Happy Birthday To Us!

Living down south with 4 children and busy careers, we needed to find a nursery that we trusted to take care of our young children while we worked. We found somewhere suitable but wondered whether we could provide even better childcare. So, we took the plunge. Our Heddon on the Wall nursery came first, and needless to say the first couple of years were tricky, but we soon found our
feet.

This is a great time to mention Jade, our Senior Nursery Manager and absolute star! We inherited her along with the nursery and the rest is history! She’s grown with us, and now helps massively with the running of all 3 of our nurseries, and we couldn’t have done it without her! Together with Jade, we have steadily built an outstanding team which we think is second to none.

Our 70 staff members are just as devoted to providing the best standard of childcare as we are. We encourage and support young people leaving college with apprenticeships in the industry, making sure that we inspire the next generation to be as passionate about childcare as we are.

Once we established Heddon as providing the best quality childcare in Northumberland and the Tyne Valley, we decided to expand. Our setting in Gateshead was in a bad way when we took over, no garden, quite run down and drifting slowly towards closure. But, knowing how important quality childcare is, especially in areas which are typically underfunded, we couldn’t let it slip away. Our little nursery in Bensham is now a busy vibrant place full of happy children looked after by wonderful staff.

A few years later our biggest challenge arose when Barnardo’s announced they were closing down their nursery in Newcastle. Some local parents asked us to help so we approached the charity who agreed to us taking over. The nursery in Longbenton is a large setting which took a lot of work to turn around but is now thriving and “providing rich opportunities for children” according to Ofsted. In 18 years we’ve worked hard to achieve our goal; to offer outstanding quality of care, to every child, every single day.

Then in 2020, Covid happened. But while it stopped almost everyone in their tracks, we decided we had to remain open. Some of our parents were key workers who had to keep working through lockdown. So, while many nurseries closed their doors and furloughed their entire staff team, we kept all 3 nurseries open. We won’t lie, it was challenging and stressful two years. But now, on the other side of the pandemic, we know that it was the right thing to do. Key worker parents who lost their childcare when their nurseries closed, were able to come to us. Children did not miss out on having fun and developing new skills during a critical period of their development. This makes us so happy and reminds us why we do this amazing job. We are so grateful to the team of staff who never lost their passion and determination to keep going. They provided outstanding quality of care, to every child, every single day – and even the pandemic couldn’t stop them!

Sometimes people ask us why we have never expanded further. The reason is that we want to keep Leigh’s Nurseries as a small, family run business, so we can continue being hands on and directly involved. We love what we do, and our goal is to remain as authentic as possible, with quality of care at the forefront of everything we do. This has paid off as our nurseries in Northumberland, Gateshead and Newcastle have consistently been rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.

We know how important it is for parents and carers to feel happy with the environment that their child is in, which is why we’ve tried so hard to make each one of our nurseries a home from home.

We recognise that children need to be in a warm, safe, enriched and ever changing natural environment for them to truly thrive. That’s why we’ve worked so hard on making our nurseries a place where children look forward to coming to, and somewhere parents and guardians feel happy leaving their children for the day. When you arrive you’ll notice how cosy and homely our nurseries are, and how fun and natural our gardens are. We really believe that this adds so much to the learning and social environment for all of the children here (the Cath Kidston wallpaper helps too!)

We just want to thank you all again for all of the support over the years, we genuinely couldn’t have done it without you! Here’s to many more years providing outstanding childcare in Newcastle, Gateshead, and the Tyne valley and welcoming many more amazing families to our nurseries!

If you are looking for childcare and would like more information, please contact us as we’d love to show you what we do.

Lots of love,
Leigh & the team x