In the Nursery  ‘We try to follow Jesus in everything we do.’  We work together and help everyone shine and this positive attitude is reflected in our learning throughout the year. Although, we have a lot of work to do at St Margaret Mary’s we try to make our learning as fun and exciting as possible. If you ever pop into school, you'll see that we're always ready to welcome you with a smile.

Teacher: Miss Wilson 

Teaching assistants: Mrs Smith, Miss O'Brien, Miss Yates, Miss Rushworth

About Us - As your child enters our Nursery Class, we welcome you into our happy school family - where everyone is special and every little light will shine! Our Nursery has 45 places within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). The ethos of the Nursery is learning through play both in the inside and outside environment. Children access the seven areas of learning through stimulating and exciting activities. We aim to nurture and care for our children in family groups: Triangles, Circles and Squares with their own experienced key workers and staff who aim to develop a happy, positive relationship with them so they can flourish and thrive.

Working together - good communication: We value the fact that parents are their children's first teachers and encourage you to tell us about your child's needs and achievements. Our aim is to promote strong communication and to keep you well informed so that you can support your child.  The Nursery staff regularly observe and monitor your child and are available to talk to you especially in the morning when you can 'stay and play' with them for a little while. Similarly, you will also be able to meet to review your child's targets each term.  We also encourage regular activities to promote learning such as our "colour, shape or sound of the week" and we ask children to bring an item for our focus table - again linking home and school. We regularly enhance our creative curriculum with events, visitors and guest speakers to widen the children's knowledge.

Our usual school day in Nursery starts at 8.45am and finishes at 3.00pm.

Each day during registration we choose one child from each class to be a 'special helper'. The 'special helper' chooses three of their peers to give them a compliment. The special helper can then sit on the 'special helper' chair and will have the opportunity to do little jobs and stand at the front of the line that day. You can see who has been the 'special helper' each day on the notice on display in your child's classroom. 

The day is organised so that children have the opportunity to take part in a variety of self- chosen and adult directed activities.  The children are helped and encouraged to take part in small and large group activities which introduce them to new experiences and help them gain new skills, as well as helping them to work with others.  These are carried out both in the indoor and outdoor environment which are seen as equally important.   Outdoor activities contribute to the children’s health, physical development, their knowledge of the world around them and improves creativity, cognitive and social skills.

Reading books: Your children will start to bring home a nursery rhyme pack once they have settled into the nursery. We then move onto picture  books, this us usually during our Spring term. We encourage our parents to share these packs and books at home and provide follow up activities in our nursery rhyme packs and question prompts for the picture books. Nursery rhyme packs/reading books are sent home every Monday and are to be returned back to school every Friday. Book bags can be purchased from the school office.

PE: Nursery children are not required to have a PE kit, they will do PE in their school uniforms. We would be grateful if parents could begin to teach their children how to get dressed and undressed in preparation for their transition to Reception.

Uniform: Uniform should always be well-presented and it would be very helpful for staff if children could have their names on their uniform especially ties and jumpers. In nursery we ask that the children wear short-sleeved shirts in order to play in the sand, water and paint stations.

Our expectations

Our expectations are high and we strive to foster the development of the children through provision of a planned, engaging, stimulating, safe and secure environment which is structured with developmental needs in mind.  We also aim to stimulate emotional and spiritual growth. 

At St Margaret Mary’s RC Primary School, our children are growing to be:

Grateful for our own gifts, for the gift of other people, and for the blessings of each day; and generous with our gifts, becoming men and women for others.

Attentive to our experience and to our vocation; and discerning about the choices we make and the effects of those choices.

Compassionate towards others, near and far, especially the less fortunate; and loving by our just actions and forgiving words.

Faith-filled in ours & their beliefs and hopeful for the future.

Eloquent and truthful in what we say of ourselves, the relations between people, and the world.

Learned, finding God in all things; and wise in the ways we use our learning for the common good. Curious about everything; and active in our engagement with the world, changing what we can for the better.

Intentional in the way we live and use the resources of the earth, guided by conscience; and prophetic in the example we set to others.