News

Little Lemurs – official opening!

Our brand new baby cabin was officially opened by Lee Durrell MBE on Thursday 11th April 2024.

The JEP were in attendance and it was a proud moment for all! 

Please see below, the lovely speech given by Lee:

“The waiting lists for children of all ages at Cheeky Monkeys are long, but the longest by far is babies. There were over a hundred babes waiting for a place, so Juliet decided to open another baby unit. Fittingly, it is called ‘Little Lemurs’ and I am here today to declare it officially open.

There are 80 children who come to Cheeky Monkeys every day, looked after by a staff of about 34, an amazing team, devoted to their job and their little charges.

What an extraordinary experience these children are having during their formative years. Seeing, hearing and smelling some of the wonderful animals they share the world with, in a superb setting of fresh air, trees and flowers. These children will become the custodians of the planet and will make a good job of it, because they attended Cheeky Monkeys and came to know and love Jersey Zoo.”

Christmas Tree Competition ❤️🎄

THE BUILD HAS BEGUN!

Thanks to Scott Le Breton Ltd our new baby cabin is well under way! If all goes to plan, we are on track for completion mid December and will open during JANUARY 2024.

Check out our Facebook page for weekly progress pics – Cheeky Monkeys Facebook Page

 

Updated COVID Policy – Winter 2023

➡️Please Click Here

 

Graduation – July 2023 

Another beautiful graduation day, for our Growing Gorillas who are on to pastures new! A tear jerking ceremony, with a party, yummy food and magician fun the day after to celebrate 💚 We will miss you! 😢

Exciting News 👶🏼

Nursery lodges plan for baby cabin as demand for childcare increases

Welcome, Alex! 👋🏼

Alex is a childcare university student and has joined us for the summer to gain valuable experience. You will see Alex working across all rooms in the nursery. Please do say a friendly hello if you see her 😊

The LEMONATOR 🍋📚 April 2023

Thank you so much to one of our lovely parents, who came in to read the children ‘THE LEMONATOR’ – which she has co written with her husband!

To find out more about this fabulous book, please see the links below ⬇️
Website – Find Out More
Purchase here – Amazon Link

FESTIVAL OPEN DAY 💚☀️🍃 September 2022

Wow, what can we say. Another hugely successful open day for us at Cheeky Monkeys.

There were lots of activities, games, fire pit food and music… not to mention the delicious CAKES 😍🍰

Thanks so much for joining us, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Special thanks to all that donated cakes for our cake sale, it raised funds for the incredibly special Jersey Child Care Trust who provide invaluable support to children and families in Jersey.

Thank You 

A big thank you to one of our lovely grandparents, who donated a marquee for us to use in the garden 😇🍃 it’s fantastic!

Big (walking) shoes to fill 👣

Ellie has completed her 13th, yes you read that right.. 13th ISLAND WALK (previously the ITEX walk). That’s 48 miles and who knows how many steps – we think her apple watch burst into flames 🔥

Now that’s what you call a challenge!

Teresa Levels Up!

A huge well done to Teresa in our Baby Bear room for completing her Level 3 in Childcare & Education. All of her hard work as paid off – you deserve it Teresa! 🤓🌟👏🏼

BABY NEWS! 💕💙

Congratulations to Vicki and her husband Steve, who welcomed their baby girl in October! 

Congratulations to Stef and her husband Alan, who welcomed their baby boy in November!

We can’t wait for them to become Cheeky Monkeys 🐒

FOND FAREWELL..

At the end of summer we had to bid farewell to Lucy, one of our originals. We wish her the best of luck in her new position as a teaching assistant, at St Georges but we secretly hope she will return to us one day!

Tara and Juliette Update 💚

You may remember that we had the pleasure of having Tara and Juliette at the nursery to gain experience a while ago.

Tara has now finished her studying and is moving to LA – wow, good luck Tara!

Juliette has been accepted to join the prestigious Norland Nanny College and begins her studies in September 2022 – well done Juliette!

GRADUATION – JULY 2021 🎓🍃

We had such a lovely day in the garden for our graduation ceremony, although there may have been a few tears! We celebrated our pre schoolers heading off to school with songs, certificates, speeches and poems. Thank you to our families that came along, please keep in touch 💚

JUMPING IN PUDDLES TOTAL 💦

We are super excited to announce that our final total for Cancer Research UK

is …… £1140.00 ‼️

Thanks again to all of our generous families, we really appreciate your donations.

