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Parent and Carer Reviews
From our Daynurseries.co.uk reviews, find out what our parents have to say about their time at our Monkey Puzzle Day Nursery and Preschool in New Cross.
Hear what our parents and carers have to say about our Monkey Puzzle Day Nursery and Preschool in New Cross with a selection of reviews from Daynurseries.co.uk.
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How To Find Monkey Puzzle New Cross
Monkey Puzzle Day Nursery New Cross is proudly located at 296 Queens Road, New Cross, London SE14 5JN. We’re nestled in the heart of the local community, just a short walk from New Cross Gate, Queens Road Peckham, and Nunhead train stations—offering easy access across London and the Borough of Lewisham.
Our beautifully converted nursery building features bright, open-plan rooms designed to inspire children’s learning and development, along with secure outdoor play areas, including a private baby garden and free-flow spaces for toddlers and preschoolers.
We are ideally placed to serve families across New Cross, Peckham, Nunhead, and the surrounding areas, providing high-quality childcare for children aged 3 months to 5 years.
Monkey Puzzle Newcross
16 Snakes Lane, Newcross, Newcross Green IG8 0BS
Opening times: 7:30am to 6:30pm
Monday to Friday for 51 weeks per year, (closed for the week between Christmas and New Year)
Welcome to our Explorers Room! (3-18 months) #earlyyears #babyroom #LittleLearners ...
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🌱 The small ways they play today become the BIG life skills they use tomorrow! 🌱
What might look like simple play to us is actually laying the foundations for independence, confidence and everyday life skills. 💛
🧵 Threading a bobbin onto string → learning the skills needed to tie shoelaces 👟
🥄 Making marks and squishing playdough → building the strength and coordination needed for using utensils and cutting food 🍐
🖍️ Big, wonderful scribbles → developing into letters, words and early writing ✏️📖
Every little movement, every attempt and every messy moment is helping our children develop the skills they’ll carry with them throughout life. 🌈✨
So next time you see your little one deeply engrossed in play, remember… they’re not “just playing” — they’re learning, growing and preparing for the future! 🥰
#LearningThroughPlay #EarlyYears #LittleLearners ...
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🌟 Meet the Management Team! 🌟
Our fantastic management team are always around to keep a watchful eye on our wonderful team 😉 – but more importantly, they’re here to support our children, families and staff every step of the way! 💛
At Monkey Puzzle New Cross, our management team are passionate about creating a nursery where children can learn, grow, explore and have lots of fun! 🐒✨
👨👩👧👦 For our families, that means providing the best possible care for every child, maintaining robust safeguarding policies and procedures, and creating a fun, nurturing and engaging environment where children feel happy, safe and valued.
👩🏫 For our staff, it means creating a workplace that is both professional and enjoyable, supporting our team to develop their skills, offering opportunities for career progression, and having an open-door policy so that everyone knows they can come to us whenever they need support. 💬💕
So, let’s introduce the fabulous team behind the scenes! 👋
🌸 Holly – Nursery Manager
Holly joined Monkey Puzzle New Cross in June 2026 and has worked in early years childcare since 2015. She has always been passionate about supporting children’s learning and development throughout her career.
Holly holds a Level 5 qualification in Early Years Leadership and Management, alongside a Level 3 qualification in Special Educational Needs (SEN) in the Early Years. 📚✨
🌟 Ryan – Deputy Manager
Ryan joined Monkey Puzzle New Cross in October 2025 and began his childcare career back in 2012, achieving his Level 3 qualification in Childcare.
He went on to complete a Foundation Degree in Early Years (Levels 4 & 5), followed by a BA (Hons) in Education Studies in 2017. His passion for learning and development has continued throughout his career, and we’re incredibly proud that Ryan became a Qualified Teacher in 2022! 🎓👏
🐣 Leigh – Third in Charge
Leigh joined Monkey Puzzle New Cross in 2019, starting her childcare journey as part of our support team before working her way through various roles to become our Third in Charge. 🌟
Leigh’s expertise lies particularly with our younger age groups, and she plays a huge part in supporting our fantastic baby team. 🍼💕
We’re also incredibly proud to share that Leigh completed her Level 5 qualification in Early Years Leadership and Management in June! 🎓👏 ...
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👀 EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RATIOS! 👀
Here at Monkey Puzzle New Cross, we carry out hourly headcounts to make sure all our little ones are exactly where they’re meant to be! 🧒👧💛
For our Preschool team, that can sometimes feel like counting in rounds of 8… and then counting again! 😂🔢
Staff-to-child ratios are incredibly important, and something we take with the utmost seriousness. But what do they actually look like?
