Welcome to St. Edmund’s Catholic Preschool. On behalf of myself and the rest of the staff team, I would like to warmly welcome you to our website. We hope the information you find here will help you to choose the right setting for your child. If you are the parent or carer of a child who is currently attending, we hope you find what you need to know. In any event, please feel free to email or call us if you need to know more. We welcome your enquiries.

At St Edmund’s Catholic Preschool, we want to help your child to reach their full potential and are excited to contribute to the most important stage of their learning journey. Through our approach to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), we will help your child to develop the essential Characteristics of Effective Learning, which will give them the skills they need to be successful, lifelong learners. We work collaboratively with colleagues in school to help your child make a smooth transition to the next stage in their learning and become successful members of the school community.

We are a small pre-school, with up to 30 places. Ratios between adults and children operate far in excess of the National legal requirements, in order that your child is well-supported by well qualified practitioners, who are all experienced in working with children under 5 years old. We have our own garden area, with opportunities for children to engage in outdoor play at all times of the day. In addition, we have access to the school indoor and outdoor facilities, including the vegetable garden, chickens and the fabulous Forest School Meadow Classroom (Monday’s only). Our indoor environment is set out to promote children’s independent learning and features ‘the Builders Yard’ (large construction); Atelier (art and craft area); Learning Lounge (role play); and life skills area (snack, washing up etc).

Teaching and Learning – What we do and why:

We respect each child’s individual learning needs and put them at the centre of our practice. Everything we do starts with the children. We promote children’s independence and encourage them to be creative, independent thinkers, who are motivated to explore and learn. We encourage children to choose their preferred learning environment, whether it’s indoors or outdoors; we encourage them to decide for themselves when they eat, what they eat and what they will play with. This is so that your child will be confident to make decisions about things that are important to them in the future.

Various educational philosophies inspire us, such as, Reggio Emilia, HighScope, Steiner and Montessori. We take what we consider to be the ‘best bits’ and use them to create our own approach to early childhood teaching to make sure your child has the best possible experience in our setting.

Please read our prospectus, with more information about our approach to teaching and learning, including the outline for a typical day in preschool, to give you a better picture of how we support your child’s journey towards the Early Learning Goals (EYFS 2017) and help them to become ‘school ready’.

Please feel free to contact us to arrange a visit to our preschool to see for yourself how children play and learn. We look forward to welcoming you and your child to our setting.

Preschool Leader