“Children learn as they play. Most importantly in play children learn how to learn.”

O. Fred Donaldson

About Us

St. Pius X Primary School is part of the Nicholas Postgate Catholic Academy Trust.

We offer free, 15 hour and 30-hour places for 52 children in Nursery and 30 full time places in Reception.

30 Hours Funding

We have a limited number of 30 hours childcare places at St. Pius.

Eligibility is available for parents on the HMRC 30 hours childcare website: https://www.gov.uk/30-hours-free-childcare

If you are eligible, please follow the steps carefully and once completed, you will be given an 11-digit validation code which you will need to use as proof to a member of our office staff prior to your child starting Nursery.

Please note: there is a £3.50 daily charge to cover staffing costs over lunchtime. This is payable on ParentPay.

Nursery Timings

AM Nursery – flexible ‘drop off’ from 8:30am – 8:45am. The children are collected at 11:30am

PM Nursery – the session starts at 12:15pm with a flexible ‘pick up’ from 3:00pm – 3:15pm.

Reception Timings

8:45am – 3:00pm.

Our Vision 

Our EYFS is designed so that every single child can build a solid foundation and develop the skills and knowledge needed to be ready for their next stage in education.

If you would like to put your child’s name on our waiting list, then please contact school on 01642 314453 or email: [email protected]

We understand the importance of the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning and these are weaved into our curriculum.

We have highly skilled, enthusiastic staff who see every moment as a learning opportunity and the activities and experiences that they provide underpin the skills children will need to work towards the Early Learning Goals in the following 7 areas and ensure they are ‘Year 1 ready’:

The Prime areas are:

• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development

The specific areas are:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

The characteristics are split into three categories:

• Playing and Exploring – engagement
• Active Learning – motivation
• Creating and Thinking Critically – thinking

Phonics

At St. Pius, we teach Phonics through a scheme called Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. This is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) and is taught daily across EYFS.

Foundations for Phonics

Phonics Progression Document

The Four overarching principles shape good practice in our early years setting:

A Unique child: Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

Positive Relationships: Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.

Enabling Environments: Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time.

Learning and development: Children develop and learn in different ways. The framework covers the educational and care of all children in early years provision.