St Joseph’s Nursery

A new nursery.

As a newly established nursery on the site of St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, we think we offer and can provide a unique learning environment when compared to a stand-alone nursery. We believe this is because your child will become part of

• An established learning community that has served Malmesbury since 1935
• A community built around faith. This is a key feature of our school and something we are very proud of.

Our values of Love and Kindness, Peace, Resilience, Aspiration, Curiosity, Respect and Serving and Giving underpin all that we do.
These values are however not unique to Christianity and will compliment any or no religious tradition that values the development of the whole child.
Our staff actively promote and live these values and we see these as gifts we can give your child, not only while they are in our school but also into adult life

Access to:

• Experienced educational specialists.
  All staff within the school are qualified professionals but particularly in our Early Years and Key Stage 1, we have staff with nursery as well as Early Year’s experience. We also have staff who are skilled in supporting children’s special educational needs (SEND), Speech and Language (S$L) and wider emotional development. This include Emotional Literacy Support (ELSA) and playing therapies (Lego Therapy)
• A new purpose built nursery environment.

At the start of the 2024-2025 academic year the Government invited schools apply for a capital spending grant to enable the school’s to host or have as part of their structure nursery provision. This grant was established so that schools could convert classroom spaces into nursery settings.
We applied for this grant in December 2024 and were successful in securing this funding. What we are most proud of is that we are:

• One of only two schools in Wiltshire to receive this finding
• One of only a handful in the south of England to also receive this funding.

This funding has meant we have been able to create a bespoke learning space that is designed specifically for nursery aged children and includes separate toilet and changing facilities along with a mini kitchen area.
The attached plans will give you an insight into what our new Nursery classroom space will look like

School integration and readiness.

• We see birth to five as the first steps in a child’s learning journey. In particular we see nursery education as the transition between the home and starting school and as a place where children can start to develop the skills needed for social development and the establishment of wider early learning skills. As part of our nursery and school, your child would have access to the wider school environment, structures and routines and this in turn will prepare them for whatever school they attend when they finish in our nursery.

The wider school environment.

• Our school environment is unique within Malmesbury in that we have extensive formal and wild spaces that all children can access. Forest Schools and “Welly Walks” will be part of our daily routine and through this, we aim to develop children’s respect of creation and natural environment.
• We also have a bespoke outdoor learning area that is shared with our EYFS / Key Stage 1 class. This includes a mud kitchen, role play areas, children’s garden and equipment designed to help children balance and hold their own weight. Children in our nursery will also have access to our hall, dining room, playground space and reflection garden.