Simply the best nursery in Harrogate

We are delighted that our dynamic nursery team at Playaway has reached the final in the Nursery Management Today nursery awards 2009.  Manager Dee Sturges says

Our dynamic team loves making the most of all opportunities to create fun and meaningful experiences for children and parents.  We enjoy challenging ourselves and are one big happy family. 

We are so proud to have reached the final 6 in this competition out of over 100 entries.  The team enjoy their work and this is evident in the high quality of our childcare practice.

Are you looking for the best childcare for your c hild?

To meet our lovely team please contact us.  We would be happy to show you around.

PlayAway was visited by OFSTED in July 2009, and we were delighted to be awarded an overall ‘good’ rating, with 2 elements of ‘Outstanding Practice for Inclusion and for continuous improvement’.

Playaway Day Nursery Harrogate

Woodlands Day Nursery

We wholeheartedly agree with their findings although we did feel that an outstanding would also have been appropriate for our ‘partnerships with parents’. We always get such positive feedback from parents in our questionnaires and it really does feel like one big happy family at PlayAway.

The inspectors also visited Woodlands in June 2009, and found Woodlands to be Outstanding at Being Healthy, Keeping Safe and Partnerships with Parents. It was a lovely day for all involved in the inspection, as the inspector made us all feel so relaxed and happy, and we truly showed off our nursery in it’s natural state!

Contact us to secure a place.

Playaway Day Nursery Harrogate

We are happy to announce the official opening of our new baby sleep room on the first floor at PlayAway in the old office.

The new room has been approved by OFSTED and has been fully kitted out with brand new cots and mattresses as well as some new storage drawers for babies’ clothes, sheets and blankets.

The new room has allowed us to increase the number of babies we can look after each day by 4.  We already have a waiting list for these spaces however, so it won’t be long before they are filled! Contact us to secure a place.

Woodlands Day Nursery

Due to an increase in attendance, Woodlands is delighted to have welcomed a new member of staff in Carly Worth, who joined our pre-school at the beginning of November.

Carly has worked part-time in the Cannon’s crèche and has also experience of US kids camps. She is a positive and fun person and will shortly commence her NVQ3 in child care with us. We hope she will feel welcome and look forward to many years of fun and laughter with her!

National Childbirth Trust

As well as taking a stall at the recent National Childbirth Trust Nearly New Sale, we will also be showcasing our nurseries at the forthcoming morning at Winkies in Knaresborough.

The event will run from 9:30am-12:30pm and for only £4 per adult families can come along and get free play at Winkies, sample activities with their children, including French for Fidgets, Enjoy-a-ball, Singamajigs and Baby Ballet. Every adult will be given a goody bag with the NCT out and about guide inside.

Welcome to our November Newsletter. We’ve got so much to tell you!

Important Dates:

1. Parents Evening : Wednesday 18th November 6.30 - 8.30. Have you booked your time slot?

christmas bells

2. Christmas Party : Wednesday 16th December Babies and Toddlers 10.30 - 12.30, Pre-school 2.30 - 4.30. *if your child does not attend that day, you are welcome to bring them along, but you will have to stay with them due to staffing ratios and numbers

3. Nursery Nativity Play : Friday 18th  December, Christ Church, 2.00pm. Everyone welcome!! A nursery video will be take that can be purchased. Parents are welcome to take photographs of their child.

4. Christmas Card Orders : must be in by November 25th. Sorry no late orders accepted.

5. Children in Need : We are regular supporters of this worthy charity. This year we are having a pyjama and bring a bear day!!! Friday 20th November

6. Christmas and New Year Times : please note that we will be open from 7am - 4pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Please ask for a form when you come to see us next, so that we know who will be in nursery between Christmas and new year, and return it to us as soon as possible. Best wishes for a wonderful Christmas and New Year with your family.

7. Good luck to the staff team for 27th November at the National Nursery Awards! In our eyes you are all winners regardless of the result.

8. Employee of the month for September is Sue, for always going the extra mile. For October, the winner is Mira, for her wonderful meals, helping everyone out and being patient. Goodbye Katrina, we will miss you stacks as you move back to Woodlands. You have been a star! Welcome to Sam! We are so glad that you are now with us full time in the baby room.

Bob and Wendy

Building has now commenced on our PlayAway extension, and we hope to have the new room ready by the end of January 2010.

The new room will have space for 10 pre-school children, and has been designed in keeping with our beautiful Victorian building with lots of windows and a lantern on the roof to allow light to flood into the building.

Double doors will allow our pre-schoolers to ‘free-flow’ in and out of the building, choosing their own location during the day, in or out!

The children have been very excited by the building work, which has sparked off a pre-school project about building. Our lovely builders have helped with this by creating ‘peep-holes’ in the hoardings to allow the children to supervise the building, whilst safely away from any danger.

The builders have been named Bob and Wendy by the children, but the question on everyone’s minds is ‘which one is which?

Choosing the right childcare for your children can be a difficult choice for first time parents and as local working parents of 4 children ourselves, we know how hard it can be to juggle work and family life. Our Funcare aim is to make the initial choice easy for you and then keep your lives uncomplicated by being open, approachable and flexible in everything we do.

Our parents are happy:

“We have been using Woodlands Day Nursery for over 10 years. All 3 of our children have enjoyed the wide variety of activities, loved the food and most importantly have been happy attending each day. We were comfortable leaving them in such a secure and caring environment. We could drop our children in the morning, knowing that they were in safe hands and didn’t have the hassle of organising food and nappies for them as these were all provided. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Woodlands Day Nursery to others. Tracey Armstrong“

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Josy and Ian