St Francis De Sales Catholic Infant And Nursery School

Welcome to St Francis de Sales Catholic Infant and Nursery School. Our Infant School is an exciting place to be, full of outstanding children, enthusiastic, dedicated staff and lots of wonderful surprises.

We believe that Every Child Matters and learning at our school is fun and exciting, challenging and rewarding. We offer a warm and caring environment which enables children to feel safe and secure as they grow, learn and develop. The foundation of our success is happy children working hard in surroundings where they are valued and value others.

The first years in school are the most important and can shape children's attitudes to learning and school long after they leave us. We hope by the time the children leave our Infant School they will have developed a good sense of self worth and a stimulated mind, so that they are happy and motivated as they continue on their journey through education.

We are extremely proud of our Infant School and are always pleased to show prospective children and parents around so that you can see our school first hand.

At our school, we aim to walk and pray with Jesus as a Christian family. To do this, we will: provide a warm welcome to all, be kind and loving to each other as Jesus taught us, help and support each other, bring the values from the Gospel to life within our school family, celebrate the diversity and talents of all members of our community.

Inspire a love of learning in all. To do this, we will: provide an exciting, stimulating and inclusive learning environment that both challenges and supports learners, provide a broad and balanced curriculum that encompasses and enhances social, intellectual, emotional, physical, moral and spiritual development, promote active, independent skill based learning, enable everyone to reach their full potential and develop to the best of their ability, provide opportunities for everyone to realise their dreams, recognise their own gifts and raise self esteem and self confidence, learn about and respect other faiths and cultures.

Work in partnership with our families, parish and wider community. To do this, we will: work with parents and support them in their role as first educators, promote and encourage positive links between our school and the parish community, use our talents to enrich the lives of others and encourage active participation in community and school events, engage with the wider community through educational trips and welcome visitors into our school, recognise the wider community as an extension of our school family by, for example, participating in charitable events.

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides children with a wide and balanced curriculum; it encompasses learning for children in both Nursery and Reception and underpins how children learn through exploration, play and engagement.

There are seven areas of learning that make up the early year’s curriculum. The Prime Areas:

• Personal, social and emotional development
• Communication and language
• Physical development

The Specific Areas: Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the world, Expressive arts and design.

The Key Stage One Curriculum covers Years 1 and 2 and provides a balanced and broad based programme of study which helps to promote the spiritual, moral, cultural and physical development of pupils.

The children are taught through topics based on the Lancashire Scheme which have a focus each half term on one or more foundations subjects: Music, Geography, History, Art, and DT along with Science, English, Maths and PE. The children are taught through a combination of discreet teaching and collaborative, investigative learning within Continuous Provision Areas where they are also able to practise the skills taught independently.

We follow the “COME AND SEE” curriculum which is recommended by the Liverpool Archdiocese. The children also learn about two different faiths each year e.g. Islam and Judaism. This helps them to appreciate the multi-cultural society in which we live and become aware and appreciate cultures and religions other than their own.

We aim to teach the year group expectations for English that are set out in the English Curriculum within the National Curriculum 2014. The curriculum is divided into Reading, Writing, with Spoken Language underpinning both.

Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing. The quality of language the children hear and speak are essential for developing their vocabulary and grammar and their comprehension for reading and writing. We aim to ensure that the children gain confidence and competence in spoken language and listening skills.

The children are taught to decode words by sounding out the phonemes in a word and blending those sounds together to say the word. They will be taught the speedy recognition of familiar words, also tricky and common exception words, words with unusual spelling patterns. Great emphasis in the teaching of Phonics continues from the Early Years into Key Stage 1.