staff to learn new languages and offering apprenticeships to parents.
Olivia McCrea-Hedley reports.
There was great demand for quality childcare in Smethwick, but reports said high-quality childcare was the preserve of the middle classes. We wanted to go against that. Our aim was to be outstanding from the very beginning.'
The views of Zad Padda, executive director of Smethwick Youth and Community Centre (SYCC), will be shared by many good nursery practitioners setting up for the first time. This one achieved its aim with an Ofsted 'Outstanding' just six months after opening, which was followed by this year's Nursery World Business Development award.
The 60-place GNG Nursery was set up, its directors say, because of a lack of high-quality childcare in the area, in part of SYCC. There is an emphasis on providing early education places for funded two-year-olds and ensuring that threeand four-year-olds take up their funded places. More than half of children attending are on a free place.
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