About St. Thomas More Pre-school
We are a Catholic pre-school where our Montessori teaching and learning reflects our Christian faith. Our motto is “Learning to love, loving to learn”. We will help your child to find their own potential and independence and on this journey of self-discovery, we will aid them in becoming a balanced, well-mannered and confident individual.
Our Promise to You
- To provide a safe, secure and happy environment for your child.
- To lead your child to the joy of learning and self-discovery.
- To observe your child as an individual and to help them to find their own potential.
- To provide a wide and varied day, incorporating a full learning programme.
- To allow freedom of movement during the learning activities and to provide physical exercise both indoors and outdoors.
- To encourage creativity in art, craft and musical expression.
- To encourage self-discipline, caring for others and social interaction.
- To promote independence and care of the immediate environment.
We want to help your child become a balanced, well-mannered and confident individual, who through the Montessori education system will have a flying start at their next school and for life.
Our Daily Routine
8.30 – 9.00 Children arrive, self register, choose their lunch and are settled with an activity of their choosing.
9.00 – 11.45 The Morning Work Cycle. Children free-flow inside and outside and select their own activities. The children are offered a variety of optional adult led activities such as French, PE, Music, Cookery and Craft. Keypersons’ observe their children and offer planned ‘next step’ activities to extend the child’s individual learning.
11.45 – 12.00 The children gather to say good morning, talk about their day and sing songs. We pray together, wash hands and go to the lunch hall in small groups.
12.00 – 12.30 We eat our lunch together with the Infant children. The teachers eat their lunch with the children.
12.30 Morning only children prepare to go home. Afternoon Session starts.
12.30 – 3.15 The Afternoon Work Cycle. As with the morning session, the children are free to select their own activities, returning them to the shelves when they are ready.
3.15 – 3.30 We gather for stories and prayers before home time.
Key Person
Your child will be allocated a key person when they come to St Thomas More, who will help you and your child settle into the routines at the setting, to help you both feel safe and secure at that crucial time of separation.
Child’s Progress
It is very important that we work together to support your child’s learning experience.We individually plan for your child on a termly basis and use this information to construct an ongoing learning journey using our new record keeping system within the pre-school called ‘My Montessori Child’. This system is securely run using ipads to record visual evidence and observational records of your child’s progress and achievements whilst they are with us at pre-school. The system allows us to plan individually for your child and produce a clear visual record of the activities which have captured their interest.As a parent, you can log in to the system with a unique log in code, to view pictures and observations which have been recorded for your child. The system includes a ‘parent’s page’ which will keep you up to date with the pre-school news and Montessori updates.Please see the following website for further details www.mymontessorichild/parents
We hold informal parent meetings with you upon your request and a parent/teacher consultation during the Spring Term.
Partnership with parents
We have an open door policy and welcome you at anytime to share in our pre-school day.
We hold coffee mornings, mini concerts, fun days and school trips for you to share in your child’s experience.
We provide regular weekly updates on preschool activities through My Montessori Child and send out regular emails to keep you up to date with important information.
