A unique Northumberland day nursery is enjoying a double celebration after coming out on top in a prestigious national industry awards initiative.After being recognised as the North East’s best recommended day nursery in the daynurseries.co.uk Top 10 2015 Awards,Meadows Nursery has now been named as the best across the whole of the UK from the 11,770 nurseries that are listed on the industry-leading website.
The Top 10 Awards are based on the carefully-scrutinised recommendations of parents, relatives and guardians of children who attend the listed nurseries, with Meadows receiving the maximum ten out of ten score across all the recommendations it received.
Celebrating its silver anniversary this year, Meadows Nursery was founded by experienced childcare professional Margaret Taylor after her husband William came to manage Nafferton Farm for Newcastle University, and is based in its large farmhouse just off the A69 between Corbridge and Horsley, overlooking the Tyne Valley.
After gradually expanding, Meadows now employs a strong, highly-trained team to look after around 50 children who have access to extensive outdoor space tailored to meet their individual developmental stages, interests and needs.
The children attend from a few months to five years old, and travel from as far afield as Tyne & Wear, County Durham and North Tyneside, as well as from right along the Tyne Valley.
The parental recommendations that have led to Meadows’ award success praise every aspect of its operations, from itsunique location, focus on outdoors activities and healthy eating policies through to staff/child ratios and professionalism and experience of the team.
A strong emphasis on encouraging a love of the outdoors is fostered through regular visits to the nursery’s on-site Windy Woods and Nafferton Farm itself, as well as through its vegetable plots, herb garden, sensory walled garden and fruit trees.
Children’s meals are cooked freshly every day by Meadows’ in-house chef, with locally-sourced produce used wherever possible, including milk produced at the farm, and they’re served in the farmhouse kitchen to maximise the social opportunities provided by everyone eating together.
Karen Hicks, mother of three year-old Isaac and one year-old Phoebe says: “Meadows is simply a wonderful nursery with such a lovely family atmosphere. The range of activities, both daily and special events, together with the enthusiasm of the staff makes it somewhere really special, and I love that my children are able to spend so much time outside. The staff know Isaac and Phoebe so well, and I have and will continue to recommend Meadows to anyone without any hesitation.”
Margaret Taylor adds: “Winning any award is special, but to be chosen as the best nursery in the whole of the UK based on the recommendations of the families that choose to come to Meadows makes these awards so much more meaningful.
“The needs of each individual child lie at the heart of our ethos and practice, and we’re very proud of our welcoming and family-orientated, homely environment that we offer. We have space for each child to be nurtured, encouraged, stimulated and to cared for in a way that gives them the freedom to explore the life they’re growing into, and we like to think we can offer children a more rounded, richer experience that cannot be found elsewhere.
“Our team includes qualified teachers and Early Years professionals, as well as many others with high-level qualifications, and we place a real emphasis on staff development to ensure we’re able to meet parents’ expectations around the education we provide for their children.
“We’ve blossomed over 25 years to provide what we believe is a unique edu-care environment in a unique location, and we’ve already got exciting plans in place to enhance things even further in the future.”