Early Days Nursery School Newcastle

Paint for babies, movement to music and lunchtime jobs for preschool children give Early Days Nursery School Newcastle a practical, hands-on character. In June 2024, children explored materials, practised communication and took responsibility for everyday tasks. Learning reached beyond organised activities into the small routines that help children become more independent.

Ofsted rated the nursery Good at its June 2024 inspection and found safeguarding effective. The setting at 2a Orme Road in Newcastle-under-Lyme accepts children from three months to five years and has 60 places in total. That capacity describes the whole nursery, rather than the number of children sharing an activity or room.

Full-day nursery care sits alongside an out-of-school club for older children. The distinction matters: nursery attendance and school-age care serve different ages and different parts of the family timetable.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care. Here, its practical meaning is learning through experiences that develop communication, movement and independence, as well as through everyday routines.

In June 2024, babies explored paint with their hands and made marks using shapes. Practitioners repeated simple words during the activity and copied babies' sounds to encourage a response. The activity brought sensory exploration and early conversation together: a child could experiment with a material while an adult supplied words connected to what was happening.

Movement sessions gave younger children fabric to wave to music, with changes in direction and the size of their movements. Preschool children practised a different kind of independence, putting belongings on pegs, serving lunch and clearing their plates. Taking a turn setting the table gave them a useful responsibility within the group.

The play dough gym involved pressing, rolling and poking dough to exercise fingers ahead of learning to control a pencil. It gave a familiar play material a clear purpose. However, the June 2024 findings also identified group activities that did not engage every child, with some becoming restless and disrupting others.

Children's access to activities needed attention too. In June 2024, work on allowing children to move smoothly between experiences was still developing; some activities stopped while children wanted to continue. For parents, this is a useful distinction between having appealing activities and giving children enough time to pursue them.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor play formed part of the nursery day in June 2024. Children practised sharing equipment and waiting for a turn, connecting fresh air and physical play with learning how to manage shared resources.

At the June 2024 inspection, Ofsted praised support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, highlighting individual development targets and collaboration with professionals involved in their care. This was a substantial strength of the inspection findings: support was organised around the child and linked to the people already helping them.

In June 2024, communication support included Makaton and pictures to help children communicate, alongside targeted work with the speech and language team. Singing and musical instruments provided opportunities to practise listening and attention. These were concrete ways of supporting communication, rather than relying solely on spoken instructions.

Daily exchanges with parents, online updates and parents' evenings provided different routes for discussing a child's development in June 2024. Families could speak with their key person, and staff helped arrange meetings involving parents and other professionals. Routine feedback and more detailed conversations served different purposes: one covered the day, while the other allowed time to discuss progress and support.

Fresh hot food and nutritious snacks were served in June 2024, while children practised handwashing and using the toilet independently. Mealtimes also created opportunities to talk about vegetables and healthy eating.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery full day runs from 7.30am to 6pm. Opening hours follow the same window, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks, with closures for bank holidays and Christmas week. This makes the annual closure pattern a practical consideration for families arranging care around work.

The out-of-school club serves children aged three to eleven. Its morning session runs from 7.30am to 9am, and its afternoon session from 3pm to 6pm; a full-day holiday club is also offered. These are school-age arrangements, separate from the nursery full day.

Getting There

The address is 2a Orme Road, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, ST5 2ND, with access to the A34. Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01782 633311 or by email to earlydaysnewcastle@gmail.com.

Funding and Paid Extras

In June 2024, the nursery provided funded early education for children aged two, three and four. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Group activities. In June 2024, some children disengaged from organised activities and disturbed others. On a visit, ask how practitioners adjust an activity when children's interests or needs differ.
• Time to finish exploring. June 2024 findings included activities ending while children still wanted to continue. Ask how children can return to an experience or carry their play forward.
• Two care arrangements. Nursery full days and the school-age club serve different ages and hours. Families combining them should discuss how the arrangements would work for their children, including holiday care.

Early Days suits families seeking a nursery full day alongside morning or afternoon school-age care. Its June 2024 strengths lay in practical independence, communication support and individual planning for children needing additional help. The improvement points concerned how well group activities accommodated different children and how long children could continue an absorbing experience. Those are useful priorities for a visit: the choice turns on how the nursery combines adult-led learning with children's own interests.