World Book Day 📕📚

What a fantastic effort from our children this year! It was a lovely day full of stories, games and face painting ❤️

Jumping in Puddles for Cancer 💦

Our Cheeky Monkeys have been having great fun jumping in puddles and raising money for Cancer Research UK – https://jumpinapuddle.co.uk

Babies Puddle Jumping

Mini Meerkat Puddle Jumping

Growing Gorilla Puddle Jumping

Growing Gorilla Puddle Jumping 2

BABY NEWS – 30th November 2020 🍼

Huge congratulations to our Deputy Manager Jodie, her husband Richie and son Noah on the arrival of baby Willow! Welcome to the Cheeky Team! 💕

COVID-19 Updated Guidance

Please find below a number of updates that have been made recently to the guidance documents on gov.je

NEW GUIDANCE SUMMARY: Isolation guidance clarification

Clarification has been sought specifically around when one person in the household needs to isolate and other members of the household do not.

Guidance provided on how they can isolate separately within the same property as others and to confirm that if individuals aren’t able to meet those requirements that other members of the household will need to isolate with them.

This requires amendments to the general isolation guidance to remove any ambiguity (for example the use of the phrase ‘where possible’) and additional guidance in the education pages (specific advice around parents isolating separately from children and vice versa)

The following pages on gov.je have now been updated to reflect this clarification:

• Travel isolation guidance – https://www.gov.je/Health/Coronavirus/PublicHealthGuidance/Pages/TravellerIsolation.aspx

• Isolation guidance – https://www.gov.je/Health/Coronavirus/PublicHealthGuidance/Pages/HowToSelfIsolate.aspx

• Education guidance – https://www.gov.je/health/coronavirus/educationchildcare/pages/reopeningofschools.aspx#IsolationChildren

   

Symptoms quiz

A new tool to help members of the public establish whether they have one of the three main Covid symptoms and they need to isolate and organise a test:

https://www.gov.je/Health/Coronavirus/PublicHealthGuidance/Pages/CoronavirusInformation.aspx

GRADUATION 2020 💛🎓😎

It may have been different to other years but the children had the best time at their graduation party! We invited Royston to entertain the children with balloons and magic and there were delicious cupcakes, baked by the talented Victoria Sponge!

Purple Panda Creations made the adorable medals as a keepsake for the children to take home.

Our new chef Ana created a delicious party food feast and the garden was decorated beautifully with music playing out all afternoon 🎶🍴

We wish the best of luck to all of our children heading to pastures new ❤️

OUR NEW CHEF – JULY 2020 🍴

We are delighted to welcome Ana to the Cheeky team! Ana brings a wealth of culinary experience with her and looks forward to creating healthy homemade meals for the children.

RE-OPENING – Monday 8th June 2020

We will be opening at 70% normal operating capacity from this time and then will eventually be expecting to get back to full capacity (68 children) later down the line, as and when we get fully released from the constraints of lockdown.

This will be reviewed by CEYS (childcare & early year’s service) every 2 weeks.

Your child will be in a group of 8 children with a maximum of 15 children on the register within that bubble and 2 members of staff. These groups will keep to themselves and staff will remain a 2 metres distance from other staff members. The staff members for your child’s group will remain the same where possible.

These groups are called bubbles each bubble will have a coloured coded monkey on the gate or door so your child will recognise this as their group. They will have their own resources, equipment, toilet facilities and PPE for staff members if required. We will have 6 groups of 8 children to start with 1 group of 8 children upstairs in our Pre-School room, 2 groups of 8 children in our Mini Meerkats room, we will be dividing the room in half. 1 group of 9 babies in our baby room we have had this confirmed by CEYS and the Government as they are on a 1 adult to every 3 babies.

We are lucky to have such a large outdoor space and will be using two areas in the garden (also confirmed by CEYS) for 2 groups of 8 at different ends of the garden. We have brought in toilets for both groups and a separate one outside for our staff. All areas will be sectioned off.

It is acknowledged that young children may struggle to adhere to the physical distancing and this will not be expected of them with the children in their bubble however there will be no other contact with children from other bubbles.

