About Us

St Patrick’s Primary School is part of the Nicholas Postgate Catholic Academy Trust.

https://stpatrickscp.npcat.org.uk

We are a 78 place nursery offering free 15 hour provision on mornings and afternoons.

We also offer 30-hour places. If you think you may be entitled 30 hours Nursery funding, please follow the link below where you can find out more information

https://www.gov.uk/apply-30-hours-free-tax-free-childcare

If you would like to put your child’s name on our waiting list, please collect a nursery application form from school or contact school on 01642 676724 or email: [email protected]

We have 50 full time places in Reception.

Nursery Timings

AM Nursery – 8.30-11.30

PM Nursery – 12.15-3.15

30hours – 8.30-3.15

Reception Timings

8.50 am – 2.55 pm.

Term dates

https://stpatrickscp.npcat.org.uk/school-holidays/

Curriculum newsletters

Nursery newsletter Autumn

Weekly newsletters are sent home every Monday

Our vision is for St. Patrick’s to be a place of joy, justice and peace, where everyone is welcomed, loved and forgiven. We will be a school where we learn and grow, following in the footsteps of Jesus. At St. Patrick’s, our mission is to help build and be the Kingdom of God. We believe that The Kingdom is all around us and grows in each and every person. To build God’s Kingdom, we bring joy, justice and peace to our world. We aim for all of our children to become confident in all of the 7 educational programmes and be ready for Year 1 by the end of foundation stage.

In our EYFS we share the message from St Luke:

‘And the child grew strong in spirit’ Luke 1.80

Intent

It is our intent to develop the fundamental skills, knowledge and understanding of our children to ensure that they are ready for year 1. Our curriculum has been developed by ensuring that we meet the needs of our children through their interests, half term themes and cultural contexts. We have skilled, dedicated and enthusiastic staff who see every moment as a learning opportunity. We are here to prepare our children for Year 1 readiness and build upon the foundations of learning for each individual child.

In EYFS it is our aim to provide an outstanding Catholic education. Our ethos is driven by our mission to bring Joy, Justice and Peace to the world in all that we do. We aim  to create a happy, engaging and challenging learning environment.  We have a calm, well organised routine and free flow learning and staff are always welcoming and available to discuss any questions you may have. Children are welcomed into a learning environment that allows them to develop new skills and knowledge, feel safe and form important relationships.

The teaching, learning and provision in our EYFS will help your child develop the essential knowledge and skills they need to become ready for Nursery, Reception and ultimately ready for Year 1.

The 7 educational programmes from the EYFS statutory framework curriculum are:

Prime Areas:

• Communication and language

• Physical Development

• Personal, Social and Emotional development

Specific Areas:

• Literacy

• Mathematics

• Understanding the world

• Expressive Arts and Design

There is a strong emphasis on the teaching of learning of the Prime areas in nursery so children have the fundamental skills they need to develop the skills and knowledge they need for reception. In reception all areas of learning are taught to ensure the children have a broad and balanced curriculum so they are ready for the teaching of the National curriculum in Year 1.

We teach in a variety of different ways in our EYFS.

●       Learning is challenging, motivating and play-based and takes place both indoors and outdoors

●       There is a balance between adult-initiated experiences and child-initiated experiences

●       Adults take children’s interests and strengths as a starting point, seeing each child as a competent learner

●       We share learning with our parents and carers and we learn a great deal about each child from their parents and carers

●       Children learn and develop in different ways and at different rates and the EYFS framework covers the education and care of your child within the early years setting, including children with additional needs.

A unique child – Every child is  unique. They are consistently learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

Positive relationships – Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.

Enabling environments – Children learn and develop well in environments where their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and yourself as a parent and/or carer.

Learning and development – Recognising the importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates.

Characteristics and effective learning -Playing and exploring, Active Learning and Thinking creatively and critically.

Our learning environments have been developed to meet the needs of our children and are adapted regularly to ensure they are challenging, stimulating and engaging. We ensure these areas are always exciting and accessible to all, regardless of where children are on their learning journey. We carefully structure our day to balance independent play, short adult-led learning with longer child-led lessons. We understand that both approaches foster the characteristics of effective learning that children need to develop essential knowledge and make progress.

We believe that every child should feel welcomed and that their individual needs should be met.

All staff work with children who have special educational needs and disabilities. All staff work together to ensure that every child’s needs are met and they make progress educationally, emotionally and physically.

Our SENDCO is also one of our reception teachers and this ensures that early identification happens and we can engage with parents and outside agencies to support children and parents/carers.

Everyone gets to take part in Eco schools.

‘Eco schools are passionate about engaging young people in environmental education and action. This is done by providing a simple, seven-step framework that guides, empowers and motivates pupils to drive change and improve environmental awareness in their school, local community and beyond.’

https://www.eco-schools.org.uk/

Our Eco schools leader works with children across EYFS and the whole school to provide opportunities for children to take part in activities and campaigns that matter to them. It gives children an active voice about the issues that are important for the sustainability of their future.

We are an international school

Everyone gets to take part in international schools

 The programme supports schools in fostering an international ethos throughout the school and embedding it within the curriculum.

https://www.britishcouncil.org/

Our International schools leader works with children across EYFS and the whole school to introduce life in other schools and cultures across the world. This is closely linked to Global Goals and the call for equality for all. These goals have the power to create a better world by 2030, by ending poverty, fighting inequality and addressing the urgency of climate change.

We work closely with parents and carers to support every child as an individual. We help every child to grow feeling confident about their identity, in a spirit of friendship.

We will arrange a nursery or home visit the term before your child is due to start nursery to introduce staff, meet your child and gather essential information we need to help your child start nursery. We will discuss which session of nursery you would prefer, give your child a start date and also answer any questions you may have about nursery and school.

Once your child is in nursery or school there are daily opportunities to speak to members of staff. We also have termly parent meetings to discuss progress.

In the summer term we have a Transition meeting for all parents to talk about what school will be like for your child.

We send weekly and termly newsletters home to parents so we are sharing our learning and we encourage children to share their experiences from home in their WOW books!

We share our love of learning on twitter ever day so you can catch glimpse of what we do in our setting

@https://twitter.com/StPatricksRCTho

We are always interested in feedback from parents, to help us know how well we are doing and how we need to improve.

We also encourage parents to use Ofsted’s ParentView: https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/