12 Jun 2008 - June 2008 Minutes
St.James Cottage
Minutes of the Committee Meeting
Thursday 12th June 2008
At the Cottage Commenced 8.00pm
Present: Sharren Jakobsen - Chairperson
Steve Wyatt - Treasurer
Michelle Jolly - Secretary 2
Kim Dix - Committee Member
Leanne Bradford - Committee Member
Chris Moss-Wilcox - Committee Member
Pat Froud - Administrator
Jill Maidment - Reception Class Teacher
Apologies Emma Craigmile - Secretary 1
Lisa Andrews - Committee Member
Nicki Healey - Committee Member
Carol Potter - Team Leader
Sue Lambert - Team Leader
1 Confirm minutes of the meeting held on 24th April 2008.
Minutes of the last meeting were agreed and confirmed.
2 Matters Arising
100 Club – 27 tickets have been purchased so far, the draw will start when 50 are sold.
Hygiene Unit – Price is £14 per month for emptying 8 times a year. Decided not to proceed until sure it is a legal requirement.
Questionnaire – 17 responses received and generally people seem satisfied with the sessions offered. 5 people would like to see hot meals provided. Some suggestions for activities at Holiday Club were – Tennis, Obstacle races. Quite a few places at Summer Holiday Club have already been booked.
Governors Letter re: No Lunch Club for Reception children from September 2009 – A favourable response was received from Mrs Kimber.
Fence – Planning permission is required for the replacement of the fence as it is to be 6ft high. Sharren has completed the planning permission form and it will take 8 weeks to come through – cost £150. Total budget for the project is £500, committee agreed to proceed. Kevin Jolly has offered to carry out the work.
Marketing – The planned leaflet drop to promote Caterpillars was held back due to a change in session time and staff.
Photographer - Steve has arranged for visits on 16th & 18th June which will enable the photographer to provide a portfolio of more casual photographs of the children for parents to select from. A 20% commission on sales will be paid to the Cottage.
Sharren thanked all committee members for their help at the May Fayre and Opening of the Soft Play Area.
3 Finances
Bank Balance 24th Apr 08 £6313.42
Reserve A/C £9682.55
Fundraising £1060.67 which includes £276.00 100 Club money.
£95.30 was received for refreshments at the Opening of the Soft Play Area
Finance Committee Meeting 19th May 2008 – Those present were Steve, Sharren, Lisa and Kim. It was agreed to award a pay rise to staff in September above the Government inflation figure. Fee increases will also be made in September
- Early birds will increase from 50p to 75p per session
- Lunch Club will increase from £2.50 to £2.65 per session
- Caterpillars which will now be a 3 hour session and will increase from £6 to £7.50
- Holiday Club will increase by £1 on each rate.
4 Staffing/changes to sessions
Carol Cross and Julie Small will be leaving at the end of the Summer Term and as there will only be 2 children in some Caterpillar session in September a decision has been taken to incorporate this session into mornings for a 1 year trial. This will be evaluated in May/June 2009. Parents of Caterpillar children have been informed and Sharren followed this with a phone call to each parent, all of whom were very happy with the arrangements. Parents of Caterpillar children cannot leave their child until 9.00 am. There will be 4 members of staff each morning – Kerry and Debbie will be looking after the Caterpillar children.
Staff have been consulted regarding new session times and there is now a vacancy for a new member of staff for After School Club for at least 2 sessions and up to 5. In addition to the usual adverts, the Committee agreed to advertise this vacancy in the Community Magazine at a cost of £90 + VAT and record where applicants saw it. Carol Potter has also suggested offering an afternoon session for children transferring to school in September until Christmas and thereafter offering extra afternoon sessions to the oldest Nursery children until they start school. This would require 6 children to attend for it to be cost effective.
5 Summer Term Activities
Sponsored Bike Ride/Teddy Bears Picnic – A reminder to be put in Newsletter next week. Leanne will purchase 4 x 2ltr tubs of ice cream which will be enough for this event and Sports Day. Tea and coffee will also be served to parents.
Sports Day - Children to arrive at 9.30 am and Sports Day will start at 10.00 am. Kim to take group photograph first. Sharren to check whether school field can be used.
Moors Valley Outing – Coach is booked to leave at 9.30 am and will collect from Moors Valley at 1.30 pm. There will be a charge of £30 for the parking of the coach. Lisa has booked the train ride and will need to know numbers attending nearer to the date. A suggestion was made that the children could wear wristbands with the name of the group and telephone number in case they got lost at a cost of £45 per 100. It was felt that at this event children are the responsibility of their parent or nominated adult. A Plan providing timings for the day should be provided for Parents and distributed on the coach. A letter with details and a reply slip will be sent out with the Newsletter next week.
6 Lunch Cub
It was confirmed that there will be enough staff at the morning session to enable them to collect children from Reception to bring them to Lunch Club in the Autumn term.
7 Members of the Committee 2008/9
Kim Dix has stated that she will be resigning from the Committee at the next AGM. A letter will be distributed encouraging parents to join the Committee and they will be notified of the date of the AGM on the next newsletter.
8 Any Other Business
Late Payment Letters – Pat informed the Committee that it is quite difficult to add £10 for late payment of fees without providing a warning letter first. The committee agreed that in future a warning letter should be sent to parents first and if payment is not made within 7 days then the fines would be applied. The Late Payment Policy would be amended to reflect this decision.
£50 Retainer Fee for ASC - It was agreed that this should be amended to £20 in line with the Nursery place retainer fee as this would be easier to administer. Steve proposed this amendment and it was seconded by Michelle.
Minutes & Newsletters on Website – It was agreed that in future these would only be kept on the website for 1 year.
Early Years Foundation Degree – Carol Potter has asked the committee if she could undertake this training and it was agreed that she could. In 3 years time it will be a requirement to have 1 member of staff with this level of training. The Cottage will receive £1500 per year for 3 years as part of a Graduate Incentive Grant to cover the cost of cover and other expenses. There is also an additional £500 available for use by the setting.
9 Date of Next Meeting
This will take place on Thursday 2nd October 2008 at 8.00 pm and will also be the AGM.