Whilst we consider that it would have been unreasonable to charge parents fees when we were closed (which is why we haven’t done this) much in the same way we consider it unreasonable for us to not receive fees if we are open and available to resume services.  As such if parents do wish to retain a place in circumstances where, say, they would like to resume attendance for their child at the nursery later this summer, then they will need to resume payment of fees from when we do reopen on 8th June 2020, to secure that place.

Obviously, if parents do not wish to do this, then we can keep their name down on our list, but if others who do want to take up that place immediately or before them, then we will be offering that place to them.

We ask that only one parent or carer enters the premises at any one time and all parents disinfect their hands at our main gate (hand sanitiser located to the left as you walk in). Your child will then be signed in by the member of staff managing the entrance and taken to wash their hands (for 20 seconds) by a member of staff before entering their bubble. Parents are asked not to go any further than office when dropping off or collecting.

Your child will have their temperature taken before you leave the nursery premises. On this note, please be rest assured that all staff will also have their temperature taken upon arrival at nursery. Those children and staff members with a reading of 37.8 degrees celsius or above will be asked to return home.

Parents are asked to leave via our staff gate, at the opposite side of our garden, following the Cheeky Monkey signs to get back to the carpark.

We will use this exact same procedure when you collect your child, with entry through the main gate, leaving by the staff gate and collecting your child from outside the office.

ALL parents must wear a mask to drop off and collect, staff members will also be wearing masks at drop offs and collections.

We ask that there are only 3 families at any one time waiting outside of the main gate, keeping their 2 metres distance. If you arrive and see there are already 3 families waiting, please remain in your car until it is safe to join the queue.

The nursery has been decluttered by the team with the removal of all soft toys and furnishings and equipment that cannot be easily cleaned or disinfected. Staff will deep clean throughout the day before our professional cleaners arrive.

As advised by the Government of Jersey and the Education Department, if your child or someone in your household is showing ANY of the listed COVID-19 symptoms they will not be permitted to attend nursery at this time. This rule will also be enforced with our staff members.

You can find regularly updated information HERE

The symptoms are a new continuous cough and/or fever which may be accompanied by one or more of the following: 

– headaches

– tiredness

– muscle ache

– respiratory symptoms besides cough such as a sore throat, blocked or runny nose

– gastro-intestinal symptoms can also be a feature of COVID 19 and these are more common in children than adults

– loss of smell and taste (in some cases this may be the only symptom present)

_________________________________

COVID-19 POLICY

Please be advised that we now have a new policy in place. This has been added to our Policies and Procedures in the Parent Handbook – Click here to read the Policy

COVID-19 UPDATE  – Monday 30th March 2020

Nursery re-opened today for children of Key Workers only. If you believe that you qualify for this service and need child care to be able to work please email us – Click Here

Parents must apply by following the below link and filling out the relevant form –

https://www.gov.je/Health/Coronavirus/Pages/CriticalWorkersAndChildcare.aspx

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW 2020

We are over the moon to announce that the review has now been published! Our BEST PRACTICE article can be viewed online by following this link – Cheeky Monkeys Article

A SUMMARY FROM TARA, FOLLOWING HER PLACEMENT 🗒

I have had a wonderful 4 weeks in the Growing Gorillas room and had a brilliant time working in such a nurturing environment. I’d like to say a massive thank you to all children, staff and parents who made me feel so welcome. I really enjoyed my last student placement and my favourite moments include the stick collecting trips to Durrell, the animal encounters, watching the children hammering nails to create hedgehogs, making pancakes for Shrove Tuesday in the fire pit and finally the children asking me to write about them in “my book”. This did, however, defeat the point I was making about doing observations naturally!

Despite this, I have collected a range of observations, that I will properly collaborate when I go back to College but I can verify at this moment in time that there is certainly a strong link between risky play and wellbeing/development which I discovered in my observations and through my own reading. 

Cheeky Monkeys certainly has many opportunities for Risky play! With the recent weather, we even had to come inside because it was too windy! It was wonderful to watch the children encouraging one another to try new things, telling each other what they should and shouldn’t be doing and finally being able to manage their own risks independently and confidently, even if sometimes they needed a little encouragement from one another or a practitioner to hold their hand over some slippery logs.

