Noah's Ark Nursery, in Hebburn, has completed its expansion following its takeover of the town's Masonic Hall and transformed it into a brand new nursery space.
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00:00My childcare journey started about 15 years ago. I started as a lone child minder and then
00:07progressed into a nursery. I kind of didn't feel as though that was me a nursery. I like the home
00:14from home environment so I created my own home from home nursery. I converted my garage with
00:21this first build company who's worked with us all the way through into a nursery and created
00:26a very bespoke environment where children could come in that homely environment but had the good
00:33quality education too and that really fast grew. During the pandemic I had expanded to having four
00:44staff and up to 20 children on my home premises and sadly I got diagnosed with aggressive breast
00:49cancer and it was a really difficult time because I had to put the business in the hands of the staff
00:56and they'd done an amazing job and it just made us realise that I have a really really great solid
01:01team around us. So when the first nursery that we had over on Victoria Road come up it was a huge
01:09risk but I just thought you know what it is? What I'm going through I can do anything. You know if I
01:15can beat this and I can you know fight this then I can. So we went for it and it was great because I
01:21was able to move forward giving them people who had supported us through the breast cancer journey
01:25you know really great positive roles in management and deputies and SENCO roles and it was really
01:30great training opportunities. We've been there five years and yeah after year four we realised that
01:38we could not cope with the demand and we're clearly doing something right and so yeah we've
01:45bought the Masonic Hall. If you've ever been in a temple before you'll realise yes there was a function room
01:50downstairs but upstairs was just this vast space with you know the temple room you know Egyptian
01:57heads you know we had to completely renovate the place put in walls lower ceilings put in corridors
02:03make these rooms and learning from kind of what old nursery as well and so we've realised that
02:10obviously what old church building had high ceilings and things like that so we thought right let's lower
02:15the ceilings lower the voice you know noise volumes so we've learned a lot along the way as well and
02:20but I'm really really thrilled to see that we're going from a 40 day nursery and to an 85 day nursery
02:28and we've been able to put out job opportunities and to you know local people and finding you know good
02:37quality child care providers is hard and I really feel that I have the best. We offer such an exclusive
02:46range of activities you know we'll follow the curiosity approach where we do encourage children
02:50to use real life things and we don't encourage plastic toys if a child drops a plastic toys there's
02:57no consequences we teach children you know to take time and things to respect the world to respect the
03:03belongings and have empathy for things and really just passion having the loose objects so that you know
03:10they want to know why they want to know what it can do kind of do more than one thing and that's you know
03:14that's really important to us as is the outside space we've trained one of our staff up as a
03:20qualified forest school leader and she has so much passion and she's got a great portfolio
03:29they're the nursery garden that we have at the moment yes we'll put stuff out but it is still
03:34at quite a blank canvas because the whole point of the forest garden is for the children to develop over
03:39time and that's exactly what we want to happen here and we want them to have pride in their work
03:44we want them to go out and say I grew them you know I done that and really have ownership on the place
03:49as well. Today we are showing our current parents around the nursery as a first preview is a great
03:55thank you for them supporting us on the move and as they are coming in an hour's time we're
04:01builders are really leaving the building and it's really emotional because first build have just been
04:06incredible for us they've really been a two-man band so they've been on this building since October
04:12last year and they've put their heart and soul into it and we've become really great friends like I say
04:18they've done the work in me home converting that into the nursery and it's so amazing that we've been
04:22able to follow everything through I mean if I bought another nursery I don't know whether they'll come with
04:27us because you know it is quite a stressful thing to do but I'm proud I'm proud of the staff you know
04:34although I put the designs in for the nursery and the layout I've had no ownership on the and the
04:40setup I want them to come in and know they're valued that the staff are valued and I think that
04:45what they create is outstanding and I want them to know that I fully fully trust their learning for
04:52the children so they've been the ones that set up so when I walk around thinking my team done this I
04:57didn't do this my team have set this up it just shows what a great team they are and how much passion
05:02they have for giving the children the best I think parent partnership in any business but particularly
05:08child care when you're looking after them precious children so important so it is about reassuring
05:13them it's about saying that you know the transitions will be good we'll constantly talk about it we've
05:18had parents saying that they drive past and say that's my new nursery and we're all excited they've
05:24been so passionate you know if we get a social media and you know recommendation they're jumping on
05:30and saying come to the open day and you know it's that they're amazing but again I have to put that
05:36down to the team you know it's really important to build them in relationships and if you haven't
05:40got them fundamental relationships with the parents they wouldn't support my move but it's
05:45because we've got them secure our relationships that that they have and they've been wonderful
05:58you