St Francesca Cabrini nursery

[yeknomyeknom]

Hello,

I wanted to ask if there were any local mums who send their child to the nursery at this school and how you find it. Also, do you intend to keep your child at the school after nursery if your application is accepted?

[yeknomyeknom]

So. Not many East Dulwich mums with kids at the nursery then? Hmm.

[Renata Hamvas]

I think Anna M who posts on here does.

Renata

[Fjgb]

My daughter is going to reception there and my neighbour has a child currently in nursery there who will be staying on. But I don't know anyone going to nursery next year.

[Anna M]

Hello there

My little boy is at the nursery currently, and he is going to go to school there from September. My eldest son is at the school, but didn't go to the nursery (we were given the school on distance allocation for non-Catholics) so we didn't have any experience of the nursery before following on with my youngest. We put my youngest into nursery having been very pleased with the school so far.

The nursery is lovely and my youngest son has been very happy there. They are fine with settling slowly or however it needs to happen for the child. And they have a routine on coming in, which helps the child settle - after hanging up their coat, they pick their name tag off a table and go and hang it on a board full of numbers and pictures (they choose any they like). Then they have carpet time first, with a little interactive chat about the weather (someone gets to hang the weather picture on the day's date) and counting numbers of children who are there and so on. After this, they are shown pictures of all the activities they can choose from, and each child chooses what they want to start with. They aren't restricted by their choice (they could go and start something else if they liked! and change when they like) but it helps to give a sort of starting point/entry point and focus which I found really clever and positive. They have free flow outside and do lots of nice activities - story-related artwork and baking, and so on. Ms Guthrie, the head nursery teacher, really seems to know her stuff.

When my son started the numbers of children built up very slowly and that was invaluable as he wasn't confident in a large group of peers, so it enabled him to feel comfortable in a larger class. I'm really happy all round with his experience at the nursery.

A note on the school - they don't have such a settling in period. They start the new children who haven't been to the nursery gradually in stages, but they just go straight in for the full day. My eldest son (who is quite an extrovert) was fine with this, as i think were most of the other school newbies, but I'm happy my younger son went to the nursery as it was a softer start for him.

Yeknomyeknom - you are quite right that there isn't a big EDF presence by parents of kids at the school. Not sure why that is exactly. Not sure even if it's indicative of anything, particularly! I know when I was wondering what the school was like, I was desperate for some inside info, though, so if anyone wants to message me then I'm very happy to answer!

I was thinking of organising a Francesca Cabrini school starter's picnic over the summer, to allow some school starters to get to know their class mates. I'll invite my son's nursery classmates too, and you are welcome to come along if you like!

Anna

[yeknomyeknom]

Thanks Anna. That's reassuring.

[Fjgb]

Anna has been super helpful to me about the school :)