Tiny Toez, Tividale

Tea sets, baking utensils and cardboard dinosaurs give Tiny Toez, Tividale a recognisable character: practical play with ordinary objects. At its February 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall, while asking for teaching to stretch children's learning further and for activities to give everyone a fuller part.

The nursery serves children aged 3 to 60 months at Sure Start in Tipton. Its strongest inspection-era detail is the connection between imaginative play, conversation and hands-on exploration. The teaching recommendations matter alongside that positive picture.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care. For parents, that means education through experiences that develop communication, physical skills and relationships alongside early reading, number work and creativity.

In February 2024, children explored real tea sets and baking utensils during imaginative play. Children moved a flour-and-water mixture between containers and used a toy cooker and baking tins in the role play area. Familiar household objects gave them something concrete to investigate and use in their own games.

Books also became activities. Children used story props to act out what they heard, while older children recognised letters, wrote them and linked them with the beginnings of words. Songs and action rhymes encouraged participation through movement as well as speech.

Creative work varied with development. Younger children experimented with water and sand, including pouring between containers. Older children joined cardboard boxes into dinosaurs, talked about size and used glue and tape. There was a clear practical emphasis, though staff sometimes missed opportunities to deepen learning or demonstrate equipment use, including scissors.

The February 2024 curriculum took account of each child's developmental stage and individual needs. Activities built on existing understanding and what children needed to learn next, while children also had opportunities to direct their own play. For families, the useful connection is between choice and progression: the child's interests supplied a starting point, with staff responsible for taking the learning further. That makes the recommendation about extending learning especially relevant to everyday play.

Staff responsibilities at that visit included behaviour coordinator, garden coordinator and translator. These roles gave individual practitioners responsibility for specific aspects of nursery life. Managers monitored practice, supported changes and offered training, providing a practical route for addressing the teaching and activity organisation recommendations through staff development.

In February 2024, children approached staff for comfort as well as play, including sitting together for stories. A colour monster activity helped them discuss emotions and begin managing their responses. This gave feelings a place in the nursery day rather than treating them only as a behaviour issue.

At the February 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that children with SEND received substantial, individual support through staff working with parents and other professionals, and that children, including those learning English as an additional language, made good progress from their starting points.

Transitions involved sharing children's interests and developmental needs, with parents included when children changed stages. School staff visited children at nursery. These February 2024 arrangements helped connect the child's existing experience with the next setting, making school preparation more personal than practising letters alone.

Sessions and Attendance

Tiny Toez, Tividale is open Monday to Friday, from 7.30am to 6pm, across the year, with bank holiday closures. The address is Sure Start, 20-25 Tividale Street, Tipton, DY4 7SD.

Funding and Paid Extras

In February 2024, the nursery provided funded early education for children aged two, three and four. Families should obtain current prices in the nursery's written quotation.

• Teaching that extends play. The February 2024 recommendations covered staff teaching skills, including missed chances to develop learning through equipment use. On a visit, ask how practitioners now extend a child's chosen activity.
• Participation in shared activities. Some February 2024 activities did not give every child the fullest opportunity to join in. Ask how group activities are organised for children with different interests and developmental stages.
• Matching attendance and costs. The weekday opening window runs from 7.30am to 6pm. Ask which booking pattern fits your routine and how meals and consumables are treated within paid and funded hours.

Tiny Toez, Tividale suits families who value practical, imaginative play and personal support through changes of stage. Its February 2024 picture combines household objects, story acting and creative construction with close relationships. The decision rests on that concrete nursery experience, balanced against the need for more consistent teaching extension and participation in activities.