At Monkey Puzzle Bedford, each room is individually appointed to reflect the particular requirements of each age group. On the whole, we prefer to move the children between the rooms based on their individual development rather than their age
Our Nursery
Our lovely nursery is located in Bedford on Shakespeare Road, which is in close proximity to Bedford Train Station, Bedford Town Centre and near to local bus routes. We have parking onsite to make it easier for drop off and collection times.
Baby Room
Our Baby Room is a playroom for children aged 0-24mths with a staff to child ratio of 1:3, with a dedicated area for babies to sleep/rest peacefully.
In the Baby room, we provide a wide range of sensory toys and experiences to explore such as black and white equipment, books, messy play and age appropriate toys.
We have a large open area to allow children to become more mobile by rolling, crawling, pulling themselves to stand and walking for physical development.
In order to encourage your baby’s curiosity and sense of exploration we have a heuristic area to help children experience such natural objects as wood, metal, pinecones and corks.
At mealtimes in the Baby Room we encourage older babies to become more independent and we work alongside parents to support individual weaning stages.
Our dedicated and cosy sleep room is where babies are supported to feel relaxed in a safe and secure environment which is attached to the main baby room via an adjacent staircase.
Sleeping babies’ well-being is continuously monitored including the environment to ensure the temperature is just right!
There is also an outside play area which is separate to our Toddler and Pre-school space. It is an artificially grassed area with the space to encourage physical development along with areas for exploring in play.
Toddler Room
Our Toddler room is a playroom for children aged 2 years – 3 years with a staff child ratio of 1:4.
Our Toddler Room is unique in that it offers separate cubby hole rooms which we use to promote different areas of play to extend the children’s learning to cover the whole curriculum, including a malleable area in order to develop children’s independence further by allowing them access to such media to develop their fine motor skills and imagination with their creations.
Physical skills are built upon by us offering all sorts of construction materials along with different methods including; stacking, assembling, disassembling, sorting or moulding. Our role play area is where children can get into character and act out real contexts or reflect and develop their knowledge of a topic or interest.
We encourage the children to be as independent as possible, for example finding their own pegs and beds.
We also have a large emphasis on physical needs by helping potty train the children in their own way and at a time to suit them by working along with parents.
Mealtimes are very sociable times, with all the children sitting together with staff role modelling. The children are encouraged to self-serve during mealtimes adult support is offered when needed.
We have introduced a weekly session of ‘Hartbeeps’ for the children to enjoy. Hartbeeps is a fun and interactive way for the children to enjoy storytelling and nursery rhymes where they can use dress up, use props and their imagination to create their own magical story wonderland.
Pre School Room
Our Pre-School Room is a playroom for children aged 3-5yrs with a staff child ratio of 1:8.
All activities are accessible and in easy reach for children, giving them the opportunity to explore and investigate new challenges, ask questions and develop natural curiosity and become an independent and self-confident individual.
We also like to have morning and afternoon helpers who have responsibilities with helping set up and tidy up after mealtimes and getting activities ready.
We support them and prepare them for their eventual move to Big school. Through their play, we are able to introduce adult led activities that follow the interest of individual children.
We encourage the children to take responsibility for their environment, tidying up after themselves and for all children to respect equipment and each other.
In our Pre-School room children still benefit from a wide range of sensory based play experiences, having wet, dry, malleable and art-based activities to choose from throughout the day.
We have introduced a weekly session of ‘Hartbeeps’ for the children to enjoy. Hartbeeps is a fun and interactive way for the children to enjoy storytelling and nursery rhymes where they can dress up, use props and their imagination to create their own magical story wonderland.
Multi-Sensory Room
We have an amazing multi-sensory room. This room is used by all the different age groups throughout the day. There are a range of activities that take place in this room to enhance the children’s experience at our nursery.
The room is also used as a quiet space to take small amounts of children in to concentrate on particular areas of learning such as communication and language, maths and also physical development. Our Sensory room is a great place for children to unwind from the busy nursery room, ensuring that our children have a calm and tranquil space to relax in and let their exploratory minds evolve.
In our sensory room we have a variety of exciting equipment, we have a ball pit with steps and a slide.
We also have variety of lights, a bubble tube, fibre-optic strings, projectors, moving fairy lights, an amazing light table, texture board, musical instruments, light blocks and a variety of sensory objects for the children to explore, touch and smell.
Our Garden
We have 3 garden spaces where the children can explore and play throughout the day all year round. Our outside spaces support the development of healthy and active lifestyles
We have our Baby Garden which is accessible for our babies. We set up different activities daily for our children to explore. Although this is a separate garden the older children enjoy talking to and seeing the babies.
Our Main Garden offers lots of space for the children to learn. We have lots of opportunities for the children to climb, balance and move in different ways.
We have a large sandpit and a water wall which the children really enjoy playing with. Children have the opportunity to extend their own learning, giving children the opportunity to take risks in a safe and stimulating environment.
We also have our Explorer Garden, which gives children contact with the natural world and offers experiences that are unique to outdoors, such as direct contact with weather and the varying seasons. It also helps children to understand and respect nature, the environment, independence and lifecycles.
Our Kitchen
The Kitchen is a vital part of our nursery and is where our fully qualified chef prepares delicious and nutritious meals every day for our children to enjoy. Our varied menu allows all children at our nursery to explore new tastes and textures.
The children are fascinated by the cooking process and across the nursery they absolutely love engaging in Monkey Puzzle mini chef activities where the Chef assists the children in preparing a variety of meals and snacks for the entire nursery to enjoy.
