Member Article

North East nursery rated ‘outstanding’ for second time

A North East nursery that marks its 10th anniversary this year has double the reason to celebrate after earning an ‘outstanding’ rating from Ofsted for the second consecutive time.

Leighs Nurseries in Heddon-on-the-Wall near Newcastle is one of around two per cent of UK nurseries to earn the top ranking from education inspectors twice in a row.

The nursery is registered to cater for 43 early years children each day and has 97 families on its roll, with 21 qualified and trained staff working at the site.

The Ofsted report highlighted the ‘inspiring, welcoming and stimulating environment’ at the nursery and the ‘enthusiastic and caring staff team’ who support children’s learning and development, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The report praised the ‘excellent leadership and vision’ of the owners and management team which has resulted in a ‘vibrant and inspiring learning environment’.

Ofsted inspector Lynne Pope wrote in her report: “Teaching is outstanding. Staff have excellent skills and knowledge of the learning and development requirements and a superb understanding of how children learn. Assessment procedures are rigorous, meticulous and highly comprehensive. Staff are dynamic and enthusiastically plan learning using the information gathered from parents on entry to the nursery.

“Children’s self-esteem is very high and, as a result, they display exceptional levels of confidence in their own abilities and growing independence. Consequently, all children are exceptionally well prepared for their next steps in learning, including full-time school, whatever their needs.”

Leigh Caven and her husband Paul took over the nursery in 2004 and now also run an out of school club in the village, as well as Leighs Montessori Nurseries in Gateshead.

Leigh, who has four children of her own, said: “I’m passionate about high quality childcare and struggled to find it.

“I previously worked in retail in London and when I decided I wanted to open a nursery, I looked across the whole of the UK and Ireland before choosing Heddon. I always said I wouldn’t run a nursery that I wouldn’t put my own kids in. It has to have the ‘feel’ factor; all our parents say it has a fantastic feel.”

Earning an outstanding rating in two consecutive inspections is so rare because many nurseries stop putting in such as high level of effort when they achieve the gold standard.

Leigh said: “The inspector told me she loves going to outstanding nurseries but they are not necessarily outstanding afterwards because they tend to rest on their laurels and think they’ve done it now.

“We deliver high quality of care by constantly working hard and striving to provide high quality care to meet the needs of the individual. Each child is very different; they have individual needs, dietary requirements and health needs. We concentrate on meeting those every single day.”

She also paid tribute to the role of the staff at Heddon-on-the-Wall. Manager Jade Dixon and deputy manager Karla Gregg were both at the nursery before Leigh took over in 2004 and have stayed on since then.

“We don’t have a high rate of staff turnover and we don’t have a hierarchy,” said Leigh. “We have a fantastic team of high quality staff, who have lots of training and that’s the way in which we can deliver outstanding nursery care.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Astute.Work .