Marton Childrens Day Nursery

A child choosing their own key person is the most telling detail about Marton’s approach to settling. In October 2022, relationships developed around the adult each child connected with, and that approach continued when children changed rooms. For a parent concerned about separation, the emphasis was on familiarity rather than a uniform settling timetable.

Ofsted rated Marton Childrens Day Nursery Good on 25 October 2022. The nursery is on Martonside Way in Middlesbrough, TS4 3BU, and accepts children aged one to 60 months. Its weekday opening hours run from 7.30am to 6pm, with operation across the year and bank holiday closures.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children’s learning, development and care: everyday play, communication and relationships sit alongside learning new skills. It is the baseline framework here, rather than an extra programme.

In October 2022, babies investigated oats as a material for making marks, then brought toy cars into their exploration. Older children used construction resources in response to an interest in building. These were different activities for different developmental stages, with children’s interests helping shape what happened next.

Music gave the day another rhythm. During October 2022, children sang, danced and experimented with instruments, matching movement and sound to songs they knew. This offered ways to participate through their bodies as well as their voices. The account includes both babies’ exploration and older children’s building, rather than treating the nursery day as one activity shared by every age.

Conversation was woven into play in October 2022. Practitioners spoke clearly at children’s level and helped turn short utterances into longer sentences by introducing more vocabulary. For a child beginning to communicate, that made ordinary exchanges part of learning.

There were also clear teaching priorities in October 2022. Older children’s group activities sometimes contained distractions that interrupted concentration, and everyday opportunities to introduce counting and words describing position were missed. These points concern the organisation and content of learning. They are useful questions for families considering the preschool stage.

Relationships and Communication

In October 2022, settling time followed individual children’s needs, and key persons built relationships with parents as well as children. The same attention to familiarity carried into room changes. This gave the transition between stages a relational thread: moving rooms did not simply mean moving resources or following an age threshold.

Observation also informed care in October 2022. Staff used what they knew about individual children’s development to plan activities around areas needing attention. Behavioural expectations appeared in ordinary routines, including sharing resources, waiting for a turn and putting things away before eating. Babies heard courteous language modelled by adults and repeated it themselves.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the October 2022 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities good, with individual interventions and a special educational needs coordinator helping staff respond to children’s abilities. These are dated judgements, rather than a guarantee about an individual child’s experience today.

Preparation for moving on was practical in October 2022. Staff contacted the settings children would attend, exchanged information and talked with children about what their next setting would involve. For families approaching school, the useful element was continuity: information about the child travelled with them, while conversations helped make the change more familiar.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Marton operates throughout the year and closes on bank holidays. That opening window gives families a clear boundary for arranging work and collection commitments.

The address is Martonside Way, Middlesbrough, TS4 3BU. Direct enquiries go to the Marton nursery on 01642 824040; the contact form also allows families to select Marton when sending a message.

Funding and Paid Extras

In October 2022, the nursery provided funded early education for children aged two, three and four. Families should obtain a current written quotation for their intended attendance before committing to paid childcare.

• Preschool concentration. In October 2022, distractions sometimes interrupted older children’s group activities. During a visit, ask how these activities are organised now and how children get time to listen and concentrate.
• Mathematics through play. October 2022 improvement priorities included making more use of numbers and language about position during everyday activities. Ask for examples from the current preschool day, rather than relying on a description of a separate mathematics activity.
• Planning attendance and costs. The weekday opening window is 7.30am to 6pm. Before joining, ask which booking pattern fits your family and how funded hours, meals and non-food consumables would be treated in your written quotation.

Marton suits families seeking childcare in Middlesbrough within a weekday opening window that extends from early morning into the evening. Its October 2022 account gives the strongest reasons to consider it: settling around individual relationships, practical language teaching and information sharing when children move on. For preschool families, the organisation of group activities and mathematics in daily play deserve attention alongside those strengths.