Puddleducks Preschool Mulbarton

🎟️ OUR BIG SUMMER RAFFLE IS BACK! 🎟️

We're excited to announce the return of our Big Summer Raffle, running alongside our 35th Anniversary Summer Fayre! 🎉

This year, we have two top prizes of £50 CASH 💷💷 plus lots of other fantastic prizes. Keep an eye out for more prize announcements coming soon! 👀

🎟️ Tickets are just £1 each 🎟️
Buying tickets couldn't be easier – simply click the raffle link and purchase your tickets online.

https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/puddleduckspreschool35thbirthdaysummerfayreraffle

⏰ Ticket sales close at 2:30pm on Sunday 12th July

🎉 The draw will take place at 3:00pm on Sunday 12th July

Be sure to check your emails after the draw to see if you're one of our lucky winners. Good luck! 🍀

📮 Postal Entries
If you're unable to enter online and would like to enter by post, please send your:
• Full name
• Address
• Contact number
• Email address
to:
FAO Natasha Davidson
Puddleducks Preschool
The Jubilee Room
Mulbarton Village Hall
The Common
Mulbarton
NR14 8AE
Postal entries must arrive no later than 3:00pm on Friday 3rd July.

A huge thank you to all the local businesses that have generously donated prizes to help support our fundraising efforts. ❤️

Puddleducks is a charity-run preschool that has been at the heart of the Mulbarton community for 35 years. This raffle will be one of our main fundraising events this year, so we'd be incredibly grateful if you could share our raffle with family, friends, neighbours, and anyone else who might like to support us.

🎟️ GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

Thank you for supporting Puddleducks Preschool, and good luck! 🍀

☀️Puddleducks Preschool Summer holiday club☀️

📣Bookings are now being taken for our Summer holiday club. Get in touch if you would like to secure your place📣

📣 28th, 29th, 30th July
4th, 5th, 6th, 11th, 11th, 13th, 18th, 19th, 20th August
📣8am-3pm
📣£40 a day
📣18 months-7 years old (up to 8th birthday)

🎉🎉🎉SAVE THE DATE🎉🎉🎉

Puddleducks Pre-school 35th Anniversary Summer Fayre and annual on-line raffle.

👀 more details about the online raffle to follow soon!

Since first registering in April 1991, we’ve been a special part of the community—and what better way to celebrate than with a Summer Fayre?

📅 Saturday 11th July
⏰ 1:00–3:00pm
The Jubilee Room, Mulbarton Village

We’re especially looking for donations of:
🍾 Bottles of wine
🧸 New or nearly new cuddly toys
📚 New or nearly new children’s books
🎁 Tombola prizes (for both adults and children)
🧦 Clean odd socks
🎉 Local company’s that may be willing to donate a raffle prize

We’re also looking for a few local homes willing to display an advertising board for the event (provided by Starkings and Watson Estate Agents).

If you can help with this or any of the other items, please pop us a message.

If you’re able to lend a hand in any way, please get in touch.

Thank you for helping us celebrate this special milestone! 💛

🐝 Our Beekeeper Visit 🐝

We were very excited today as we were joined by Rob The Barefoot Beeman for his third visit to us🙂

Here at Puddleducks, a love of the outdoors is one of our aims that we firmly believe in and to have a visitor who shares this aim is hugely beneficial as the children can see this passion and hopefully want to get involved too.

Unfortunately the weather meant that we had to have todays visit indoors but we all loved listening to Rob tell us all about the bees, how important they are to the world and what we can do to help the bees as much as we can.

The children were able to touch, smell and feel some of the items that Rob uses. We also got to have a go at wearing a beekeepers suit too.

A massive thank you again to Rob for taking time out of his busy day to come and see us, we really do appreciate it 🐝

☀️ Norfolk's Early Years Festival of Professional Development ☀️

On this rather gorgeous day, five members of the Puddleducks team travelled to the Norfolk Early Years Festival of Professional Development and what a lovely day we had!

We got the chance to listen to keynote speakers about the importance of the outdoors in Early Years which makes the Puddleducks garden even more of an important space and we're so lucky to have the space that we do!

We got to take part in workshops to offer new ideas such as extending our mud kitchen and loose parts play provision.

I think I can speak for all five of us when I say that we have come away with some fantastic ideas to extend what we already offer here at Puddleducks and we can't wait to start implementing them!

☀️🌞☀️

📣WAITING LIST IS NOW OPEN FOR SEPTEMBER 2026 AND BEYOND FOR CHILDREN FROM AGED 18 MONTHS TO 4 AND A HALF.📣

GET IN TOUCH, WE HAVE SPACES AVAILABLE FOR THE 2026-2027 ACADEMIC YEAR OR TO BE ADDED TO OUR WAITING LIST FOR START DATES BEYOND 2027!

Puddleducks has been at the heart of the Mulbarton and local community since 1991, What an incredible achievement to have been a cornerstone of the village for 35 years
Today, we are even seeing the next generation come through our doors as the children of our very first pupils join us!
Reaching the "second generation" stage—where the toddlers of the 90s are now the parents at the door- is the ultimate testament to the trust and love the community has for Puddleducks.

Since April 1991, we’ve had the joy of watching hundreds of little ones grow, learn, and play in an environment that is shaped by the children, offering sessional and day care to all children aged 18 months to 4 and a half.

