Pre-School

Welcome to St Joseph’s Pre-school

Pre-school Home Learning

The government has put together a 'Hungry Little Minds' campaign which gives parents super ideas for activities to support their 0-5 year old children's learning at home. Click here to access this fantastic site!

At St Joseph's, preschool and reception class are following the national 'EYFS Early Adopter' curriculum. Within the curriculum there are seven areas of development. Supporting and developing children's prime areas of development (personal, social and emotional development, physical development, and communication and language) are the key focuses as we welcome children into school in the Autumn term, as detailed in our Recovery Curriculum Plan.  Here are some suggestions for supporting your child's learning at home. 

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Encourage your child to take turns at home and share, ask them to talk about the feelings of others and how certain actions may make them feel.

Communication and Language

Encourage your child to talk and ask questions at home. This may be that you think out loud so that they can hear how you question yourself.  Think about ways in which you could increase your child's vocabulary. This may be asking them to describe an object, a picture in a book or magazine or through general conversation encouraging them to describe colour, shape, texture or smell.

Physical development.

You could encourage your child to use a knife and fork, to dress independently and put on their own shoes, zip up coats and drink from a cup rather than a water bottle. Have fun encouraging your child to dance and move in time to music. Explore lots of large movements such as climbing on equipment, swinging, running and jumping, and climbing stairs.  As your child becomes more confident with these larger movements, gently support your child in developing their tripod grip for holding a pen or pencil along with writing their name.

Literacy

Read, read, read to your child. When reading a fiction book with your child ask them how they think the story might end? Who are the characters? What do they think will happen next? What is happening in the picture? Ask your child to describe the setting within the story along with descriptions of the characters. Why not visit Jolly Phonics Songs on you tube; the children enjoy singing the songs and showing you the actions. Perhaps you could go on a listening walk around the garden and see what you can hear and see. 

Mathematics

Encourage children to count small groups of objects in everyday situations, e.g counting how many apples are in the fruit bowl.  Talk about and describe shapes during play,  for example. describing 'pointy' and 'curvy' shapes. Talk about capacity, e.g. do you think this cup holds more or less than this one? Develop your child's mathematical language.

Understanding of the world

Encourage your child to explore the local area and see what they can observe and talk about. Discuss your family and community, for example people who us. 

Expressive Arts and Design

Encourage your child to draw, colour in and paint pictures, and to play with play dough. This will help develop their hand strength for early writing skills.

Opening Times

9.00am - 3.30pm 

Sessions 

9.00am - 11.30am 

11.30am-1.00pm 

1.00pm-3.30pm 

St Joseph’s Pre-school is based within St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School and we pride ourselves on providing a quality education in a child-led, caring and fun environment. We achieve this by having fully qualified, highly trained staff who support the children's interests, learning and development whilst following the Early Years Foundation stage curriculum (EYFS). This is carried out in our own classroom within St Josephs Primary school and outside in our recently refurbished outdoor learning area.  Children can join us at anytime from their third birthday.

We always welcome parents and family to come and view our pre-school to see the wonderful environment and meet the staff, if you would like to visit please contact Pre School through email or phone. The details are further down the page.

Meet the Staff

Miss V Cartwright - Early Years Foundation Stage Lead (Pre-School and Reception)

Mrs O Cooper - Pre-School Supervisor- Cache Level 5 Diploma in leadership for children and young peoples workforce

Cache level 3 Diploma in children and young people- early learning pathway

Understanding Autism level 2

Understanding and managing Challenging behaviour level 2

University of Derby Understanding Autism, Asperger's and ADHD.

Mrs G Sweeney - Pre-School Practitioner - Cache Level 3 Diploma in Early years and childcare                                                     

Mrs N Hollywood - Pre-School Practitioner - Studying for Cache Level 3 Diploma in Early years and childcare 

Miss Aimee Knight- Level 2 Early years and childcare   Studying for Cache Level 3 Diploma in Early years and childcare              

Mrs S Dutton - Pre-School Assistant and Lunchtime support.                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                             All Staff have up to date safeguarding and Paediatric first aid training                                                                                                                                                                

Governing body

Mrs P Lewis - Chair of Pre-School Committee

Mrs T Rowe - Vice Chair 

Mrs D McLeary - Committee member

Mrs R O'Leary - Committee member

Mrs C Turnell - Committee member

Mrs J Wordsworth - Committee member

Our Daily Routine 

No matter rain or shine, we are always outside!

08.50 am Pre-school opens - self registration.

09.00am-9.15am Welcome,Rhyme time, storytime, time to talk

9.15am-11.15am inside and outside learning through play

11.15am-11.20am Get ready for Lunch

11.30am Home time/Arrival time 

11.25am-11.55 am Lunchtime

11.55- 1 .15pm inside and outside learning through play

1.00pm Home time/arrival time 

1.15- 1.25 pm Rhyme time, Phonics, storytime, time to talk

1.25pm - 2.55pm Inside and outside learning through play

3.05pm-3.15pm  storytime, time to talk, circle time

3.15pm-3.20pm Children get their own bags and coats ready for home time

We regularly go on  Welly Walk's onto the around the school and onto big school field to explore the natural environment and do fun activities, for example making bird feeders, making wormeries, building fairy houses, playing games, developing our listening skills, observing changes in our environment throughout the seasons, discovering nature and exploring the trim-trail.

 We have termly planet protector days where we learn all about how we can look after and care for the world around us.

We practise our P.E skills throughout the day as we encourage walking, running, climbing, throwing, catching, musical movement, riding bicycles and scooters,  using the parachute, playing games and acting out stories we have written with our friends.

Please keep an eye on the school calendar and  Early years newsletter for upcoming events and dates for your diary

Trips 

We join up with Reception and the whole school for trips, as well as going on our own within Lichfield to places like -  

The local Garrick Theatre for the Christmas Pantomime

The local Library

The local market and town shops 

The local park 

We also plan trips with Reception which are further a field and need us to take a coach, we invite parent helpers to come along.