Join our committee
Volunteer for your Pre-school Committee
Why volunteer?
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- Are you interested in learning new skills?
- Would you like to meet new people?
- Would you like to share your skills, time, and ideas with others?
- Have you ever wanted to improve the running of your child’s setting?
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If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, we would love to hear from you.
The benefits Research shows clear benefits for children when parents become actively involved in their child’s learning and development from an early age. Parental involvement has been recognised by the Government as being key to a child’s successful development too.
Volunteering for our pre-school’s parent-run committee offers an ideal opportunity for you to become more actively and practically involved in this aspect of your child’s life.
It will also make a real difference to how the setting is managed.
You will personally benefit from this experience by meeting with other parents, updating existing skills and learning new ones, as well as putting something positive back into your local community.
There are also long-term benefits should you choose to undertake further training or decide to return to full-time, paid work in the future. Opportunities Working as part of a pre-school committee is all about opportunities – for the pre-school, but also for yourself – and from small beginnings, you could find yourself taking a new direction in life.
What is involved?
The current pre-school committee will be happy to tell you in more detail about how you can become involved. There are lots of ways you can contribute to the committee, and you can choose to give as much or as little time as you can spare. The good thing is you don’t need any experience to make a difference.
Why have a committee
Stepping Stones is a charity run preschool, legally obligated by the charity commission to have a registered committee as our governing body.
Without a committee, Stepping Stones is unable to continue as a preschool, providing education and childcare services to local families.
As a charity run preschool, we receive business rates relief of an 80% reduced rate accounting to around £15,000 per year. This relief has allowed us to absorb many of the preschool costs and maintain our low fees. Without the support from parents forming a committee we would be left with no choice but to become a non-profit making organisation, therefore losing our business rates relief.
This would mean that we would be unable to fund the additional support of our Independent Speech and Language Therapist, annual preschool trips for children and parents along with visits from children’s entertainers such as Owen’s animals, Basil’s farm, Father Christmas and his reindeer etc. In addition, session and lunch club fees would need to increase due to the rising running costs.
Becoming a committee member
As a committee member you would be required to undergo an enhanced DBS Check (at no cost to you), register for a Government Gateway Account (many of you already have this, i.e. to access funding, tax returns etc.), complete an EY2 form for OFSTED, and attend approximately 3 meetings per year.
You can also include your involvement on your CV for future employers to see.