Fermoy Community Pre-School hold AGM
Outgoing secretary of Fermoy Community Pre-School, Helen Hutton welcomed those present to the recent AGM and said everyone associated with the preschool was on a high at the fact that after 40 years, the preschool has finally received civil recognition having secured the Cork County Mayor's Award.
The outgoing treasurer's report by Kathleen Lee gave a detailed financial summary that testified to the fact that the company was in an extremely favourable financial position.
In his chairperson's address, outgoing chairperson Tadhg O'Donovan said having served the Fermoy community with an eighty placed child facility over the last forty years, was something everyone associated with the preschool could be extremely proud of.
“My immediate thoughts are with the visionaries who back in 1982 had the determination to provide the Fermoy community with a community pre-school.
“This coupled with the commitment of all former and current staff members over the last forty years are the reason that the community in Fermoy have a stateof-the-art facility with a highly qualified workforce, who have secured level 8 and level 7 in preschool studies in recent years to enable them to realise their full potential in keeping with the Department of Education policies to further develop the pre-school sector,” Mr O’Donovan said.
O’Donovan said he is on the public record at each AGM since the community preschool was founded as acknowledging that the staff were the lifeblood of the pre-school and the situation on the night of the AGM was no different.
While the motivation of the staff was steadfast, new challenges led to new developments and policies to accommodate the same, as it could not be forgotten that pre-school education is an evolving process and changes are inevitable.
“What appeals to me was the decision of the Department of Education to seek graduate managers to provide the administration for our pre-schools and the necessary support to enable our teaching staff to achieve their objectives and goals. We were fortunate to have the ideal graduate manager who was not alone familiar with the multiple sources of funding available from the Department, but was also conscious of all legislation on the statute books or any anticipated legislation related to the pre-school sector. Equally, another area that has impressed me is the pre-school policies in relation to children with additional needs,” Mr O’Donovan added.
Fermoy Community Pre-school has a member of staff who was a successful level 8 graduate and was subsequently appointed as coordinator of the department of the pre-school designated to accommodate those with additional needs.
This development enables parents and the coordinator to sit down and create an individual plan for each child to address any challenges that may arise for the child in question.
HELPING CHILDREN REALISE THEIR FULL POTENTIAL
Finally, Mr O’Donovan said what was of concern to him despite 40 years of community pre-school in Fermoy, was the confusion in the public mind as to the concept of a community pre-school and how it differs from your standard pre-school.
Fermoy Community Pre-school is a non- profit making organisation, so no individual associated with Fermoy Community Pre-school Ltd can profit from same. The directors of the company are directly elected by the stakeholders and must comply with company law and the board of management at the community pre-school is again elected directly by the stakeholders.
The only motivation of all the above personnel, Mr O’Donovan states, is the promotion of community pre-school education, in our case in Fermoy town and providing the environment to enable children to realise their full potential before entering mainstream education.
At the meeting, outgoing directors and officers were elected as follows: Chairperson Tadhg O’Donovan, secretary Helen Hutton, treasurer Kathleen Lee.