St Teresa's Nursery is a Catholic Maintained School in West Belfast, Northern Ireland. We are proud to be the first nursery in the North of Ireland to be awarded the 'Gold' Rights Respecting School Award. Children's rights form the cornerstone of our vision, values, and aims.

We welcome children and staff from other faith denominations. During the school year 2024-25, the intake of the school will be 54. All pupils will be in their pre-primary year.

We opened in 1994 and are affectionately known as 'The Butterfly School'. We are a purpose-built nursery, traditionally catering for the needs of pre-school children in the parish of St Teresa's. Our aim is to provide high-quality nursery education in a just and caring environment.

Parents and carers are a child's first teachers. When a child comes to school, they bring with them an array of different experiences. It is on these experiences that we build. This can best be done by parents, adults, and teachers working together in partnership both at home and school.

St Teresa's Nursery is part of West Belfast Area Learning Community and we are fostering links with both our feeder childcare settings and local Primary, (St Teresa's) and Special school, (St Gerard's). St Teresa's Nursery has partnered in the past with Shaftesbury Nursery in the Shankhill through Shared Education and, ‘Bornehuset Labyrinten’ in Denmark as part of an eTwinning project focused on ICT in Early Years. We have started our new partnership with Lowwood Nursery Unit through the Aspire project. All of these partnerships allow the children to experience a depth and quality to their learning experiences.

In St Teresa's, we have a strong focus on meeting the individual needs of the child. We observe children's patterns of behavior (schemas) and plan activities accordingly to maximize children's involvement in their play, enabling them to 'be the best that they can be'. Staff are highly skilled in meeting children's language and communication needs. We have held 'Makaton Friendly' status since 2016, and now have 'Silver Makaton Friendly Award'.

We are passionate about Outdoor Learning and are members of the Northern Ireland Forest Schools Association (NIFSA). We have been awarded Eco School's Green Flag six times and have been awarded bronze, silver, and gold awards from the Woodland Trust 'Green Tree' awards. We have been a Fair Trade Aware school since 2016 and support Trocaire, Tiny Life, and Autism NI as our chosen charities. Additionally, we have been shortlisted for ICT Excellence Awards and are pioneers of both AI and Ed tech, preparing pupils for the future in a safe and active way. We adopt a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach to ensure accessibility and participation for all children.