Midget Gems Childcare

Today we all received a lovely surprise in the post, an envelope marked Buckingham and Kensington Palace…..
The Princess of Wales sent us “ her warmest thanks and very best wishes”, “for thinking of her on this special occasion”, Midget Gems Childcare’s 20th Anniversary.
Over the past decade, The Princess of Wales has spent time looking into how experiences in early childhood are often the root cause of today’s hardest social challenges.
Her visit to Reggio Emilia in Italy last week highlighted the pioneering approach to early childhood education. The approach continues to shape generations of children long after they leave the Early Years and both Sarah & Becca have studied in the principals.

Midget Gems Childcare is proudly celebrating 20 years of business throughout May 2026.
We are an Early Years provider, established by Sarah Butler in 2006 and joined by Becca Smart in 2021.
Hundreds of happy children have passed through the doors here over the years.
Strong longstanding friendships have been made with their families.
Our motto is Roots to Grow and Wings to Fly and
we have joy in our hearts for all the members of Midget Gems and the success they have accomplished in their lives over the 20 years.
Yesterday we were delighted to receive a visit from the Mayor of Richmond, Carl Tate who joined us in letting the celebrations begin !

Midget Gems Childcare’s first week back into our Spring 2026 Term certainly gave our Ofsted Outstanding Early Years Setting rich opportunities to investigate growth, change, new life and the environment in engaging and meaningful ways.
On Monday, at our weekly class, the lovely Louise from Richmond’s Award Winner, Rhythm and Shoes Dance Academy taught the children The Number Rhumba.
On Tuesday, our very own regular Forest School Session was Den Building in the Ancient Woodlands, amongst the Bluebells. Accompanied by requests for Hot Chocolate from the children.
On Wednesday, we joined in with World Art Day celebrations which helps reinforce the link between artistic creations and society. The children enjoyed being in the garden, learning textures, colours, paint types and art materials.
On Thursday, we continued our art interest and discussion of different artists and visited Lucy Pittaway’s Outlet at Brompton. The wonderful Fiona engaged brilliantly with the children, teaching and showing them all the differences between prints and original artwork. Endorsing the children’s own work on Wednesday, were all originals !

Thank you RMS for inviting Midget Gems Childcare to share this fantastic opportunity in our home town of Richmond. We all absolutely loved listening to the stories and music. Seeds of aspirational futures were definitely planted. 🪘

The 2026, Early Years Conference at The Pavilions, Great Yorkshire Show ground, in Harrogate.

Sarah & Becca were invited and attended The Early Years Conference in Harrogate on Saturday 14th March 2026.
The event attracted hundreds of People in Early Years Education in North Yorkshire, schools and private settings including of course, Midget Gems Childcare.
We were delighted to be called on stage to receive a Healthy Early Years Award, in recognition of our outstanding contribution to Midget Gems’ children’s active lives, healthy eating, personal, social and emotional development & wellbeing.
The introductory Keynote Speech was by Ann Van D**e MBE.
Ann is a freelance consultant based in Cornwall. She specialises in Early Years, Inclusion & Childcare, a true champion of understanding the huge implications of getting it right for the Early Years.
Sarah & Becca then moved out to two separate workshops each.
Sarah attended Safeguarding in the Early Years and Building Strong Foundations in Early Maths.
Becca attended Supporting Early Language and Communication in the Early Years and Nurturing the Youngest Learners - High Quality Provision for Children aged 0-2yrs, in anticipation of all our new starters from September 😆
There were about 20 Market Place Traders, all exhibiting a huge variety of skills in the Early Years. This enabled us to network and build upon the success and recognition we are already achieving.

Fantastic first day back to Midget Gems Childcare, after our Half Term Holidays. Sarah, Becca and the children ensured our weekly dance session was a party and celebration 🙌 with the residents of Nightingale Hall. Midget Gems are celebrating the start of the Lunar New Year and we had fun dancing with the ribbons. It was the first time we’d seen our Dance Teacher Louise since she’d been named Dance School of the Year, an amazing achievement & huge congratulations. We thanked Liz, our Event’s Coordinator at Nightingale Hall for all the happy memories we’ve made together on our regular visits & wished her every happiness in her retirement & next chapter of her life. We welcomed Caroline into her new role & thanked all the residents for being such great backing dancers. Happy Days 😊

Thanks so much to Headteacher, Mrs Stevenson and, Mrs Swinbank at Richmond Methodist School for kindly inviting Midget Gems Childcare to the 2025 production of The Nativity. The RMS pupils were all in great voice, we loved all the loud songs, wonderful costumes and adorable actors. The rapturous applause was well deserved, for all the children and of course, Mrs Thompson and Mrs Benfield. Well done Team RMS 🎄We wish you all a Merry Christmas and thank you for our strong partnership over the many, many years 😇

Sarah, Becca and a few children from Ofsted’s Outstanding, Midget Gems Childcare were grateful for the donations from our partnerships with parents & grandparents on one of our many regular trips to the Storehouse in Richmond. Thanks to Suz and Andrea for providing us with such an educational tour, all about the process. Presently Storehouse in Richmond provides for 1,000 people a week, so do please help them, full details of what they require is on their website. As we left the building, a lady passing said, “Oh, what a great little gang of happiness.”
We then all went to the Drummer Boy Cafe to eat cake 🍰 which was delicious 😋
What another fantastic team at The Drummer Boy, thanks so much for looking after us.
That’s what it is all about, spreading kindness and joy.

“And we danced”, said 2 year old Isla. A great start to the Festive Season, Midget Gems held their weekly private dance class at Nightingale Hall today 1st December 2025 🎄
We “wish it could be Christmas Everydaaaaay” 🎵 Huge thanks to Liz & the team at Nightingale and to our wonderful dance teacher, Louise from Rhythm & Shoes Dance Academy and of course, Merry Christmas to all our dear friends, the residents at Nightingale Hall, who have the biggest, most beautiful indoor Christmas Tree we have seen ! 🎄

Midget Gems Childcare, all in a days work/fun !!! An absolute joy & everyone confident to have a go. 😊