Stanley's at Ridgeway

About this day nursery

Stanley's at Ridgeway is an outstanding childcare setting in South Shields, registered in 2014, providing a caring and friendly environment where children thrive. The dedicated staff offer excellent care and support, ensuring children settle quickly and thoroughly enjoy their time, demonstrating this through their swift engagement in activities upon arrival.

The nursery places a high priority on children's safety, with secure doors and vigilant staff. The curriculum is ambitious and well-structured, with staff carefully planning learning objectives and incorporating them into engaging activities like sand play to develop vocabulary.

Children display superb attitudes to learning and behave exceptionally well for their age, learning to share and take turns. Leaders effectively use funding to promote children's progress, particularly in communication and language, and invest in professional development for staff to further enhance the quality of teaching and learning, including physical development activities.

The nursery opens Monday to Friday during term time, with sessions from 9am to midday and 12:45pm to 3:45pm, and offers government-funded childcare places. Parental involvement is highly valued, with staff working tirelessly to provide advice and support, and parents appreciating the workshops and tips on various aspects of child development.

What it's like

Children thrive in this caring and friendly nursery. Staff are highly dedicated to providing the best possible care and support to children. Children settle quickly when they first start and thoroughly enjoy their time in the nursery. They demonstrate this as they arrive in the nursery and swiftly choose activities to play with. Staff place a high priority on keeping children safe. Doors into the nursery are secure. Staff are vigilant and mop up any spilt water or sand. Children know they must sit at the table to eat. The curriculum is ambitious and exceptionally well structured. Staff have thought carefully about the skills they want children to learn and the order in which they will learn them. Staff have a very clear focus on the intended learning, and this is embedded into their teaching. For example, they plan the individual words they want children to learn and incorporate this into sand play. Children behave exceptionally well for their age. They listen to instructions carefully. Staff use a range of strategies, such as distraction, to ensure children remain focused and listen intently. They teach children how to share and take turns, initially with adults and then reinforcing with children. This means that when minor disagreements occur, children respond swiftly when staff remind them that their friend needs a turn.