Tingers Childcare

Care adapted to the individual child gives Tingers Childcare its strongest character. Based at Queens Park Community Hub in South Park, Lincoln, it has capacity for 44 children from birth to five. At its July 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated it Outstanding across all assessed areas, including education, personal development and leadership.

Communication and inclusion are the most useful details behind that judgement. In July 2024, staff assessed children's language soon after they started, adapted activities for different sensory needs and helped children understand why a friend might need different support. The emphasis was practical: identifying a need, changing the response and helping other children understand it.

Tingers also won a Lincolnshire Business Excellence Award in 2024. For parents, though, the everyday arrangements described below carry more decision value than an award alone.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care. Here, communication, physical development and personal, social and emotional development are developed through cooperative play, interaction and activities shaped around individual children. Hands-on experiences and children's own interests guide the learning.

Language receives close attention. In July 2024, advice from speech and language therapists shaped support when assessments identified communication difficulties. Screening began within children's first week of attendance, with further reviews tracking their development. That approach connected assessment with a practical response, rather than leaving an identified difficulty as a note in a child's file.

For children with visual impairments, staff described their actions and surroundings as they interacted, alongside opportunities to explore through other senses. The important detail is the adjustment itself: access to an activity did not depend solely on being able to see it.

Outdoor and Community Life

In July 2024, activities took place both inside and outside. The nursery also sponsored a guide dog, using its training and work to explain how a dog can support someone with a visual impairment. That connected children's learning about other people's needs with something relevant to their own community.

Respect for others had an everyday expression, too. Children learnt that tactile toys could help friends manage distress, and sometimes fetched them when they recognised that a friend needed support. This made consideration for another child something they could act on.

Relationships and Communication

Parents are part of the learning approach, with cooperative play and interaction supported by work with families. In July 2024, children's next learning steps were displayed in the foyer, where parents could identify their child's goals and see how learning developed in sequence. A lending library of resources gave families something practical to use at home.

The combination matters. A goal on a display explains what a child is working towards; a resource to borrow gives a parent a way to join in. It links nursery learning with home life through a specific activity rather than a general request to practise more.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the July 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities made rapid progress through individually adapted support, and that safeguarding arrangements were effective. Those are dated findings about practice, rather than assurances drawn from staff titles.

Current staff roles include a SENCO and an assistant SENCO. Paediatric first aid is represented across the team. The Baby Room has a room leader, while the team also includes practitioners with childcare and education qualifications and a manager with a Masters in Education.

In July 2024, staff explained safety expectations at morning welcome time and adjusted their explanations for children who needed additional help. Calm, consistent reminders supported those routines. Family support extended beyond the nursery day through the manager's involvement in an evening café; a mental health hub was being prepared at that time, rather than already operating.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Queens Park Community Hub, South Park, Lincoln, LN5 8EW. Tingers operates across the year, with bank holidays excluded. Families can make enquiries by email at office@tingerschildcare.co.uk or through the contact form.

Funded childcare is arranged within an 8.30am to 4pm window, with the actual hours depending on how a family uses its entitlement. One all-year example gives children accessing 12 hours two days of 9am to 3pm attendance each week. This is an example of a booking arrangement, rather than a universal timetable for funded children.

Optional extensions include early drop-off from 7.30am to either 8.30am or 9am, both including breakfast, and late collection from 4pm to 5.40pm, including tea. Additional childcare can also be purchased by the hour. These arrangements distinguish the funded part of the day from paid extensions.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funding is offered for children from nine months to four years, including up to 30 hours a week for eligible working families. Eligible codes can be used from the term after the child reaches the relevant age. Funding can be accessed across the year; additional hours and services are paid separately.

For funded children, home-cooked lunch with a starter and main course, plus snacks served at 10am and 2pm, are separately charged optional extras. Breakfast and tea are included in their respective paid early-drop-off and late-collection options. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the funding and extras information explains the structure.

• The funded timetable. Attendance hours depend on how entitlement is used, and the 9am to 3pm arrangement is one all-year example. At a visit, discuss which funded pattern would fit your working week and which extensions you would need.
• Support beyond the nursery day. An evening café featured in July 2024, while a mental health hub was still being prepared. Ask how family support now operates if this is an important part of your choice.
• Baby-room care. A Baby Room leader is part of the team. On a visit, discuss settling and how daily care and group size would work for your baby.

Tingers suits families looking for individually adapted early learning, with a July 2024 Outstanding judgement behind it. Language screening, sensory adjustments and resources for home learning give that assessment practical substance.

Its attendance arrangements suit families using funding sessions, as well as those adding Early drop off 1 or Early drop off 2 for breakfast care, or Late collection with tea. The choice depends on matching the funded hours and paid extensions to the family week, while weighing the nursery's detailed approach to communication and inclusion.