Children are the most important thing to us at Monkey Puzzle New Cross and our purpose built rooms reflect that. We have 3 spacious rooms specially designed to meet the development needs of those using it. Each one is filled with exciting toys to inspire and encourage development as well as making your child’s time with us as interesting and enjoyable as possible.

In addition to the wide range of equipment throughout the nursery, our highly knowledgeable, passionate staff bring many years of experience, understanding and creativity to the rooms they work in. Every child has a Key Person who takes full responsibility for the personal care and learning development of their Key Children. The Key Persons role is to ensure that every child’s care is tailored to meet their individual needs, activities are planned to ensure learning and development and that a strong relationship develops between the nursery and home.

Partnering with our Parent’s is incredibly important to us and for the development of our children. Online Learning Journals allows an online update of each child’s progress through the day including meals they have eaten, sleep times and a general overview of what they have been doing through the day. Each week the Key Person will upload at least one observation on each of their Key Children giving you an opportunity to track their development with us. There is a gallery of photos taken of your child and also a space for you to upload photos of family members, WOW moments from home and to comment on things we have observed. We value the feedback of all our parents and receive this through questionnaires, reviews on daynurseries.co.uk, via e-mails and face to face contact. Liesl and Jon are always on hand to chat if needed and appointments can be made to see your Key Person at any time.

Baby Room (3 months – 2 years)

Our Baby Room for the under 2’s is situated upstairs in a beautiful bright and airy room full of natural light and ample space for investigation and learning. There are cosy areas for sleeping and quite time so our Babies have a chance to rest and be quiet if they choose to.

With the nappy changing area and milk kitchen located in the room, staff are with the children at all times offering complete care to each individual child throughout the day.

The environment is equipped with a multitude of sensory toys, materials and fun things to investigate as our babies learn best when they are exploring the world around them. There is sand available to the children throughout the day and frequent water and messy play activities planned for the children to get involved in. Staff plan activities for their individual Key Children with the aim of encouraging their development across the 3 main areas of learning – Physical Development, Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language. These next steps can be viewed by you at any time as they are on display within the room. You are always welcome to input into the learning and development of your child, we love it when you get involved!

To encourage children to settle into nursery life we do our best to follow a home from home routine. We offer between 3 and 5 settling sessions to ensure that your child is well settled in before you return to work. During these sessions you will meet your child’s Key Person, discuss home routines and generally tell us everything we need to know about your little one. During the day we will fill out the Online Learning Journals for each child which you are able to view at your leisure. This means that hand overs at the end of the day can be more focused on what activities and learning has been happening in the room throughout the day.
Sleeping is very important for the under 2’s so we have a cosy sleep area for those needing sleeps during the day. For the older babies we have comfortable sleep mattresses for sleep time after lunch. Babies are able to sleep for as long as they need with all blankets and sheets washed every day.

As well as our excellent indoor space the babies enjoy their own enchanted forest garden space separate from the other children. It is full of fascinating things to explore, places to hide and an outdoor crawl in sandpit. Babies make the most of this space using it at least twice a day, even more in the summer.

Toddler Room (2 – 3 year olds)

When our babies are around the age of two we start the transition into our Toddler Room. This transition is made as smooth as possible with the Key Person moving with them for a few settles, encouraging them to get to know the staff and children in the new room and helping them to feel comfortable and confident in their new surroundings. Ensuring that your child is developmentally ready for the next room is of high importance to us so we don’t move anyone unless the Key Person and the parents feel they are ready.

Within the Toddler Room children begin to actively experience all 7 areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum in a very fun and interesting way. Sand and water are available throughout the day for them to investigate, construction and transport toys are abundant for those who like to build and move as well as a large role play area with kitchen units, real food and lots of dress ups! Creative activities and messy play are planned regularly and the children love nothing more than the chance to get messy! There are also lots of opportunities for the Toddlers to venture out into the local community to visit the park, train station and even some local shops to help develop their understanding of the world.

We all know Toddlers enjoying being outside and with free flow access into our beautiful garden they will be able to maximise the use of their outdoor classroom. There will be opportunities to promote physical development with balancing, climbing and running as well as developing an understanding of the world through growing and caring for our own fruit and vegetable plants.

Pre-school (3-5 year olds)

Our Pre-school room is bright and airy with lots of space for learning and development. We focus on all 7 areas of learning within the EYFS

• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding of the world
• Expressive arts and design

With the help of our Early Years Teacher we encourage the children to experiment, investigate and develop in all areas. We regularly observe and track the progress of our children which allows us to tailor activities to the children’s interests and areas of development. There are adult lead activities to teach specific skills and feed various interests as well as lots of child initiated activities dispersed throughout to allow freedom to express and create independently.

We have a real focus on independence throughout Pre-school from tidying up toys, putting on coats, going to the toilet, even serving and scraping their own plates at meal times. While independence is very important there are always staff on hand to help and give encouragement when needed.
Sending out school ready children is our ultimate aim, providing opportunities for our children to develop the skills they need to settle into big school, make new friends and enjoy their future education. Prior to starting school, we will build links with the local schools, introducing uniforms, teachers and routines so that the move goes as smoothly as possible.

Children in the Preschool room will benefit from the free flow aspect allowing them to turn the garden into an outdoor classroom for large parts of the day. The inside outside garden will start within the classroom and flow out into the main garden area. There will be opportunities for children to take inside toys outside and experiment with new ways of using them as well as developing an understanding of how to care for their environment. The canopy over the garden will allow it to be used throughout the year providing the children have the appropriate clothing of course!

Each day brings something new and amazing for the Preschoolers. They are little sponges absorbing absolutely everything that goes on around them. With French lessons, sports coaching and Forest School all on offer to our Preschool Children every day is different, interesting and exciting. Trips out of nursery to the local park or for a walk to learn about crossing the road will also add a new dimension to the Preschool learning.

Time in Preschool concludes with Graduation. A special time to say farewell to those children heading off to school. We will have a real ceremony with gowns and certificates and then a party afterwards to celebrate their achievements!