Lancaster Lodge Childcare

18/03/2026

On April 26th, Verity (one of our baby room team) will be running the London Marathon to raise funds for East Anglia Children’s Hospice (E.A.C.H) 🧡💜
If you can, please consider sponsoring her and supporting this incredible cause.
Thank you so much!

https://2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/verity-wilson?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=enthuse

23/02/2026

Kitchen Garden - Lets get growing!

We would like to show you our new kitchen garden area where we have multiple raised growing beds with the aim of growing our own produce.

We plan on all three rooms going out and using the space to learn, grow and enjoy the experience of gardening.

We'd like to thank Johnson Construction for their hard work in transforming this space for us!

18/02/2026

We’ve won an award!

Last week was national apprenticeship week, and over the last 13 years we have supported 12 apprentices through the start of their early year’s careers.

Following this we were nominated by Tracey, who is a tutor at West Suffolk College, for an award at the Eastern Education Group apprenticeship awards. Claire and Rebecca attended the awards ceremony on Friday 6th February where we were lucky enough to win ‘small employer of the year award’. We are incredibly proud of this achievement and all the hard work our team put into the daily running of the setting.

Here’s what was said about us as our award was announced:
‘This employer is a purpose-built day nursery caring for children ages 0-5.
They are dedicated to supporting the professional development of their staff, working tirelessly and effectively with Eastern Education Group over several years to employ and train apprentices.
They go over and above to ensure the apprentices are complaint with policy and legislation as well as being involved with their learning and development and wellbeing.
Their commitment to staff wellbeing and professional development is outstanding and this is done with real care and compassion.
A worthy winner, congratulations to Lancaster Lodge our Small Employer of The Year!’

Here’s the link for the Ely Standard article which we feature.
Soham apprentices recognised with top awards at ceremony | Ely Standard

17/02/2026

09/01/2025

Job Opportunities At Lancaster Lodge Childcare. Please see photo for details of how to apply.

04/09/2024

On Saturday 31st August we said goodbye and good luck to our school leavers with a graduation party!
The graduation party is an opportunity for us to conclude and celebrate the time that the children have spent with us before moving onto their next chapter!
Lots of the children had been with us all the way through from the Seedling Room through to the Garden Room and others had joined us part way through their nursery journey. We have enjoyed watching them all grow, learn and develop into the funny and memorable characters that they are today and are excited for what their future holds!
We wish all of our school leavers the best of luck with the next chapter education! ✨🎓

08/07/2024

On the 29th May 2024 we had our food hygiene inspection and we are happy to say that we have maintained our food hygiene rating of 5! Well done to our cook, Judith! ⭐️

22/04/2024

Introducing the Garden Room 🪴

This room is our pre-school room for children aged 3 and over. We continue to build upon the children's social skills, independence and readiness for school!

Like both the Seedling and Sunflower Room we have lots of loose parts and authentic resources to provoke the children’s curiosity and imagination. We follow the children’s interests and follow their lead within play.

Alongside the wide range of continuous provision, adult and child led activities the children in the Garden Room also engage in more challenging and age-appropriate activities surrounding loose parts.

The Garden Room children serve themselves their meals and drinks throughout the day where possible, this enhances them learning a range of life skills including healthy eating, portion control and sharing. After mealtimes the children are supported and encouraged to clear their cups and plates away.

In the Garden Room we work together with parents and children to build upon their independence ready for school. We have a strong transition process when the children go off to school, which we offer lots of guidance, support and nurturing to get them ready for the next big adventure!

15/04/2024

Introducing the Sunflower Room 🌻

The Sunflower Room is our middle room for ages 2 -3 years. We continue to build upon the children’s social skills, independence and readiness for pre-school.

We have lots of loose parts and authentic items to build on the children curiosity, imagination and wonder. We follow the children’s interests, and our activities very much reflect this, they are often built upon throughout by the children.

We offer lots of support, encouragement and nurturing to our children and families that are starting with us from new or moving up from the baby room. We try to pop into the baby room to become familiar faces and make the settling in process easier.

We offer free flow throughout the day with our covered patio and large bark/grass garden, we enjoy the outdoors whatever the weather! We have lots of opportunities for running, climbing, balancing and games within the garden. We have lots of water play, messy play and sand play within both the indoors and outdoors to keep our children engaged and curious.

We promote and support building on the children’s independence, this includes, but isn’t limited to, getting their own coat and shoes on, speech, play and making friends and toilet training.

We love baking in the Sunflower Room and are often found making a variety of different foods, such as pizza, sausage rolls, cupcakes or fruit kebabs! The children love getting involved and practicing mixing and measuring. 👨‍🍳

04/04/2024

Introducing the Seedling Room 🌱

This room is for children aged 6 months to 2 years, where we build the foundations to their nursery life. Within our room our day predominantly focuses on the babies care needs with lots of making bottles and nap times and all of the exploring in between.

We have a strong settling in process with lots of care, nurturing and comfort given from our experienced staff, we build confidence and security when starting nursery for both the child and their family.

We offer free flow for the majority of the day, meaning there is lots of access to our free flow patio and our large, grassed garden, these areas have lots of opportunity for climbing, water play and imaginative play in our mud kitchen.

We give lots of support and ample opportunities for children to reach their early milestones such as crawling, standing, walking, babbling and building bonds with those who are close to them.

We do lots of messy and sensory play, mark making and painting, giving the children lots of opportunities to explore different textures and the marks they can make. 🎨

15/03/2024

🏡 Lancaster Lodge Childcare Ltd was established in February 2013 by Claire and her family, we are a family run private day nursery in the Ely area. We have been opened for 11 years now and last year on our 10 year anniversary Claire threw the staff team a big party at poets house to celebrate this exciting milestone!

✨ We are proud of the environment we provide for children and believe it to be a homely, inviting, and inspiring one. We take lots of inspiration from The Curiosity Approach, and enjoy using a variety of natural materials to spark the curiosity and imagination of our children.

Lancaster Lodge Childcare consist of three rooms;

🌱 The Seedling Room, this is our baby room which caters for children up to the age of two.
🌻 The Sunflower Room, which caters for our 2 -3 year olds
🪴 The Garden Room which caters for the children aged 3 until they go to school.

🌲 Each room has a good-sized garden offering free flow access for the children to go in and out as they please throughout the day. With lots of opportunity to build on our gross motor skills, balancing and coordination!

👍🏻 We are Ofsted registered and received a ‘Good’ rating at our last inspection in December 2022.

🍲 We have a food hygiene rating of 5, and provide daily homemade meals including lunch and a lighter meal for tea, as well as offering breakfast and two snacks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

👨🏼‍🏫👩🏽‍🏫 All of our staff are first aid qualified and this is kept up to date with regular ‘mini’ trainings sessions and refreshers in between the full Paediatric first aid training sessions. All staff are trained and kept up to date with safeguarding and any new legislation changes. Our staff have a deep understanding of the early years framework and the importance of creating a strong foundation for children’s growth and development.