Hartlepool nursery recognised as most inclusive nationwide after winning prestigious award

Footprints Nursery owner Sharon Birch, left, holding their award with staff, left to right, Jenny Brown and Jaymie Mathieson and children, left to right, Matthew, Toby, Nancy, Harvey, Charlie and Harriet . Picture and caption by Frank Reid.

Footprints Learning for Life, in the town’s Tees Street, has bagged the award for Inclusive Practice at the Nursery World Awards.

The annual awards celebrate best practice in the sector and the winners were announced at a ceremony in London after being selected by a panel of expert judges.

Footprints was running up against Kids Planet Beamont, in Warrington, and Tiny Tree Day Nursery, in Leeds, for the award.

Delighted Footprints owner Sharon Birch.

Footprints’ owner Sharon Birch has said that winning has been “amazing” and it’s “putting Hartlepool on the map”.

She said: “It’s absolutely amazing. Totally amazing. Putting Hartlepool on the map, it’s so good to bring it home.

"When they called the name, I thought they were saying we were highly commended, I didn’t quite register it.

"I always hoped we would win and I knew we deserved it, but it’s tough competition."

Sharon, who went to the event with six other members of staff, continued: “It was great to have a social event and mix with leaders in their fields. It was a very well-attended event.”

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The nursery, which was founded back in 2006, also works with children with additional needs and disabilities as well as kids from refugee families.

It currently has 33 members of staff and Sharon has said winning has helped them know they are recognised and “it’s a real moral booster”.

Sharon, 55, from Seaton Carew, said: "It’s great to have all of out hard work recognised, because sometimes that can get lost and in difficult times it’s hard to keep motivated, but an award like this and a recognition that they are doing a fantastic job, is brilliant.

"And it’s great for our town, for us to be able to say to the rest of the town that we are doing it here, we are not shying away, this is for everybody in Hartlepool, we are important."

She added: "Hopefully we’ll just go from strength to strength.”

Footprints has previously won a Nursery World Award back in 2010 for team development and has been rated “outstanding” by education watchdog Ofsted.

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