Chuckles Private Day Nursery

A baby room capped at six children, separate spaces for rest and sensory activity, and enclosed outdoor areas give Chuckles Private Day Nursery a recognisable small-setting character. Based at Bretton Street Enterprise Centre in Dewsbury, it has capacity for 36 children aged six months to five years. The youngest room's own limit matters more to a baby’s daily experience than that whole-nursery total.

At its July 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated Chuckles Good overall, while identifying that activities needed closer adjustment to younger children’s development and that baby-room staff needed more support to extend early communication. Those concerns deserve weight alongside the practical attractions of the rooms. They concern what happens within the day, rather than the equipment alone.

Opening hours are 7.30am to 5.30pm on weekdays, across 51 weeks of the year. For parents, the combination is useful: a small baby-room cap within a nursery offering a substantial working-day window.

Rooms and Ages

The baby room accommodates up to six children, with an upper age of 30 months; sensory exploration, songs and movement sit alongside an enclosed outdoor area and a separate sleep/sensory quiet room. That separate space gives rest a place away from the main activities. It also allows quieter sensory experiences within the room’s facilities.

The Pre- School room combines early number work and literacy with independent play, and has its own quiet space plus enclosed outdoor access. Children practise handling pencils, recognising sounds, matching objects and sorting. Adult-guided activity and opportunities to choose their own play both have a place, so children can return to emerging skills in different ways.

The descriptions of the older room differ over its age ceiling and maximum size. Those details need resolving before a family chooses a room; the specific figures are addressed below.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets expectations for children’s learning, development and care: here, activities led by adults sit alongside play initiated by children, with observations helping staff plan what comes next. This is the shared early-years framework, rather than an extra programme unique to Chuckles.

Heuristic play adds a concrete approach in the baby room. Children investigate materials whose use is open to interpretation, such as a tube that can become a pretend tunnel. The emphasis is on finding out what an object can do, giving curiosity something tangible to work on. Singing also accompanies routines and group activity, bringing words and rhythm into ordinary parts of the day.

In July 2024, children explored flowers frozen into ice, with younger children investigating the texture and older children considering water’s properties. Visitors from the emergency services brought another connection to the world beyond nursery. These were examples of learning through direct experiences rather than an account of a fixed activity timetable.

Outdoor and Community Life

Enclosed outdoor areas serve both rooms, with opportunities to move between indoor and outdoor play. This gives physical activity a place within the nursery day rather than confining it to one separate outing.

In July 2024, garden beds held vegetables and herbs, linking growing food with conversations about eating and its origins. Gardening also brought counting and comparisons of size into a practical task. Physical equipment included tree stumps and planks for two-year-olds, and a wooden climbing pyramid used by older children. Cooking and creative activities explored a chosen country each month, with parents contributing to related displays.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who follows their development through a personal learning journey and progress summaries. That gives parents a particular practitioner responsible for tracking their child’s learning, rather than leaving communication entirely to whoever is present that day.

Tapestry, the online learning journey, allows parents to contribute photographs and videos as well as receive updates from the key person at least every six weeks. Family experiences can therefore become part of the picture of a child’s development. This is a useful route for sharing milestones that happen at home.

In July 2024, staff met parents after their child’s first month and again when progress summaries were completed. Care diaries and newsletters supported that exchange, while activity packs gave families ideas for practising early language and hand skills at home. These dated arrangements illustrate how conversations extended beyond immediate care routines.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the July 2024 inspection, Ofsted found safeguarding effective and described targeted support for children with SEND, developed with parents and other professionals, as helping them participate and make developmental progress. A SENCO role also forms part of the nursery’s support arrangements.

Practitioners have paediatric first-aid training and enhanced DBS checks. These are practical care arrangements; the dated safeguarding judgement remains the basis for assessing effectiveness.

In July 2024, relaxation activities included a foot spa and scented materials used for tactile exploration. Older children helped prepare snacks and peeled or chopped potatoes for lunch, giving everyday care tasks a role in independence. For babies, the separate quiet room provides a physical setting for sleep and calmer activity alongside the busier play space.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Bretton Street Enterprise Centre, Bretton Street, Dewsbury, WF12 9DB. Opening hours are 7.30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, for 51 weeks each year. Full Days run from 7.30am to 5.30pm; Half Days run from 7.30am to 12.30pm or 12.30pm to 5.30pm. Bookings require a minimum of two sessions per week. Short Days run from 7.45am to 3.15pm. The nursery closes on Christmas Eve, over Christmas and on all bank holidays.

Enquiries can be made by telephone on 01924 452547 or by email at office@chuckles-nursery.co.uk. Current prices come in the nursery’s written quotation.

Funding and Paid Extras

Chuckles offers educational funding for children aged two, three and four, including the 15-hour entitlement over 38 term-time weeks. From the term after a child turns nine months, they may qualify for 30 hours of funded education, depending on personal circumstances. Claiming the full entitlement requires attendance over at least two days. Funded-only children have an inset week each year after the May school holidays.

Options also cover families needing care throughout the year. Funded sessions carry a separate consumable charge covering meals, snacks, drinks, craft and activity materials, cooking ingredients and sun cream. For funded attendance, meals and snacks are optional paid extras, and purchasing optional extras is not required to access funded hours. Families declining meals and snacks can discuss alternatives that comply with the nursery’s allergy, dietary and food safety policies. A registration charge applies, with an exemption for funded-only children.

• Baby-room learning. The July 2024 findings called for stronger support for early communication and closer matching of activities to younger children’s development. During a visit, ask how practitioners now extend babies’ language and adjust play for children approaching their next room.
• Older-room size and movement. Room descriptions give different maximums, 20 and 24 children, and different upper ages, four and five years; they also describe movement around age two alongside a 30-month room boundary. Ask which room arrangements apply to your child and how a move is planned.
• Funded attendance and the quotation. Funding includes term-time entitlements alongside options for year-round care. Ask for one written explanation of the attendance pattern, additional hours, meals and consumables so the arrangement can be assessed as a whole.

Chuckles suits families seeking a small baby-room setting, enclosed outdoor play and a clear route for sharing children’s development through Tapestry. The separate quiet spaces and practical activities give its offer substance. Full Days, morning or afternoon Half Days and Short Days suit families fitting childcare around different working patterns.

The July 2024 concerns make younger children’s learning the central point to explore. A six-child baby-room cap is useful context, but the quality of interaction within that room matters just as much. For families with older children, resolving the room’s size and movement arrangements will make the choice clearer.