As a registered charity Puddleducks does not charge for consumables or food during your child’s day and funded hours can be used across the day, including breakfast club and twilight hours. Puddleducks aims to offer affordable childcare to all families with no hidden costs.

8-3.30 Mon
8-5.45 Tues-Thurs
8-3.30 Fri

We are able to accept the working parent entitlement for 15 hours funding for eligible families of 9 month olds to two year olds, as well as the 15 or 30 hour working parent entitlement for Two year olds and the 15 or 30 hour government funding for three and four year olds. You can also pay using the government tax free savings account. More details about government funding, your entitlements and what is available can be found at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

We also offer holiday clubs during the Easter break in April and Summer holiday club during the month of August. This is open to all children age 18 months until their Eighth birthday, allowing for sibling groups and those children in the wider community to access holiday activities.

At Puddleducks we have a team of highly qualified and experienced staff who use their knowledge and experience as parents themselves to support the families and children in their care.
All staff take their own professional development seriously and are continuously looking at ways to update and refresh their knowledge and reflect on their own working practice and look to improve the learning environment at Puddleducks.
Staff work closely with their key children and their families in a nurturing, secure and safe environment that allows for leaning through play. Staff support children in their play, modelling language, scaffolding their learning by encouraging them to ask questions, take risks and learn through a trial and error approach. We follow the child’s lead and plan with their interests in mind.

As well as a large indoor environment which offers many different play and learning opportunities, Puddleducks boasts a large outdoor area where children can access freely the different learning opportunities that the outdoor environment affords.

The outdoor area offers a mud kitchen and digging area where children are encouraged to explore by getting wet and muddy.
There is a large space for physical activities, an area for bikes, scooters and other ride on toys. We also have an allotment garden where the children are encouraged to learn about planting and growing, helping with the growing of fruit and vegetables which they enjoy picking and using for their snack and at teatime.

We also enjoy spending time exploring the environment outside the preschool boundaries to give children the opportunity to learn from, and be part of, their local community.
The local environment can provide an exciting context for first-hand experiences for the children. The connections children make with their local environment can last a lifetime. If in the very early years we can build these connections and values in children they will hopefully take these with them throughout their lives and become very community-minded and responsible adults.
By offering real life experiences to all children, such as welcoming visits from the Fire service, Police officers, local farmers, Dentist and dental nurses we are supporting children to develop and gain more understanding of the world round them, allowing them to make sense of the physical world through opportunities to observe people and find out about occupations.

If you would like to book a visit then please contact
📞01508 571285, 8am-3.45 Monday- Friday term time.
Or email
[email protected]

We look forward to hearing from you.

🎂 Birthday Celebrations here at Puddleducks today as we celebrate an incredible 35 years of being here in Mulbarton 🎂

We all joined together to sing Happy Birthday to Puddleducks and of course we had to celebrate the occasion with cake!

The staff team are incredibly proud of this achievement as it shows the amount of dedication from past and present staff members to build Puddleducks to where it is today.

Another thank you has to go to our past and present committee members who help to shape Puddleducks and offer us their continuous support.

We also send a massive thank you to every family that has trusted us to look after their children over the years, without them Puddleducks wouldn’t still be such a vital part of the community.

Thank you to everyone who has wished Puddleducks a happy birthday today.

With thanks

Sarah, Leanne and Sarah.
(Lead practitioner, deputy lead practitioner and SENDCO lead)

📣🦆Happy 35th Anniversary to Puddleducks Preschool Mulbarton! 🦆📣

“35 years ago today, Puddleducks Preschool Mulbarton officially opened its doors! Then known as Puddleducks community playgroup and Rising Fives operating from Mulbarton Scout HQ and the parish room attached to Mulbarton Village Hall.”

What an incredible achievement to have been a cornerstone of the village since April 1991.

Today, we are even seeing the next generation come through our doors as the children of our very first pupils join us!
Reaching the "second generation" stage—where the toddlers of the 90s are now the parents at the door- is the ultimate testament to the trust and love the community has for Puddleducks.

Since April 1991, we’ve had the joy of watching hundreds of little ones grow, learn, and play in an environment that is shaped by the children.

To celebrate this coral anniversary we are planning a garden fayre on Saturday 11th July. Look out for more details of how you can join us to mark this momentous occasion.

Thank you to Mulbarton and the surrounding villages for being part of our story for three and a half decades. Here’s to many more! 🦆✨

🐣 Our Puddleducks Easter Holiday Club is back again and we still have some availability. Please email Debs to arrange a space 🐣

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Dr. Seuss

A love of books is something that we strive here for at Puddleducks so much so that it’s weaved into our topics as it opens up a whole world of different vocabulary for the children. 📕

Last Thursday was World Book day but here at Puddleducks we celebrated for the whole of last week so that all of the children could join in with the fun!

All of our children (and staff!) have had the chance to dress up as their favourite book characters and share the stories that they love.

We’ve had activities based around some of our favourite stories such as balloon painting, retelling stories with props, building a house for the 3 little pigs and a tiger who came to tea water tray. We also had a visit to the library bus too!

We have had princesses, stick man, the Gruffalo, a K-Pop demon Hunter, Paddington and many more.
Thank you to all of our families and staff for joining in so eagerly!