Bensham Grove Nursery School

Bensham Grove Community Nursery School, established in 1929, has a long tradition of providing high quality education for 3-5 year olds, being one of the first Nursery Schools to open on Tyneside. The original building was destroyed by fire and replaced in 1969. Today Bensham Grove Community Nursery School remains the only maintained Nursery School in Gateshead and provides high quality Nursery education for 3-4 year olds living in the borough.

At Bensham Grove Nursery School we want our children to be confident, motivated learners who enjoy challenge and confidently take 'risks' in their learning. We want children to see how exciting and enjoyable it is to learn with and from others. We want children to have a 'voice', make contributions and have an active role in their learning.

At Bensham Grove Community Nursery School the diversity of individuals and communities is valued and respected. As a small school community we have worked together as a joint project with Oakfield Infant and Junior Schools in achieving the 'UNICEF Rights Respecting School Award' (RRSA).

A joint steering group of staff and parent governors of all three schools has been established and together we will collaborate to develop and maintain a wider rights respecting school community.The 'Rights Respecting School Award' is based around the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. UNICEF is the world's leading organisation working for children and their rights.

Key Person & Home Visits - we offer each family the opportunity of a home visit by the key person assigned to your child and another member of staff before the child starts nursery. This promotes the opportunity to develop effective relationships between home and nursery. Share nursery toys/resources with your child, discover the child's interests and talk about nursery experiences.

We appreciate that from time to time children may be absent from school and that this can be for various reasons. As a school we need to keep accurate records of absences and ensure that we know what is happening with all our children who are not at school. We ask parents/carers to inform the nursery by telephone of the reason as soon as possible and before the start of the nursery session.