Selby Cottage Childcare Centre

27/04/2026

🌿 Help Us Grow Our Sustainability Station

We are so excited to introduce our new sustainability station in nursery. This space has been created as part of our commitment to teaching children about caring for our planet from an early age.

At Selby Cottage, we believe it’s never too early to learn about sustainability.

Through this station, children explore how everyday materials can be reused, repurposed, and transformed through creative play. These experiences help build important early habits encouraging curiosity, responsibility, and an understanding of how we can all make a difference to the world around us. 💚

We are kindly asking for donations of clean, safe, and reusable materials to support this area. Your contributions help us provide rich, hands-on learning opportunities while teaching the value of reducing waste and thinking sustainably.

If you have suitable items at home, we would love for you to donate them. Your “waste” truly becomes our treasure! ✨

Thank you for supporting our efforts to nurture environmentally aware little learners. 💛

24/02/2026

💚 Cook Well, Eat Well 💚

We would like to say a heartfelt thank you to Paul Hadden from Karbon Homes for funding our Cook Well, Eat Well Project. Thanks to this amazing support, we have been able to provide 50 slow cookers along with fresh fruit and vegetables to families who really need them.

We would also like to thank Fareshare North East for their incredibly kind donation of a wide variety of meats, cheese, fruits and vegetables, which has played such an important role in making this project a success.

This project has supported 61 families, not only our families at Selby Cottage, but also families within our local and wider community.
We were also able to extend this to our childminder colleagues and The Louisa Centre Nursery to support their families.

The feedback so far has been truly heart-warming, with families sharing the positive difference this will make — from helping with the cost of living to giving them more free time to spend together.

A very special mention must go to our wonderful Deputy, Claire, who sourced the funding and worked tirelessly to bring everything together. We are so grateful for her dedication and hard work in making this project possible.

We look forward to working with Paul again
in the Autumn.

Thank you to everyone involved for helping us support our families and community 💚

18/06/2025

Did you know about some of the exciting activities and experiences we offer to our children and families at Selby Cottage?

We held our Father's Day Breakfasts last week and coming up soon is our Family Forest School🌲🪵

These events are always a huge hit and we love to get our families involved 🥰

23/04/2025

We were delighted to welcome students and tutors from a local college for a fantastic outdoor learning and fire pit session to Selby Cottage. 🔥

Claire, our Forest School and Outdoor Lead guided the session and shared creative activity ideas using natural materials. These included exploration in the mud kitchen and making nature inspired picture frames. 🌺

It was a brilliant opportunity to support and inspire the next generation of early years practitioners, giving them hands on experience and a meaningful introduction to learning through nature. 🌳🌻

02/04/2025

03/02/2023

WE ARE RECRUITING

Do you have a passion for early years and a love of the outdoors? Are you a skilled practitioner, committed to inclusive practice?

If so, we have an exciting career opportunity at our nursery in South Pelaw, Chester le Street!

We are looking for the right person who is enthusiastic and passionate to join our caring and supportive team. You will have opportunities for professional development and varied experiences including forest school, swimming and family and community projects. Along with a compassionate leadership team that puts staff wellbeing at the heart of all we do… What’s not to love? ❤️

The position is for a full time Childcare Assistant, to start in April 2023. If you’d like more information or to arrange a visit please call Lisa on 03000264095.

Click the link below to apply!

https://www.northeastjobs.org.uk/default.aspx?page=jobdetail&module=jobs-userjobdetails&jid=239266

30/01/2023

One of the ways we try to reduce the cost of the nursery day and minimise our impact on the environment, is through our membership with Fareshare North East.

Today’s food delivery included bloomer bread, peppers, potatoes, mangoes, yogurt, milk, chicken, a few treats for dessert and lots more!

All of this for £20 per week and we are preventing good food going to landfill, supporting a local charity and a providing delicious, healthy menus for our children, while keeping the price of our meals to a minimum for our families.

Hows that for a bit of feel good on a Monday morning! 😀

06/12/2021

🌟Today we're kicking off our 12 Deeds of Christmas countdown, celebrating the stars in our communities who have gone the extra mile and deserve a big thank you, all nominated by you!

🌟To get started, we’re celebrating the amazing work of the staff at the Selby Cottage Childcare Centre in Durham.

🌟The team were nominated for the amazing work they've done over the pandemic offering food parcels to people who have had little or nothing alongside running the nursery accepting children of parents who are key workers.

🌟They've continued to do this work as well as litter picking projects and putting on events and activities for the children and their families. Over the Christmas period they will be surprising members of the local community with hampers and gifts.

🌟We're so pleased to be able to award one of our 12 Deeds Community Stars to this dedicated, caring team who give all they have to ensure people are happy, welcomed and supported. They clearly are a credit to their community 🎄❤️

24/09/2021

We love our tree swings… What greater feeling is there than to feel like you are flying through the air!

Just look at the joy and delight in Gracie’s face as she has now mastered how to propel herself through the air and spin her body round and round.

21/09/2021

We are so excited for this…