St Chad’s Community Project – Nursery
Nursery key information: Age range: 2-4 years Times: 8.30am-2.30pm Days: Monday-Friday (term time only)
St Chad’s Nursery – High-quality, inclusive early years education and care for children aged 2–4 years
At St Chad’s Community Project, we provide a warm, welcoming and inclusive nursery where children are supported to learn, develop and thrive.
We believe that every child is unique. Our experienced and caring team takes time to get to know each child, their interests, strengths, needs and starting points, working closely with parents and carers to give children the best possible start.
Our nursery provides a safe, nurturing environment where children can develop their confidence, independence and relationships through play, exploration and meaningful experiences.
Our Nursery Sessions
Our nursery is open Monday to Friday during term time.
We offer:
- Morning session: 8.30am–11.30am
- Afternoon session: 11.30am–2.30pm
- Full day: 8.30am–2.30pm
Our current nursery charges and funded childcare options are available from the nursery team. Please contact us to discuss your child’s eligibility and the sessions available.
Funded childcare
We offer funded early education places for eligible children. We will discuss your child’s eligibility, available hours and the pattern of sessions with you before your child starts.
We do not currently charge parents any additional fees or charges in relation to their funded nursery place. This includes the healthy snacks provided during the nursery day.
If you have any questions about funded hours or your child’s eligibility, please contact the nursery team.
Our Curriculum
Our curriculum is based on the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and is designed to support every child to learn, develop and thrive.
We use Birth to Five Matters alongside the EYFS framework to support our understanding of children’s development and to help us plan meaningful learning experiences.
Our curriculum covers all seven areas of learning:
Prime areas
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Specific areas
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the World
- Expressive Arts and Design
The seven areas are closely connected, and children learn through a combination of child-led play, exploration, everyday experiences and purposeful activities supported by our practitioners.
We build on children’s individual interests and experiences and provide opportunities for them to develop new skills, knowledge and confidence.
Our approach is underpinned by our St Chad’s curriculum drivers:
Belong • Communicate • Explore • Experience • Thrive
These help us ensure that children feel a sense of belonging, develop their communication, explore their environment, enjoy a wide range of experiences and develop the confidence and skills they need to thrive.
Learning Through Play and Experience
Children learn best when they are actively involved, interested and having fun.
Our nursery provides a balance of:
- child-initiated play
- adult-supported learning
- creative and imaginative experiences
- indoor and outdoor learning
- physical activity
- books, stories, rhymes and singing
- opportunities to develop early literacy and mathematical skills
- opportunities to explore nature and the wider world
- opportunities to develop independence and self-care skills
- social experiences that help children develop positive relationships.
We use our Signature Experiences and My St Chad’s Passport to help ensure that children have a wide range of meaningful experiences during their time at St Chad’s.
A Typical Nursery Day
Every day is different, and our routine is flexible enough to respond to children’s interests and needs.
Children have opportunities throughout the day for:
- welcoming and settling into nursery
- child-led play and exploration
- adult-supported learning experiences
- indoor and outdoor play
- stories, books, songs and communication activities
- creative experiences
- physical activity
- opportunities to develop independence
- healthy snacks and social mealtimes
- time to develop friendships and positive relationships.
We recognise that young children need time to explore, repeat experiences and learn at their own pace. Our practitioners follow children’s interests while ensuring that they experience a broad and balanced curriculum.
Supporting Children with SEND
We are committed to providing an inclusive nursery where every child is supported to participate, learn and thrive.
We work closely with parents and carers to understand each child’s individual needs and, where appropriate, work with our Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) and other professionals to provide additional support.
We adapt our environment, activities and approach where necessary so that children can access the curriculum and participate fully in nursery life.
We identify children’s needs as early as possible and work in partnership with families and relevant professionals to support children’s development and wellbeing.
If your child has additional needs or you have concerns about their development, please speak to a member of the nursery team. We are happy to discuss how we can support your child.
Key Person
Every child has a named key person who helps to build a strong relationship with the child and their family.
The key person gets to know your child, supports them as they settle into nursery, helps us understand their interests and needs, and works with you to support their learning and development.
We also have arrangements in place to ensure that children are supported by familiar adults if their key person is absent.
Food and Drink
We provide healthy snacks during the nursery day and children have access to drinking water.
We take account of children’s allergies, dietary requirements and individual needs and work with parents to ensure that relevant information is shared with the nursery team.
There is currently no additional charge to parents for snacks provided during the nursery day.
If your child has an allergy, dietary requirement or specific food-related need, please discuss this with us before your child starts nursery.
Working with Parents and Carers
We believe that parents and carers know their children best and that working together is an important part of supporting children’s learning and development.
We share information with families about their child’s experiences and development and welcome parents’ knowledge, ideas and feedback.
We encourage parents to share their child’s interests and experiences from home with us so that we can build these into their learning at nursery.
We also provide information and ideas to help parents support their child’s learning and development at home.
Safeguarding
The safety and wellbeing of children is our highest priority.
All staff are expected to follow our safeguarding and child protection procedures and receive appropriate safeguarding training.
Our safeguarding arrangements include safer recruitment, appropriate staff checks and training, clear procedures for responding to concerns and effective partnership working with parents, carers and other professionals.
Our safeguarding policies and other key policies are available on our website.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
We want every child and family to feel welcome, valued and included at St Chad’s.
We celebrate children’s individual identities, families, cultures and experiences and work to ensure that all children can participate fully in nursery life.
We make reasonable adjustments where necessary to support children’s individual needs and do not tolerate discrimination.
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy is available through our policies page.
Policies and Procedures
We have a range of policies and procedures that support the safe and effective running of our nursery.
These include policies covering:
- Safeguarding and Child Protection
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
- SEND
- Behaviour
- Health and Safety
- First Aid
- Medication
- Allergies and Anaphylaxis
- Food and Healthy Eating
- Infection Control
- Early Years Assessment
- Teaching and Learning
- Transition
- Complaints
- Whistleblowing
- Prevent
Our policies are available on our Policies page and copies can be provided on request.
Concerns and Complaints
We want families to feel able to talk to us if they have a concern.
If you have a concern about any aspect of our nursery provision, please speak to a member of the nursery team in the first instance. We will listen, investigate and work with you to resolve concerns wherever possible.
Our Complaints Policy explains how concerns and complaints are managed and is available on our Policies page.
Ofsted
St Chad’s Community Project is registered with Ofsted to provide early years childcare.
Our latest Ofsted inspection took place in January 2024.
[View our latest Ofsted report]
If you have a concern about our provision and believe that we are not meeting the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage, you can contact Ofsted directly.
Ofsted: 0300 123 1231
Website: www.gov.uk/ofsted
Contact Us
If you would like to find out more about our nursery, arrange a visit or discuss your child’s needs and available sessions, please get in touch.
St Chad’s Community Project
21 Liddell Terrace
Bensham
Gateshead
NE8 1YN
Telephone: 0191 490 1032
We would be happy to answer your questions and arrange a visit to St Chad’s.
Our nursery is one of our childcare services, we would love you to read more about our wider Childcare provision here –
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Find out about our pricing including information about funding eligibility below…
