Hanwell Bunnies Pre-School Playgroup

Just can't believe it... it has taken us 5 years to get to this stage, and we've done it!!!! The Outdoor Play Company even made us a gate for the side passage so that the children could safely have the run of the whole grassed area when the weather improves.

Huge thanks to John Lyons Charity (£1500), Ealing Council (£2000) and Local Network Fund (DfES) (£7000) for giving us the grants to complete this project.

Am thinking about having a little opening ceremony sometime??

Cristina and I have been through all the setting's policies and we need to adopt a whole set of new ones.

I've uploaded all the new ones into the Newsletter Folder of the 'Media' section of this blog... now I need all the committee members to read through them all before they can be agreed on the next committee meeting of 29th February.

http://www.blog.co.uk/srv/media/media_items.php?album_ID=255340

Hopefully if you click on the link you can go through them one by one at your leisure - happy reading!

To date, we are subsidising 16 sessions for children who would not be attending our Playgroup were it not for our subsidised places...

We have applied for £2000 from the Small Grants scheme at Ealing Council but will not hear results of that until March, and have asked the William Hobbayne trust for donations but have not heard anything either.

Our aim is to get external funding to subsidise these places, it ticks a lot of boxes for external funders and means we can fulfil our equal opportunities obligations.

We have had 8 feedback forms received so far. A copy of the form can be found here.

We gave the forms out at the Xmas party and they are also being put out each session so that parents who want to can have their say. The feedback is anonymous and completed forms can be put into the suggestios box.

Out of those completed to date, every single one says that we always help, and that we always treat people well.

Some of the suggestions we have had are about involving dads more, and getting a nicer Outside Area (in hand!).

Some of the comments about what we do well are lovely, involving the staff smiling, knowing people's names, distracting children when they are upset. The staff should be very proud of what they have achieved, it hasn't happened by accident.

The forms are based on the Children's Centre feedback forms that I heard about at the Area Board meeting that I went to before Xmas. They are very simple but effective - a very good idea.

I really can't believe it - the cheque from the Local Network Fund for £7000 is in the bank, and the Outdoor Play Company plan to start our extension at the end of this week (weather permitting)!!

After all these years of trying to secure funding and work out what's best, we've finally done it! Thank you to all the committee members in the past who've tried to get this off the ground, we got there in the end!

On Tuesday 8th January I met with Lesley Hunter of the Pre-School Learning Alliance.

We had a really interesting chat and she listened very hard to the reasons why financially things are always going to be a struggle. She also runs provisions across the borough on behalf of the PLA, and so understands the pressures.

I pointed out that the Pre-School Learning Alliance as well as the SureStart guidance on the 3/4 year old funding expects provisions to have equal opportunities at its core, and yet the financial reality of delivering that is very complicated and quite frankly unsustainable without more funding - or at the very least without a greater understanding of our situation by councils and government.

I'd like to thank Lesley for giving up her morning to hear our point of view and to see our Playgroup in operation.

On 11th Jan Sarah (Financial Manager) and I met to finalise the admissions to make sure that we are at our limit of 34 children per session.

We had to make a decision as to who to admit - we went by age of applicant, and gave out a few more places to those children who were oldest on the list, so that they will get 2 terms of Bunnies before going to Nursery.

We have offered 2 children spaces after referral from Clarissa of EASE. I have contacted Claire Welsbey, Children's Centre co-ordinator, to try to find out whether funding is available though Children in Need (Ealing) to help fund these and other subsidised places.

We still have between 5-10 children who ideally want a space before starting Nursery, but the chances that they will get a space now are unlikely. One of the families has just moved into the area - which is why a 1st come 1st served policy cannot always be used in an area of relatively high population mobility such as Hanwell.