We are so pleased that your child has been offered a place here at St Mark’s Catholic Primary school. On behalf of the Staff, Governors, children and parents, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you and your family to our school community.  For those parents who missed the Headteacher welcome at the parents induction evening then please refer to the presentation slides below.  

Our Reception Class team 

Mrs Price (Class teacher and EYFS Assessment Lead) has been part of the St Mark’s family for about 20 years and Mrs Lee (Class teacher and Phonics Lead) joined us in April 2019 and between them they have a wealth of experience teaching in Early Years and Key Stage 1.  Mrs Entwistle, our Nursery Nurse has been at St Mark’s for more then 20 years and she is  our Speech and Language Learning Support Champion. Together with our Learning Support Assistant, Ms Costello, they work as a team to support teaching, learning and pastoral care in the Reception class. 

Parent Welcome pack 

In addition, we have produced the following documents to help with transition to Primary School 

• A welcome booklet for parents– contains lots of useful information and photos for you to share with your child. 

• A welcome pack for your child from our current Little Lions  

Starting School in September 

We are so excited for your child to be joining Reception Class in September and hope that you and your children have enjoyed the taster ‘stay and play’ sessions. 

On Wednesday 3rd September Little Lions will begin their journey at St Mark’s. Please refer to the slide 33 of the “New entrants parent induction presentation” document below. 

Every year, we encourage parents to support their children to become more independent during the summer holidays.  Please start practising changing in and out of the school uniform and PE kit using new words such as plimsoles, shirts, ties.  Please encourage your child to use a knife and fork, feed themselves, and undo the wrapping of items in their lunchboxes. This will support them to develop good table manners.  Children should be able to go to the toilet by themselves. If your child has any specific needs then please do notify us so that all care plans can be prepared in advance as we want to ensure a warm welcome. 

God bless. 

Find out more about our classroom and the areas we use in school! 

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Curriculum Intent 

Our curriculum intent aims to:

• Be rooted in the principles of Catholic Teaching, encouraging our pupils to grow in self-awareness, becoming advocates of social justice, adaptable to any social context. 
• Develop communication skills necessary for learning and life, promoting enjoyment, high expectations and standards in reading, writing and maths across all subject areas. 
• Be memorable: providing diverse, SMSC rich opportunities from which children learn and develop a range of transferrable skills.
• Raise aspirations, engender a sense of personal pride in achievement, provide a purpose and relevance for learning and ultimately to help every student to find strength and interests.
• Empower pupils to respect each other and themselves, show respect and understanding for people of all faiths, race and gender, and for all living things, promoting stewardship and ensuring children are well prepared for life in a rapidly changing world. 

Curriculum in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

A summary of the framework is outlined below.

Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework 

Four Guiding Principles for the EYFS Framework

Throughout the Nursery and Reception, we follow the statutory framework for EYFS, supported by non-statutory guidance set out in a document called Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Development Matters in Early Years Foundation Stage

• 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 with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.

• Importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

These four themes that underpin all the guidance in the EYFS:

A Unique Child + Positive Relationships + Enabling Environments = Learning and Development

For more information follow the link.