Early Years (2-5 years old)
Early Years Vision
At St Helen’s, we provide nurturing and inclusive Early Years environments in our pre-school, nursery and reception classes, where every child is supported to feel safe, valued, and ready to learn. Guided by our mission of learning about God, our world, and living in harmony with each other, we promote children’s personal development, curiosity, and respect for others.
Through a rich, play-based curriculum, we develop confident, independent learners who demonstrate kindness, resilience, and a growing understanding of the world around them. We work in partnership with families, respecting them as a child's first educator, to ensure that every child makes strong progress from their starting points and is well prepared for the next stage of their education.
Early Years Teachers Qualifications
Mary Orwell
Pre-school Class Teacher (2 and 3 year olds)
NPQ Early Years Leadership
NASENCo
BA Hons Primary Education with Advanced Early Years Specialism (inc QTS)
GCSE Child Development
Justine Burch
Nursery Class Teacher and Early Years Phase Leader
BEd Education with QTS
Marielou Cascayan
RB Class Teacher
PGCE Primary 3-7 (With QTS)
Christie Thomas
RY Class Teacher
PGCE Primary 3-7 (With QTS)
BA Honours in Education and Psychology
Early Years (2-5 years old)
At St. Helen’s we are committed to developing the whole child through a broad and balanced curriculum. We ensure that we cover all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum.
Parent and Toddler Group
Miss Bode (our home school liaison officer) runs a Parent and Toddler group every Thursday morning. This group is free of charge and is a fantastic opportunity to network with other parents, access a range of services and get started on your child's journey within St Helen's.
Pre-school
The pre-school is open to children from September after they turn two years old. We follow the school academic year cycle so children remain in pre-school until the July before starting nursery.
We have a pre-school that has a 15 hours offer for those with eligibility codes. The hours of our pre-school are 9am-12pm.
The pre-school is based in the Benedict Centre building with 2 classrooms, a soft play room, changing room and kitchen. It has a large outdoor area with a fixed play equipment structure. The pre-school also has its own small Forest School area.
To see if your child is eligible please click here.
Nursery
The nursery is open to children from September after they turn three years old. We follow the school academic year cycle so children remain in nursery until the July before starting Reception.
Our nursery has a range of offers for both 15 hours and 30 hours for those with eligibility codes. We run morning, afternoon and all day sessions.
Morning sessions are 8.30am - 11.30am
Afternoon Sessions are 12.20pm - 3.20pm
All day sessions are 8:30am - 3:20pm.
To see if your child is eligible please click here.
Nursery Extended Schools
Our Nursery children can also use our Extended Schools offer which is invaluable to help around family circumstances and childcare commitments.
Breakfast Club is open at 7:30am everyday. This costs £3 per morning. This service is run on site and children will be taken to their classroom at 8.30am.
6 O’clock Club is open until 6pm everyday. This costs £10 per evening. This service is run on site and children will be collected from their classroom at 3:30pm and taken to the Benedict Centre..
Reception
Children start Reception in the September after they turn four years old. We have two classes: Reception Blue (RB) and Reception Yellow (RY). The school day is 8.50am-3.20pm everyday. We open our gates at 8:30am for a softer start to the morning so children are welcome in from 8.30am. Children in Reception can also use the extended schools service so there is flexibility from 7.30am - 6pm for parents. Extended schools services are chargeable (see above for the costs).
