Little Woodlands Day Nursery

Week 7 Reno Update 🔨🌿✨

Our BIGGEST and BEST update so far 👀

It’s been another exciting week in our nursery renovation, and we’re getting closer and closer to bringing our vision to life. We’ve had our final planning meetings with for the outdoor areas, making sure every detail is in place to create engaging and inspiring spaces for children to explore, play and learn 🔍⛽️🌳

Inside, the transformation is really starting to take shape. Lots of our walls now have a fresh coat of paint and the flooring has been laid throughout the nursery, making it feel more like a finished space every day 🫟✨

One of our favourite spaces is our new staff hub, which is really starting to come together and is set to become the perfect place for our amazing team to relax, recharge and collaborate. Alongside this, our dedicated wellbeing room will provide a peaceful space where staff can unwind, reflect or simply enjoy a well-deserved break. We believe that investing in our team is just as important as creating inspiring environments for the children, so designing spaces that support staff wellbeing has been a key part of our renovation 👏🏼💚🩷

Seeing everything come together is incredibly exciting, and we can’t wait to welcome our children and families into a beautiful new nursery in just over 4 weeks time 😅🤞🏼

Meet Natasha 🌿

Our Deputy Manager at Little Woodlands ✨

My childcare journey began 13 years ago, and over that time I’ve progressed from Practitioner to Deputy Manager, gaining invaluable experience while supporting children’s learning and development. I love the variety and creativity that comes with working in early years, as well as building meaningful relationships with children and their families. Knowing I’ve made a positive difference to a child’s early years is the most rewarding part of what I do 💫

From the moment I discovered Little Woodlands, I knew it was somewhere I wanted to be. It’s inspiring vision, values and beautiful environment perfectly reflect the kind of setting I’m passionate about, and I’m so proud to be part of a team creating a warm, nurturing community where children can learn, grow and thrive 🌿✨

Outside of nursery life, I love spending time with my husband and our French Bulldog, Onyx. Whether we’re exploring the countryside, visiting the beach or enjoying cosy getaways, I love being outdoors and making special memories together 🐾🐶

I’m so excited to be part of the Little Woodlands journey and can’t wait to welcome all of our wonderful families and help create magical early years memories together 💚

Week 6 Reno Update 🔨🌿✨

Another busy week of progress at Little Woodlands! So much has been happening behind the scenes as the team continue to bring our beautiful nursery to life.

The staircase is now fully boarded and ready for painting and painting has begun in the preschool room, a huge step in our renovation progress! We now have flooring down in our toddler room and our staff garden is almost complete.

It’s amazing seeing everything start to come together 💫 We’re so excited to be getting closer and closer every day to creating a beautiful space for our Little Woodlands children and families🌿✨

STAFF FAVOURITES 🌿✨

We’re now only 6 weeks away from opening the doors to our beautiful new nursery in Castle Donington, and we couldn’t be more excited💚

As we count down to our open day, we’d love for you to get to know the amazing team who will be caring for your little ones. Over the last few weeks we’ve been sharing each member of our nursery family but here’s more information about them and their favourites things 🌿✨

We’d love to know more about your little ones who will be joining us in September! Let us know their favourite things in the comments section ⬇️

Week 5 Reno Update 🔨🌿✨

It’s been another exciting week of progress here at Little Woodlands! We’re now one week away from taking a paintbrush to those walls… eek 🙊

Work has started on our bespoke sensory rooms across the nursery, with each space thoughtfully designed to support children’s learning, development, and wellbeing 🌈

We’ve made our staircase even safer with new enclosed panelling, our staff garden is continuing to take shape with new seating and fencing in place, and we’re finally starting to add a few aesthetic touches 🥺👏🏼

Every week brings us one step closer to opening our doors, and we can’t wait to share more of the journey with you. Thank you for following along and supporting us as Little Woodlands comes to life 🌿🤍

Keep up with our stories to see our progress throughout the week! NEXT WEEK IS GOING TO BE BIG 👀

Meet Leah 🌿

Our Area Assistant Manager at Little Woodlands and Shardlow Hall Day Nursery ✨

I’ve always been passionate about supporting children as they grow, learn and reach new milestones. After leaving school, I began my career as a Teaching Assistant supporting children with SEN before joining Shardlow Hall Day Nursery in 2021. Since then, I’ve progressed from the after-school club to Room Leader, Senior Room Leader and Deputy Manager, completing my Level 3 qualification and Forest School Leadership training along the way 🌳

I’m especially passionate about outdoor learning and love helping children build confidence through nature, whether that’s den building, campfire cooking, woodwork or simply exploring the world around them 🪵🌍

Outside of nursery, I love spending time with my family and friends, keeping active with reformer Pilates, getting outdoors, renovating my home with my partner, and cheering on Nottingham Forest at the City Ground ⚽

Joining the Little Woodlands team is such an exciting new chapter, and I can’t wait to welcome our new children and families, build strong relationships and create a warm, nurturing environment where every child can thrive🌱🤍

A huge thank you to Ian at Castle Creative for designing and making our fantastic new sign at Little Woodlands Children's Day Nursery.

As a new business in Castle Donington, it's incredibly important to us to support other local businesses wherever we can and we genuinely couldn't fault the service we received. From start to finish, Ian has been fantastic.

This is our temporary sign while the nursery is being transformed and we can't wait to see our permanent signage go up in September💫

Week 4 Reno Update ⚒️🌿✨

Another exciting week of progress at our new nursery 👏🏼

This week, work has been underway on our dedicated staff wellbeing area, creating an outdoor space for our amazing team to relax and recharge. We’re also thrilled to share that all of the major structural building work has now been completed—a huge milestone in the renovation 🎉

Next up is plastering, flooring, and doors, which means we’re getting even closer to seeing the finished nursery come to life. We can’t wait to share more behind-the-scenes updates as each space takes shape.

*Swipe to meet Kate, our wonderful designer ➡️👏🏼

Stay tuned for week 5 progress 🌿💛

FAQs- Part 2 🌿

You asked so we listened! After posting our FAQs Part 1, we received a few messages asking about the curriculum and outdoor learning at Little Woodlands. So here’s some information about our bespoke curriculum and forest schooling 🌳🥾

Part 3 coming soon 🌿

In the meantime, if you’ve got unanswered questions, then please drop us a DM and we’ll do our best to reply as soon as we can! Make sure you pop back to our page on Thursday to see some exciting progress in our reno journey ⚒️👀✨

Week 3 Reno Update ⚒️🌿✨

Week 3 of our nursery renovation and the transformation is really starting to take shape! With lots of new walls and partitions now built, dedicated spaces for sensory exploration and nappy changing are beginning to emerge.

It’s exciting to see our vision come to life, and we can’t wait to share more progress with you next week 👏🏼

Come back next Thursday for Week 4 progress 🌿