St Joseph's Catholic Primary School and Nursery

''Feast Day 4^th October  For it is in giving that we receive''    

Our teaching and learning team consists of the following Early Years Practitioners:

Mrs Daubney, Mrs Chendhilkumar

Welcome to Year R's website page. At St Joseph's we value the importance of the Early years and our children are able to learn through play-based activities. Our recently refurbished classroom is filled with natural, neutral resources that inspire curiosity and wonder for our children. Throughout the day the class are able to move freely between our classroom and outdoor area where there are a wide variety of items available to explore that reflect all aspects of the Early Years curriculum. Our skilled members of staff work with the children to extend their learning through their interests and play. Through their knowledge of the curriculum, staff are able to respond to children's individual needs and skills, developing them through ways that are relevant to the children. Activities such as sewing, baking, music, dance and outdoor learning are all regularly included in our timetable. At St Joseph's we want to ensure our children grow spiritually and develop their connection with God. In our class we join in with daily worships, either in class or as a whole school, we say our prayers and learn about key stories from the Bible, we even have a class prayer bear! We recognise the importance of family in our young children's development and actively encourage our families to share with us through our online learning journal system. We are able to send photos about the school day to families and they can send us photos too. When the children start with us we pair them up with one of our Year Six pupils as buddies, who look after them during their first year in school. They play with them, sit with them in church, help with their learning and more! The children often develop a lovely friendship with their buddies, that continues beyond their time with us. 

We also do a lot of shared learning with the Year one class, so when the time comes for our children to move on to their next class - the transition is not such a scary one!

Please take a look at all the lovely pictures on our page showing the children enjoying themselves at various at activities!

Take a look at our reception class area through the virtual tour video below.

“The Reception children were very excited to discover all of the frozen resources this week. They were very creative in trying to smash the ice! From using pots and pans to break through it, to throwing large chunks at the floor, they had a lot of fun

exploring it!” 

Mrs Daubney

In Reception we have been learning about the story of the gingerbread man, here we were putting pictures of the story in the correct order.  A couple of weeks ago we made some biscuits ourselves and then were shocked when some went missing! It turns out they had come to life and run away! Since then we have received cheeky postcards from all around the world saying 'run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me!' I wonder where he will go next!

''Feast Day 4^th October  For it is in giving that we receive''    

Our teaching and learning team consists of the following Early Years Practitioners:

Mrs Daubney, Mrs Chendhilkumar

Welcome to Year R's website page. At St Joseph's we value the importance of the Early years and our children are able to learn through play-based activities. Our recently refurbished classroom is filled with natural, neutral resources that inspire curiosity and wonder for our children. Throughout the day the class are able to move freely between our classroom and outdoor area where there are a wide variety of items available to explore that reflect all aspects of the Early Years curriculum. Our skilled members of staff work with the children to extend their learning through their interests and play. Through their knowledge of the curriculum, staff are able to respond to children's individual needs and skills, developing them through ways that are relevant to the children. Activities such as sewing, baking, music, dance and outdoor learning are all regularly included in our timetable. At St Joseph's we want to ensure our children grow spiritually and develop their connection with God. In our class we join in with daily worships, either in class or as a whole school, we say our prayers and learn about key stories from the Bible, we even have a class prayer bear! We recognise the importance of family in our young children's development and actively encourage our families to share with us through our online learning journal system. We are able to send photos about the school day to families and they can send us photos too. When the children start with us we pair them up with one of our Year Six pupils as buddies, who look after them during their first year in school. They play with them, sit with them in church, help with their learning and more! The children often develop a lovely friendship with their buddies, that continues beyond their time with us. 

We also do a lot of shared learning with the Year one class, so when the time comes for our children to move on to their next class - the transition is not such a scary one!

Please take a look at all the lovely pictures on our page showing the children enjoying themselves at various at activities!

Take a look at our reception class area through the virtual tour video below.

“The Reception children were very excited to discover all of the frozen resources this week. They were very creative in trying to smash the ice! From using pots and pans to break through it, to throwing large chunks at the floor, they had a lot of fun

exploring it!” 

Mrs Daubney

In Reception we have been learning about the story of the gingerbread man, here we were putting pictures of the story in the correct order.  A couple of weeks ago we made some biscuits ourselves and then were shocked when some went missing! It turns out they had come to life and run away! Since then we have received cheeky postcards from all around the world saying 'run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me!' I wonder where he will go next!

