Welcome to Nursery!
Our class teacher is Miss Mackenzie and our teaching assistants are Mrs Hateley, Mrs Chan and Miss Lawson. Mrs Iddison teaches the class on a Monday afternoon.
On behalf of the Early Years team, I would like to welcome you to Nursery. We are so glad you have chosen to become part of the St. Francis Family.
Our Early Years aims to create an environment, which will meet the needs of each individual child, so that they can continue to build on their existing knowledge and experiences that you, as parents have already taught them. At St. Francis, we will help the children to achieve their full potential, developing their thinking, their knowledge, skills and attitudes to prepare them for life in our ever- changing world.
We aim to create a warm, happy, secure and inviting learning environment. This will help the children to feel comfortable, confident, and respectful of themselves and others, regardless of gender, race or culture. We want the children to have fun and to be happy, learn to become more independent – to think and do things for themselves by learning to make choices and to share and co-operate. We believe our environment will deliver effective learning where children will develop essential life-long skills, enthused and inspired to become autonomous and intuitive learners.
Every child over the age of three is entitled to 15 or 30 free hours of nursery care, which is provided by the government. Some children may be entitled to 30 free hours of nursery care. Follow the link provided to see if your child is entitled to the 30 free hours.
https://www.gov.uk/30-hours-free-childcare
We offer a variety of different nursery sessions at St Francis Catholic Primary School. The sessions we have to offer are:
- Morning session 8:45am-11:45am
- Afternoon session 12:15pm-3:15pm
- Full day 8:45am-3:15pm
If you would like to meet our nursery teacher and have a look around our classroom please arrange a visit by contacting our office staff by either telephone or email.
What happens in Nursery:
We are commited to creating a warm, friendly and welcoming classroom environment that inspires enthusiastic, independent learners. Our carefully planning indoor and outdoor provision ensures that every child has the opportunity to access the full Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and reach their individual potential. Our aim is to nuture confident, thoughful and independent children, recogonising that these qualities are fundametnal to each child's learning journey.
A typical day in Nursery begins with a focused phonics session to support early reading and language development. This is followed by engaging literacy and mathematics activities, alongside dedicated Religious Education sessions. These focused, adult-led experiences are enhanced by high-quality continuous provision, enabling children to consolidate, practise and extend their learning independently through purposeful, play-based exploration.
Whether it is a morning, afternoon or a full day session, children have the opportunity to explore all areas of the classroom freely, as learning through play and socialising with their peers supports their learning. Our areas include a home corner/role play area, exploration table, phonics table, literacy and maths, small world, construction, reading corner, fine motor, pencil control and a creative area. Children have access to a range of malleable materials; water, sand, play dough, ice, sand, foam and paint.
We are fortunate to benefit from a spacious outdoor learning environment, where children are encouraged to develop their physical skills using bikes, scooters, cars and balancing equipment. We take our learning outdoors whatever the weather and we encourage appropriate clothing come rain or shine! We think outdoor learning is fun! Our teachers plan provision carefully to cater for our learning needs!
As a faith community, we value opportunities to celebrate and grow in our faith together. Children take part in daily prayer, including morning, before and after lunch, and end-of-day prayers. We also hold short daily collective worship sessions, supported by engaging Religious Education lessons that encourage reflection and understanding.
Above all, We recognise that all of our our children are unique, individual and special and we will allow every opportunity for our Nursery children to showcase their many talents and flourish during their time in Nursery.
Tapestry:
In Nursery, Tapestry is used to 'capture' and celebrate our children's learning. Tapestry is an easy-to-use online learning journal which helps school and parents/carers to record, track and celebrate children's progress in early years education.
Log on to see your child's profile - photos, videos and written comments and don't forget to add your own - we love to see what our children are doing at home too!
Please download the Tapestry app. Fill in the Tapestry agreement and give it to the staff in Reception and they will quickly get you set up with an account so that you can access your child's learning journey and contribute from home.
Important Days:
Wednesday- PE.
Monday & Wednesday - Children's library books will be changed depending what days they attend.
Friday – Tapestry homework challenge will be added for both Nursery and Reception children to complete.
Book Bags - Please send your child's book bag every day.
We have settled in very well this year and have been learning lots so far!
PowerPoints
Parents Curriculum Meeting 2025-2026
Newsletters
Our Long Term Plan:
Nursery Long Term Plan 2024-2025
Parental Guidance, Ideas To Help Support your Child From Home:
Parental Guidance: Birth to 5 Matters
Parental Guidance: Ideas for Developing Early Handwriting
Parental Guidance: Phonics in the Early Years
Parental Guidance: Ideas for Developing Science in the Early Years
Parental Guidance: Parents Evening Phonics Presentation
Useful Websites:
Oxford Owl Reading, to register: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/free-ebooks/
Phonics Interactive Games: https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/match-sounds?phase=1
The Jolly Phonics Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y03uiPd-JTc
Tablet Friendly Mental Maths Games, choose from Counting: Ordering and Sequencing: Addition: Measures: Money: Shape: Position and Movement or Data Handling: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/3-5-years/counting
Early Years Learning Activities. Free online EYFS educational games. Fun learning through play. Teach 3-4 year olds, initial sounds, colours, compare and order, counting, matching and mouse skills at home, school or nursery. Use on an IWB, PC or Mac. Crickweb | Early Years
Gruffalo: The Gruffalo - Activities
Cbeebies: Numtums- Meet the adventurous creatures with numbers on their tummies. Play maths games, watch clips and sing songs The Numtums - CBeebies - BBC
