Secret Garden Darlington Limited

Today our team enjoyed a fantastic day of team building, starting with lots of fun at Laser Quest followed by some well-earned food and milkshakes!

Team building is so important in a nursery setting as it helps strengthen communication, builds trust, and brings us closer together as a team. When staff feel supported and connected, it creates a positive, happy environment for everyone, especially the children in our care.

A big thank you to our wonderful team for making it such a great day! ❤️

Our Cubs have been having so much fun using our nursery rhyme prop sticks! 🎶 Each child chooses a stick and leads their favourite song, building confidence and independence.

Nursery rhymes are so important for two-year-olds, supporting language development, listening skills, memory, and coordination through repetition and action.

A fun and joyful way to learn! 💛

We loved welcoming families into our Panda Room for our Stay and Play session 🐼✨

These sessions are a wonderful opportunity for children to explore their environment alongside their grown-ups, helping them feel secure and confident as they play. It’s also a special time for us to build strong relationships with parents, working in partnership to support each child’s learning and development.

By sharing experiences, conversations, and little moments of play, we continue to strengthen that important connection between home and nursery 💛

Our little koala babies have been busy exploring and discovering! 🐨✨

We set up a special treasure basket filled with a variety of sensory objects, including colourful liquid timers, a soft hairbrush, and other interesting textures for little hands to investigate. The children were curious and engaged as they touched, watched, and experimented—developing their senses and building confidence through play.

It’s wonderful to see their natural curiosity come to life as they explore the world around them in a safe and stimulating environment 💛

🌿 **Outdoor Adventures This Week!** 🌿

This week our little explorers had a fantastic time visiting our local playground! 🌈

There were lots of smiles, laughter, and excitement as the children enjoyed:
✨ Swinging high on the swings
✨ Zooming down the slides
✨ Spinning on the roundabouts
✨ Building confidence, friendships, and having lots of fun together

Outdoor play is so important for developing coordination, confidence, and social skills — and it’s safe to say we made the most of it this week! 💛

Take a look at some of our lovely moments below 📸👇

📚✨ We are so proud of our amazing children, families, and staff! ✨📚

Our nursery recently took part in a sponsored read in partnership with Rupert’s Reading Room, and thanks to everyone’s incredible support, we raised a fantastic £822!

Even more exciting, this total was boosted to an amazing £1,325.20 through Usborne Books! 🎉

A huge thank you to everyone who sponsored, encouraged reading at home, and helped make this such a wonderful success. Your support not only raises funds but also helps foster a love of reading in our little learners 💛📖

Well done everyone! 👏

Happy Mother’s Day to all our amazing mums, grandmas and the special women who care for, guide and nurture our little ones each day. 💐

We hope you have a lovely day filled with appreciation, relaxation and maybe even a little time to put your feet up. Thank you for being such an important part of our nursery family. 💛

📚✨ What a fantastic World Book Day week we had at nursery! ✨📚

Last week we had an absolute blast celebrating some of our favourite stories, and the children loved bringing the books to life through lots of fun activities throughout the week!
🐘 Monday – Dear Zoo
We explored all the different animals the zoo sent and talked about which pets would make the best choices!
🐻 Tuesday – We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
The children went on their very own bear hunt adventure, swishing through grass, splashing through rivers and squelching through mud!
🌲 Wednesday – The Gruffalo
We stepped into the deep dark wood and met all the characters from this much-loved story with lots of creative activities. Our pandas even made Gruffalo crumble for pudding.
🐯 Thursday – The Tiger Who Came to Tea
There were plenty of giggles as we imagined what it would be like if a tiger came to visit us for tea!
🐛 Friday – The Very Hungry Caterpillar
We finished the week by learning about the hungry caterpillar, tasting different fruits and talking about how caterpillers turn into beautiful butterflies.
The children had so much fun exploring these wonderful stories through crafts, role play, movement and imagination. It was a lovely week full of smiles, laughter and a real love of books! 📖❤️

🌿✨ We Are Hiring! ✨🌿

Due to ongoing demand, Secret Garden Darlington is looking for a Level 2/3 Early Years Practitioner to join our friendly team. 30 hours a week.

If you are passionate about supporting little ones to grow, explore, and discover, we’d love to hear from you! 🌱💚

📩 To apply or for more information, please send us a message or email [email protected]

👉 Feel free to share this post to help us find the right person!

Celebrating Chinese new year 🧧🐴

🚦 Vehicle Adventures with Our Koala Children! 🚗🚌🚓

Our Koala children love spotting vehicles zooming past the window, so we followed their curiosity and turned it into an exciting vehicle exploration this morning!
The children had a fantastic time rolling, pushing and pulling the cars around the track, watching them race and zoom along. We also explored different types of vehicles through books, chatting about what they do and where they might be going.
So much fun, learning, and excitement all inspired by a simple look out the window! 👀💛

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