only place for 2-3 year olds to go within Kimpton.  Very little childcare support was now in Kimpton;

·                     No external funding was received;

·                     Fundraising events were not done in the pre-school as the terms of the Lease prevented them from holding these events on site after 4pm Monday to Friday during term time;

·                     Stalls were used at the Christmas fair or other events during the year;

·                     Learning journals (a milestone of how children learn), were needed for the children and were an OFSTED requirement.  They would like four Kindle Fire tablets because of their reliability and were cheaper than other brands;

·                     Online system called Tapestry, industry standard across pre-schools and nursery schools.  If Tapestry was available, the parents would have access to this system at any time and could be handed straight over to the nursery/reception school when the time came;

·                     £500/year was spent on printing; 

·                     PC needed to be upgraded and a projector screen was also needed.  One of the parents worked for a company that did IT fit-outs for schools and various secondary schools gifted old PC’s to a worthy cause.  They had been given a projector worth £700 however they needed a screen to put it on;

·                     There was a strong commitment to Prevent, a Government system to ensure radicalisation did not happen at any point in a child’s life.  The pre-school manager was a practicing Muslim and was keen to share her own background and beliefs which would give an opportunity to show videos and do more interactive activities for the children;

·                     There was only one intake into nursery annually;

In response to questions from members including Councillors Bishop and Tyler , Mike Newman responded as follows:

·                     There were four paid staff who were paid with the money earned from funded 2 and 3 year olds and non-funded 2 year olds covered everything.  This meant that under government regulations, children had a right to start education of some form in a structured format from the age of 2½.  Parents could apply for up to 15 hours/week until the age of 3 and from the January of their 3^rd birthday they could move up to 30 hours’ worth of government funding.  The fewer children in the pre-school the less money available and no central core funding was available because Kimpton pre-school, unlike nursery was effectively private;

·                     Parents were charged £16.50 per session;

·                     The nursery only took children from 3½;

·                     3 year old children were lost from September therefore they lost an entire term’s worth of funding for the 3 year olds if the parents chose not to keep their child at the pre-school.  They could hold children until they were four and they would go straight to reception.  Needed to compete with nursery school to maintain numbers otherwise children would have gone from nursery to reception to year 1;

·                     Kindles were required for each member of staff to enable them to do their daily observations and included social interaction; problem solving and conflict resolution of up to four children;

·                     Projector screen needed was adjustable so it could be kept out of the way;

·                     Councillors advised there was an open day at Town Lodge to look at  available furniture and would check to see whether the screen was still there;

The Chairman thanked Mr Newman for his presentation.