About Us
Cromer Childcare has been established for over 57 years. Our team are committed to providing a warm and friendly home from home environment for every child.
We provide 15 or 30 hour free childcare places to children who meet the eligibility criteria. Please feel free to give us a call to discuss your circumstances, or to check your eligibility for 30 free hours click here or click here to check for 2 year old eligibility. You can also pay for a ‘Top up’ place if you are not eligible.
We believe that children learn best by actively pursuing their interests and ideas through play. Play allows them to explore ideas, feelings and relationships. We encourage children to become independent learners by providing them with opportunities to play, explore, investigate and follow their own interests.
We value learning outdoors, and believe that being outdoors has a positive impact on children’s sense of well-being and on their development. Children have access to the outdoor learning environment throughout the day supporting the development of healthy and active lifestyles by offering children opportunities for physical activity, and movement, and promoting a sense of well-being.
Our experienced staff team facilitate the child’s process of creating and developing theories about the world, helping them to problem solve through open ended questioning and differentiated responses.
Children’s personal, social and emotional development is central to their learning and we support this through the development of positive and caring relationships. We support children in managing feelings and behaviour through giving them the vocabulary to recognise a range of emotions.
Parents and carers are welcome to drop into the setting at any time, and we hold Parent Meetings in the autumn and spring term, where you can talk about your child’s learning and development with their Key Practitioner. We also do Stay and Play sessions that happen once a term.
We regularly observe and assess children’s learning to plan appropriate learning activities. Each child has an on-line Learning Journey (Blossom) which is a record of their progress, and includes observations and photographs of the child playing and learning. Parents are invited to contribute to their child’s Learning Journey with things they have been doing at home. This helps us to get a better understanding of your child’s learning and development and to plan activities to support and extend it.
Location
The setting is situated in the United Reformed Church Cromer Avenue, Low Fell, Gateshead NE9 6UJ
We have the use of 2 large rooms and two smaller rooms attached. We also have a well equipped outdoor play area, garden and allotment. Our ratio is one adult to a maximum of 4 children for 2-year-olds, and one adult to 8 children in Pre-School and Wrap-around provision.
Ethos and Values
At Cromer Childcare we pride ourselves on the secure and trusting relationships we build with children and their parents, valuing parents as their child’s first and most important educators. We recognise and respect that each child is unique. We aim to nurture the children to feel safe and secure and to provide them with experiences to develop a resilient self-esteem and a love of learning.
We strive to provide the right level of challenge and opportunities for children to develop their own ideas, discover, explore and think critically with “just enough” support in order to develop each child’s independence, confidence, talents and abilities, as well as to address any development needs or difficulties.
Our learning environment is designed to promote the characteristics of effective learning, to support children’s exploration and play, to provoke questions, enquiry and sustained, shared thinking. Resources are accessible, well organised, flexible and open-ended. The environment is continuously evolving to meet children’s needs and interests. We continuously strive to improve the setting into the best it can be.
Our outdoor area is an extension of indoors and is inspirational to our young children. Regular and extended access to our outdoor area is an integral part of our sessions. Our 3 outdoor areas ensure that children have the opportunity to learn about the world around them and learn in a natural space, allowing them to take managed risks, supported by our practitioners, who encourage self-belief and resilience.
Your Career Starts Here
Do you dream about working in childcare? Want to join our team? When we have vacancies, we normally advertise them on our Facebook page. Keep an eye on it and good luck!