''Feast Day 4^th October  For it is in giving that we receive''    

Our teaching and learning team consists of the following Early Years Practitioners:

Mrs Daubney, Mrs Chendhilkumar

Welcome to Year R's website page. At St Joseph's we value the importance of the Early years and our children are able to learn through play-based activities. Our recently refurbished classroom is filled with natural, neutral resources that inspire curiosity and wonder for our children. Throughout the day the class are able to move freely between our classroom and outdoor area where there are a wide variety of items available to explore that reflect all aspects of the Early Years curriculum. Our skilled members of staff work with the children to extend their learning through their interests and play. Through their knowledge of the curriculum, staff are able to respond to children's individual needs and skills, developing them through ways that are relevant to the children. Activities such as sewing, baking, music, dance and outdoor learning are all regularly included in our timetable. At St Joseph's we want to ensure our children grow spiritually and develop their connection with God. In our class we join in with daily worships, either in class or as a whole school, we say our prayers and learn about key stories from the Bible, we even have a class prayer bear! We recognise the importance of family in our young children's development and actively encourage our families to share with us through our online learning journal system. We are able to send photos about the school day to families and they can send us photos too. When the children start with us we pair them up with one of our Year Six pupils as buddies, who look after them during their first year in school. They play with them, sit with them in church, help with their learning and more! The children often develop a lovely friendship with their buddies, that continues beyond their time with us. 

We also do a lot of shared learning with the Year one class, so when the time comes for our children to move on to their next class - the transition is not such a scary one!

Please take a look at all the lovely pictures on our page showing the children enjoying themselves at various at activities!

Take a look at our reception class area through the virtual tour video below.

“The Reception children were very excited to discover all of the frozen resources this week. They were very creative in trying to smash the ice! From using pots and pans to break through it, to throwing large chunks at the floor, they had a lot of fun

exploring it!” 

Mrs Daubney

In Reception we have been learning about the story of the gingerbread man, here we were putting pictures of the story in the correct order.  A couple of weeks ago we made some biscuits ourselves and then were shocked when some went missing! It turns out they had come to life and run away! Since then we have received cheeky postcards from all around the world saying 'run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me!' I wonder where he will go next!

''Feast Day 4^th October  For it is in giving that we receive''    

Our teaching and learning team consists of the following Early Years Practitioners:

Mrs Daubney, Mrs Chendhilkumar

Welcome to Year R's website page. At St Joseph's we value the importance of the Early years and our children are able to learn through play-based activities. Our recently refurbished classroom is filled with natural, neutral resources that inspire curiosity and wonder for our children. Throughout the day the class are able to move freely between our classroom and outdoor area where there are a wide variety of items available to explore that reflect all aspects of the Early Years curriculum. Our skilled members of staff work with the children to extend their learning through their interests and play. Through their knowledge of the curriculum, staff are able to respond to children's individual needs and skills, developing them through ways that are relevant to the children. Activities such as sewing, baking, music, dance and outdoor learning are all regularly included in our timetable. At St Joseph's we want to ensure our children grow spiritually and develop their connection with God. In our class we join in with daily worships, either in class or as a whole school, we say our prayers and learn about key stories from the Bible, we even have a class prayer bear! We recognise the importance of family in our young children's development and actively encourage our families to share with us through our online learning journal system. We are able to send photos about the school day to families and they can send us photos too. When the children start with us we pair them up with one of our Year Six pupils as buddies, who look after them during their first year in school. They play with them, sit with them in church, help with their learning and more! The children often develop a lovely friendship with their buddies, that continues beyond their time with us. 

We also do a lot of shared learning with the Year one class, so when the time comes for our children to move on to their next class - the transition is not such a scary one!

Please take a look at all the lovely pictures on our page showing the children enjoying themselves at various at activities!

Take a look at our reception class area through the virtual tour video below.

“The Reception children were very excited to discover all of the frozen resources this week. They were very creative in trying to smash the ice! From using pots and pans to break through it, to throwing large chunks at the floor, they had a lot of fun

exploring it!” 

Mrs Daubney

In Reception we have been learning about the story of the gingerbread man, here we were putting pictures of the story in the correct order.  A couple of weeks ago we made some biscuits ourselves and then were shocked when some went missing! It turns out they had come to life and run away! Since then we have received cheeky postcards from all around the world saying 'run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me!' I wonder where he will go next!

We follow the Revised Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum 2012 which is founded on these core principles:

• every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured;
• children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships;
• children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents
• children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates.

On Wednesday Reception went to visit the Pizza Express restaurant in Newbury town centre! We walked down there and upon arrival at the restaurant the chef talked to us about the importance of hygiene and washing our hands. After we were all clean the chef dusted the tables with flour (we had a lot of fun playing with this!) and then we each got a piece of dough. The chef showed us how to shape it and stretch it out - we even got to see one of the chefs toss the pizza dough in the air! We then added our tomato sauce and cheese before they went in the oven. While they were cooking, we got to try some different pizza toppings like onion, mushroom and even artichoke (not that many of us tried that one!) Then when the pizzas were cooked the adults had to carry them all back to school, Mr Lucas nearly dropped them! But when we got back to school we all got to enjoy our pizzas for lunch - they were delicious!! 

We set weekly hometasks to support our learning in school.  Often these are linked to our Phonics work (we follow Letters and Sounds), early reading skills, pre-writing and handwriting and key mathematics skills.

You might find these sites useful

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-2-games.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/