MEET TARA – January 2020

We are delighted to welcome Tara to Cheeky Monkeys for a month, please see her introduction below…

My name is Tara McCarthy. I was born and educated in Jersey and I am now a Norland Student in Training at the University situated in Bath. I am in my final year of study for a BA Honours Degree in Early Years Development and Learning. Once I have completed my final year I will be moving to London where I will be working with a family for a period of one year in order to acquire the Norland Diploma and at the end of that year I will have become a fully qualified Norland Nanny.

I am going to be finishing my ninth placement at Cheeky Monkeys where I will be carrying out my dissertation research exploring the link between risky play, behaviour and emotional development.

I enjoy teaching children valuable life skills and hope to one day enable each and every one of them to achieve their full potential. I have worked alongside many wonderful families in both Jersey and the UK.

Update August 2020 – Fantastic news… Tara completed her three year degree with a First Class Honours. Huge congratulations Tara, well deserved! 🌟

GRADUATION CELEBRATION 🎓

By Lucy Cooper – Mini Meerkats Supervisor

🍾🍾🍾

BABY NEWS! 🍼

Congratulations to our lovely Stacey on the birth of Vinnie Lee, born 17th September, weighing a healthy 9lb8oz! A baby brother for Dylan. Well done Stacey, he is gorgeous 💙

DIRECTIONS MAGAZINE 📖

Hot off the press! Juliet features in this years ‘Directions’ career magazine. You can take a look at her informative article here, on page 40 – READ ME

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Cheeky Monkeys was recently invited by Lord Pickles of the influential Parliamentary Review to take part in its publication, as an exponent of “best practice” in our industry sector and we are thrilled that our work has been recognised by the Review.

We are thrilled to share this good news with you!

If you would like to know more about the Parliamentary Review, the website is – https://www.theparliamentaryreview.co.uk/

NEW SLEEP AREA 🍃💤

Some of you may have noticed that our ‘ZEN DEN’ has had a bit of a makeover! This is a large shaded area located next to our sand pit.

We have now made this area into our outside ‘SLEEP ZONE’ with new rubber safety flooring.

Being an outdoor nursery and spending so much time in our beautiful outside environment we wanted to adapt this area to fit in well with our approach and meet the needs of our children.

During the warmer months the children will still sleep on our fold out day mattresses, with their own sheets and blankets. A member of staff will be present with the sleepers at all times.

We will be encouraging as many of the children to nap outside as possible. There are many health benefits to sleeping within the natural environment which include stronger immune systems, improved brain development, bone and muscular development, social and cognitive development and overall better emotional wellbeing. It also decreases children’s exposure to germs in enclosed spaces.

The outside environment has a calming effect on children and allows them to fully relax, falling into a deeper sleep at nap time 😴

FESTIVAL OPEN DAY 🌿☀️ September 2019

Wow, what a fantastic turnout for our annual Festival Open Day!

Thank you to all of the businesses that attended, the staff for their hard work and dedication and of course our lovely parents that donated cakes for the big Jersey Child Care Trust cake sale.

 

We had firepit popcorn and toasted teacakes on offer aswell as lots of yummy cakes! Fitness fun, yoga and gorilla painting. Lots of books for sale plus cheeky t-shirts and greeting cards. Les Ormes Swim Academy with their lucky dip and Jersey Library with their brilliant books! Fabulous facepainting, glitter and hairstyle fun!

Until next time….!

CHEEKY T-SHIRTS 🐵

Just a reminder that t-shirts are always for sale to parents at the nursery (and of course our open days!) they are £6.50 each, as modelled below!

🎓GRADUATION DAY 🎓  July 2019

What a fantastic morning we had for our Pre-School graduation!

Thank you so much to all the parents that attended.

Some of the children have been with us from the very start, so it was especially emotional 😥 🤧

CHICO, our GO WILD GORILLA – July 2019

A group of 43 small gorillas are to be released into the wild to celebrate Durrell’s 60th anniversary. They have been designed and decorated by children and we were lucky enough to be given one, sponsored by Deloitte.

We named ours Chico and the children used leaves from our herb garden to decorate him.

What a marvellous job they have done!

Juliette, our Student – July 2019

Hello, my name is Juliette Robert, I am 16 years old and I am French.