👶 Under 2s: 1 staff member to every 3 children
🧸 2–3 years: 1 staff member to every 5 children
🎨 3+ years: 1 staff member to every 8 children
And here at Monkey Puzzle New Cross, we have made it our promise to go above and beyond these government-specified ratios, ensuring there are always extra helping hands available throughout the day. 🤝💛
Because when it comes to caring for our little ones, more hands mean more support, more interaction and more opportunities for those all-important moments of learning and fun! 🌈✨
#EarlyYears #Childcare #MonkeyPuzzleNewCross ...
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📚✨ We have some exciting news to share! ✨📚
We’re delighted to welcome a local librarian to our extra-curricular team! 💛
She’ll be joining us at the setting once a month to introduce our team to new and wonderful stories, share books with the children, and explore the importance of reading and a love of books in the early years. 🌈📖
We’re so excited to build this fantastic partnership and inspire our little ones to discover the magic of stories, imagination and books! 🥰✨
Here’s to many more adventures between the pages! 📚💫
#EarlyYears #LoveOfReading #StoryTime ...
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💗✨ FEELING VERY GRATEFUL TODAY! ✨💗
We couldn’t be more grateful — or more overwhelmed — by the kindness and thoughtfulness of our incredible team. 🥹❤️
Today, one of our wonderful team leaders, Dara, surprised the management team with some beautiful appreciation gifts. 🎁✨
To say we were touched would be an understatement! We were completely overwhelmed by the thought, care and effort Dara had put into each gift. It’s moments like these that remind us just how special our team truly is. 🥰
We feel incredibly lucky and honoured to have such a kind, supportive and thoughtful team here at Monkey Puzzle New Cross. 💕🐒
Thank you, Dara, for such a lovely surprise and for making us feel so appreciated. Your kindness means more than you know! 💐❤️
We really do have the most wonderful team! 🌟
#TeamAppreciation #EarlyYearsTeam #MonkeyPuzzleNewCross ...
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💙👖 A HUGE THANK YOU! 👖💙
A big thank you to everyone who supported Jeans for Genes this week! 💙
It was wonderful to see everyone getting involved and helping us raise awareness and support such an important cause. 🌟
We’re so grateful for your generosity and support — every little contribution makes a difference! 🥰🙌
What a wonderful cause to come together for! 💙
#JeansForGenes #CommunitySpirit #MakingADifference ...
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🔍✨ A CLOSER LOOK! ✨🔍
Here’s a close-up look at the individual set-ups from our MasterChef challenge! 👩🍳👨🍳
It was so amazing to see how the same resources and the same challenge could be interpreted in completely different ways! 🦖🧲🪵🎨
Each team brought their own creativity, imagination and teaching style to the task — proving that there’s never just one way to create an engaging learning experience! 💡🙌
Same resources… completely different ideas! 🤩
We loved seeing the thought, teamwork and enthusiasm that went into every single set-up. ❤️
#EarlyYears #CreativeTeaching #Teamwork ...
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👩🍳✨ INSET DAY: MASTER CHEF CHALLENGE! ✨👨🍳
What better way to spend part of our INSET day than putting our creativity, teamwork and teaching skills to the test?! 🎨🦖🧲
Our teams were given a MasterChef-themed challenge and, just like the real thing, they had to get creative with a mystery box of resources! 📦
Each team received the same random selection:
🦖 2 dinosaurs
🧲 4 magnets
🪵 2 logs
☁️ Shaving foam
🎨 Food colouring
🖌️ 2 paintbrushes
The challenge? Create an age-appropriate, engaging activity using ALL of the resources! 🙌 Teams could add additional resources if they wished, but every item from their mystery box had to make it into their activity.
Once the creations were complete, each team presented their set-up to the rest of the group… and the reactions say it all! 😂👏 There was so much creativity, imagination and brilliant thinking on display!
We are incredibly proud to have such a supportive, encouraging and enthusiastic team who make it their mission to uplift, boost and celebrate one another. 💕🙌
What a fantastic INSET day and such a brilliant opportunity to develop, showcase and celebrate our teaching skills! 🌟
Teamwork + creativity + a little bit of shaving foam = one very memorable INSET day! 😂☁️
#earlyyears #teamworkmakesthedreamwork #insetday ...
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