An independent day nursery in Stockton-on-Tees is expanding to meet the increase in demand for nursery places from September 2025.
The Montessori People Nursery in Thornaby is redesigning its internal layout to create spaces for an extra 40 nursery pupils ahead of the extension of government-funded childcare places next month. It is also looking for 10 new members of staff to join the team and take care of the children.
From 1st September, all working parents with children under five are entitled to 30 hours’ government-funded (so-called ‘free’) childcare per week. This is an increase from the 15 hours of ‘free’ childcare per week during term time for working parents which came into effect in April 2025.
The government funding is designed to help parents into work by supporting families with the costs of childcare and enabling children to access early years education from a younger age.
Cheryl Lambert, Operations Manager of the Montessori People Nursery, said “Demand for high quality childcare is soaring, both in Teesside and throughout the rest of the country.
“While the government funding is welcome news for families, in practice, it’s created huge challenges for early years settings like ours. We’ve needed to re-think how we can better use the space available to us, without compromising on quality and safety.
“We’ve managed to reconfigure the space within the nursery, allowing us to offer up to 40 more childcare spaces. We now want to add to our experienced team and are looking to recruit fully qualified staff who can hit the ground running”.
The 120-place nursery on Tedder Avenue in Stockton estimates that it needs to recruit up to ten fully qualified early years staff with a minimum Level 2 childcare qualification before September.
The nursery is holding a Recruitment Open Day from 10am to 1pm on Saturday 2nd August 2025. Anyone with a Level 2 childcare qualification or above is invited along to meet the team and look round the nursery, which features five age-specific childcare rooms, an on-site kitchen and large outdoor spaces with play equipment, vegetable beds and woodland walks.
The Montessori People nursery was recently voted as the number one nursery in Stockton-on-Tees, receiving a coveted 10 out 10 score on daynurseries.co.uk – the nursery industry’s equivalent of Trip Advisor.
Cheryl said:
“We continually striving to be the best at what we do, and that means we need the very best nursery practitioners to join our team – people who are already qualified, forging a successful career in childcare and who are looking for their next challenge.
“Working in childcare is the most rewarding job, so if you are passionate about offering quality care and support to local children, relish a new challenge and have the qualifications to match, come along on 2nd August and find out more about our fantastic team.”
To find out more about The Montessori People’s Recruitment Open Day, visit We are hiring – recruitment open day Saturday 2nd August – The Montessori People