I passed my GCSE’s 2 years ago and I have recently taken my first A level exams. I met the Manager Juliet when I was young, as my mum went to school with her. I got the chance to hear all about Norland and dreamed of being Mary Poppins as a child! To me, it is the perfect job and I have wanted to be a nanny for a long time !!!

All of this started to materialise when I went to a Norland’s open day 2 years ago.

It has been 3 years since I started gaining experience, looking after children and babysitting for relatives or other families. I would like to do as much as possible before I enrol on the course.

In France, during our year 10 class we get to do an internship and so I went to a primary school for 1 week. In the mornings I was doing activities with the 2 to 4 years old and in the afternoon lessons I was with the 7 years old.

All of these experiences make me realise that I have to be surrounded by children, in the job I choose for the future.

Pirates & Princesses – Friday 21st June 2019

We had a lovely day at our Pirates & Princesses fundraiser for the Jersey Child Care Trust 🏴‍☠️ 👸

https://www.jcct.org.je/

There were lots of fantastic fancy dress efforts and we raised £183.00! So a huge thank you to all the parents that donated.

Thank you so much to Alice from the Jersey Child Care Trust for singing & signing with the children.

Woodlands Workshop – Saturday 13th April 2019

We welcomed Woodlands Nursery from Guernsey for a professional development workshop. They are a new nursery who are inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach, much like ourselves.

It was a successful and informative day, with the sun shining down on us! 

“We absolutely loved it. You should be so proud. Thank you!”

Here’s a little peak of the itinerary we planned for them:

9.00am – Welcome and Staff introduction, a little bit about Cheeky Monkeys.

9.15am – Garden show around.

10.00am – Nursery show around.

10.45am – Snack time! Fire pit hot chocolate and toasted tea cakes.

11.15am – Loose parts ‘about me’ activity.

11.45am – Feedback to the group, why we use loose parts and the importance of natural resource in play.

12 – 12.30pm – Question and Answer session, revisit the nursery if required.

Gong hei fat choy! 🇨🇳🌟 Tuesday 5th February 2019

Over the last few weeks the children from Growing Gorillas have been learning about chinese new year and creating some beautiful authentic masterpieces.

Today we celebrated with Betty’s delicious beef and black bean sauce with noodles, using chopsticks!

The children also enjoyed prawn crackers and fortune cookies.

Wilma Allan Ceremony – Thursday 1st November 2018

CONGRATULATIONS to our very own Sarah Hampton-Smith who won the Jersey Child Care Trust’s ‘Wilma Allan Award’ this year.

An annual award to recognise excellent practice of childcare students on placement with babies and/or toddlers up to 2 years of age.

Juliet, Jodie and our room supervisors attended a lovely awards ceremony on November 1st 2018 at Government House.

 

”During my first and second years at college, I have gone from a student at cheeky monkeys, to a permanent member of staff working alongside a lovely team. In addition to this, I have been able to experience all of the three age groups and make close relationships with the children in each room. I am thoroughly enjoying my time at cheeky monkeys, especially getting involved in all things creative. Whether it be the ‘Go Wild’ fundraiser for the zoo and dressing up with the children or the ‘Pirate and Princess day’ fundraiser for the Jersey Child Care Trust. I love taking part in fun activities with the children such as potion making and face painting, or simply creating fun role play scenarios and getting messy during sensory activities. Each day my priority with the children is that they are happy, healthy and enjoying their time at nursery, as it is known that children learn best when happily engaged in their play. I would like to think that the children enjoy coming to nursery each day as I know that I love working with them, in such a brilliant setting.”

Sarah Hampton-Smith

Click here to find out more about the Jersey Child Care Trust

CHILDREN IN NEED – Thursday 15th November 2018

Thank you so much to Pudsey Bear and BBC Radio Jersey for visiting us at nursery today! The children were super excited.

The children all brought a Teddy Bear to nursery for a Teddy Bear’s Picnic and the fancy dress effort was fantastic!

They also made yummy cakes and treats, for a big cake sale end enjoyed toasted crumpets around the firepit.

WOW…. what an Open Day!! ☀️💛

Thank you SO much to everyone that visited us on Saturday, with special thanks to our lovely parents, who took time to make, bake and buy treats for the Tea Party 🍰☕️