St Anne's Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided Primary School Nursery

Children’s interests help shape the learning at St Anne’s: familiar objects brought from home can become starting points for conversation and exploration. The nursery is called Foundation Stage 1, or FS1, within the school’s early years provision. It belongs to a Catholic primary school on Hylton Road in Pennywell, Sunderland, giving families a school-based setting with an explicitly Christian ethos.

Play provides the starting point for learning. Within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), activities follow children’s interests, with staff observing their play once they have settled. Speaking and understanding, movement and self-care, and confidence and relationships receive early emphasis. Reading, writing, mathematics, exploring the world and creative expression sit alongside these foundations. For parents, this means an activity can support several kinds of development together.

The learning spaces make those intentions concrete. FS1 has areas for writing, reading and number work. Across the early years environment, construction, discovery, technology and role play have their own spaces, alongside sand, water, messy play and painting easels. Children therefore have different ways to explore an idea: through materials, imaginative play or early marks on paper.

Welcome Time connects home interests with classroom learning. Children can bring objects such as shells or pine cones to share, giving staff something personal to build a conversation around. Stories have a clear role too. In November 2022, Ofsted found that the early years environment encouraged children to act independently and attempt harder activities, with books accessible throughout the provision. That makes reading part of the learning environment rather than an activity confined to one corner.

Each child has an assigned key worker responsible for their learning and welfare. Parents can speak with that adult at either end of a session, and development records are shared with families and other professionals where needed. This gives the child a familiar adult and the parent a direct point of contact.

Settling begins with friendships, classroom familiarity and routines. Home stories and holiday photographs are used to encourage children to talk about their own experiences, making familiar people and interests part of the introduction to nursery.

Inclusion is a school-wide principle: children should participate in learning and school life alongside their peers. The September 2022 staffing list identified an FS1 teacher who also held the early years leadership and SEN coordination roles, supported by a teaching assistant and a higher level teaching assistant.

For food, the school’s meal service prepares meals on site each day and includes daily vegetarian choices. Families needing a diet adapted for medical or cultural reasons are directed to the office to discuss arrangements. These are school meal arrangements, rather than a promise of nursery meal entitlement.

Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Families must make a separate Reception application through the normal admissions process and meet its deadline. St Anne’s directs school applications through Sunderland City Council’s Citizen Portal. Treat choosing the nursery and applying for Reception as two separate decisions; familiarity with the setting does not secure admission.

Enquiries go through the school office on 0191 534 4555, with an email contact form also provided. The address is Hylton Road, Pennywell, Sunderland, SR4 9AA.

The Foundation Stage brochure covers preparing a child for nursery, the first days and learning. It can be read online or printed, giving parents a practical introduction to the start of nursery alongside conversations with their child’s key worker.