The Nursery

A garden with a mud kitchen, a baby room with cots and a toddler routine called Rhythm of the Day give The Nursery in Consett a practical emphasis: space to play, familiar routines and care organised around each child's stage. The setting has 70 places in total and accepts children aged 3 to 60 months.

At its February 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that the sequence of learning helped children build knowledge and skills towards their next stage. That dated judgement provides a useful quality reference alongside the current room arrangements.

Full-time, part-time and flexible sessions give families several attendance options. The strongest practical attractions are the separate age-group rooms, everyday outdoor play and meals cooked on the premises.

Rooms and Ages

Baby Room combines an area with cots for sleep, garden access and pushchair walks with singing, painting and stories for children up to two years old. An individual care plan follows the baby's home routine as closely as possible, giving feeding, rest and play a familiar pattern rather than expecting every baby to follow the same timetable.

Toddler Room, for children aged two to three, pairs sensory materials such as gloop and playdough with construction resources, a quiet corner and a kitchen for pretend play. These are different ways to explore: handling materials, building something, sharing a story or acting out everyday tasks. Books and musical instruments give the quiet corner more than one use, allowing a change of pace from sensory play. Blocks, a doll's house, a garage and animal figures add practical starting points for building and storytelling, so toddler play includes both making and imagining.

Pre-School Room, for ages three to five, adds creative cooking, technology resources and an introduction to letters, numbers, colours and shapes. The emphasis moves towards preparation for school, while stories, dressing up and making things remain part of the day.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for learning through play and tracking children's development. In Toddler Room, learning journals bring together photographs, observations and accounts of learning, giving families a record of how their child's interests and abilities develop.

Rhythm of the Day is the toddler room's flexible daily routine. It gives children a recognisable sequence while leaving room for spontaneous play. That balance matters for toddlers who benefit from knowing what happens next but also need time to pursue an interest.

In February 2024, children explored colour by mixing paint, made patterns in flour and joined familiar stories by supplying missing words. These examples show how ordinary play materials can introduce experimentation, mark-making and language. Questioning needed attention: staff did not always frame questions to allow children enough response time and opportunities to practise developing sentence patterns in conversation.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden contains hard and soft play surfaces, with opportunities for tricycle riding, sand play and the mud kitchen. Outdoor time therefore offers both movement and hands-on exploration, rather than simply a change of room.

In February 2024, children practised balancing on stepping stones, kicked balls and played hide and seek with staff. Preschool children also take regular educational outings nearby. These extend their experiences beyond the nursery, while everyday garden play remains part of the routine.

Relationships and Communication

Continuity is built into the baby and preschool arrangements through consistent carers and a key worker who follows development. For babies, the individual care plan connects nursery care with routines at home. For preschool children, the key worker records developmental milestones as preparation for the next stage progresses.

Annual parents' evenings offer another opportunity to discuss preschool development. For Toddler Room families, learning journals provide an ongoing account, with photographs and observations making progress easier to discuss than a general description of how the day went.

In February 2024, new children sought comfort from staff, who responded affectionately, and rest followed individual needs. Staff also helped children practise sharing, taking turns and manners. These were concrete parts of daily care at that time, rather than separate lessons in behaviour.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The current support structure includes a SENDCO and a behaviour management specialist. Safeguarding policies cover responding to suspected abuse and working with other agencies, and families can view the policies through the nursery office. These describe the arrangements in place; the dated safeguarding judgement belongs to the inspection.

A cook prepares food on site, using a four-week menu cycle that includes a hot two-course lunch alongside breakfast, snacks and tea. The nursery caters for vegetarian diets, food allergies and religious or ethnic dietary requirements.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year. Attendance can be full-time, part-time or through flexible sessions. These patterns give parents a choice of how regularly their child attends; the opening window describes when the nursery operates.

Getting There

The address is 4a Teasdale Street, Consett, DH8 6AF, just off Hartington Street. Hartington Street connects with Medomsley Road, giving families a useful street reference when planning the journey.

Enquiries can be made through the contact form or by telephone on 01207 591616. The nursery also provides school pick-up and drop-off services, which may help families combining preschool care with an older child's school day.

Funding and Paid Extras

Government-funded places are offered from nine months upwards, and Tax-Free Childcare payments are accepted. Funding and payment arrangements should be considered alongside the chosen attendance pattern; current prices belong in the nursery's written quotation.

• Conversation time. The February 2024 improvement point concerned allowing children enough time to answer questions and practise sentence patterns. On a visit, ask how practitioners now encourage those longer exchanges.
• Baby routines. Baby Room care plans follow home routines, and the room includes cots for rest. Use the two free visits to discuss how your baby's sleep, feeding and comfort routines would work in practice.
• Diet and the quotation. Food is cooked on site and dietary requirements are catered for. Confirm current allergy practice and ask the written quotation to distinguish food and consumables from childcare charges.

The Nursery suits families looking for full-time attendance, part-time care or flexible sessions, with age-group rooms and daily outdoor play carrying much of its appeal. The baby care plans and toddler routine provide useful structure; preschool activities introduce school preparation through play and practical experiences.

The February 2024 Good judgement supports that picture, while the conversation-time improvement point gives parents a specific issue to explore. The clearest reasons to choose it are tangible: cots for babies, varied toddler play spaces, a garden with a mud kitchen and food prepared on site.