Nursery

Mrs Aitken

Nursery is a welcoming and engaging setting where the children can lead their own learning while supported by experienced staff. In our Nursery class you will find Mrs Aitken as your class teacher and Miss Mihaela and Miss Jordan who are the teaching assistants. We all work together in partnership with parents to create opportunities to support learning and development through purposeful play, conversations and questions. We have a large indoor learning environment which supports all areas of learning and promotes awe and wonder. Our outdoor space is an extension to our classroom and is accessed by children on a daily basis whatever the weather. Our Nursery have our own entrance where children are welcomed personally by class staff each day.

Mrs Aitken has over 20 years teaching experience and is passionate about Early Years education and giving children the experiences that they can use to become lifelong learners. She has been teaching at St Joseph’s for the past 10 years leading the Early Years. She loves the community feel of the school and the community it serves. Miss Mihaela has worked as a psychology teacher teaching in her home country of Romania for over 20 years and is now a qualified teaching assistant who loves working in nursery. Miss Jordan is just starting out on her teaching assistant career after completing her degree in Psychology in the summer and has several sports coaching qualifications. She loves working with our Early Years children.

Our nursery curriculum includes all 7 areas of learning but with a particular focus on the 3 prime areas which include Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Physical Development. We also follow our Diocesan Religious Education scheme for R.E. Our learning takes place through a range of adult led, child initiated and continuous provision which meets the needs and interests of the children. The curriculum is set up to support the children to develop in all areas of learning and also develop their social skills.

We enjoy visiting Father Chris at our local church St Joseph’s and learning about our parish. We like to visit the library and take a trip on the metro. We like to take walks around the school and around the local area.

Nursery children attend playgroup every Tuesday morning from 9-10. This is open for all nursery and parents to attend and is also open to parish families to attend if they have a pre school child.

Nursery all participate in a P.E. session in the school hall on a weekly basis.

We love to invite our parents and carers to various ‘Stay and play’ sessions over the course of the year. These include a variety of themed sessions and parental information sessions with support from our trust Speech and Language Therapist.

Nursery pupils said: