Kids 1st continues to grow with ninth nursery

Building work starts next week on the 100-place nursery, which is expected to open in Gateshead in February and employ 25 staff.

The new purpose-built nursery at Low Fell will be situated on the main road between Durham and Newcastle in a small business park. It will be split into eight different rooms according to children's age and level of development, with direct access from each room to gardens designed specifically for each age group.

Managing director Mark McArdle told Nursery World, 'One of our strong selling points is that each room opens directly into a garden and they are segregated according to age. We're very keen on free-flow.'

He added, 'We always build from scratch and spend a lot of time planning on paper. There are relatively small differences between each of our nurseries and we try to make small improvements each time.'

Another nursery is also in the early stages of  development for 2013.

Mr McArdle said, 'We have plans for a tenth that's likely to be in Jesmond, a leafy suburb of Newcastle.'

Set up just seven years ago, the nursery group, which has eight nurseriesoffering around 850 places in the North-East of England, has expanded steadily and has a high proportion of outstanding nurseries. The smallest nursery is 99 places and Mr McArdle said that the optimum size for the business is 108 places.

Currently, five of the chain's eight nurseries are outstanding. Three settings - Gosforth, Quorum in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Wynyard, Stockton on Tees - have achieved the grade this year.

Mr McArdle said, 'It's great that we have five outstandings - we're aiming to have all of them outstanding.'

He attributes the success of the group to highly qualified and dedicated staff. 'You can have the best building in the world, but it's all down to the staff being well-trained and having a real vocation for the job.'

Kids 1st has at least one Early Years Professional in every setting.

The nursery chain appears to be weathering the recession well, with occupancy levels running at more than 85 per cent overall.

Mr McArdle said, 'The new nursery we opened at Gosforth last year with 108 places is nearly full. Occupancy is really strong and we have waiting lists despite the recession. We've had a few parents who have been made redundant, but we've also had mothers returning from maternity leave sooner.'