Cheeky Monkey Childrens Day Nursery

A glass-walled sleep room, a garden designed around the senses and Spanish during term time give Cheeky Monkey Childrens Day Nursery a recognisable character. This Woodlesford nursery takes children from three months to five years, with spaces designed for successive stages of development. Sleep, play and growing independence each have a physical place here.

At its 27 June 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, highlighted support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), and found safeguarding effective. That dated assessment needs to be read alongside subsequent safeguarding compliance action, detailed below. The educational improvement point was specific: staff needed a clearer understanding of what children should learn during planned group activities.

Full-day, morning and afternoon bookings provide different ways to use the nursery. Beyond attendance patterns, the useful detail is how the day connects home and nursery: each child has a key person, parents can contribute to their child's Learning Journey, and monthly stay and play sessions let families participate in activities themselves.

Rooms and Ages

BABIES serves non-mobile babies through sensory resources in a bright, open-plan room, alongside a dedicated sleep room whose glass wall allows staff to observe sleeping children and whose temperature is monitored. The separation matters: sleeping and active play have their own spaces rather than competing for the same room.

In Tweenies, Story Corner, construction activities, sand and water play and messy painting give children different ways to explore, with supervised garden access extending the room's experiences outdoors. The mix allows a child to move between listening, making and hands-on investigation rather than spending the day on one kind of activity.

TODDLERS combines creative play, reading, circle time and a home corner with its own children's toilets and supervised garden access, linking everyday play with growing independence. Having toilets attached to this stage of provision gives toilet training a practical place in the day.

Our Pre-School uses small-group routines and activities shaped by children's interests, while direct, free-flow garden access allows children to choose outdoor learning each day. Preparation for school centres on routines and participation, with outdoor activity remaining part of the experience.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning through play, including communication, physical development, relationships, early literacy and mathematics. It is the shared early-years foundation; the useful question here is how staff turn those areas into activities that fit an individual child. Observation informs planning, and children are encouraged to take the lead in their play while adults extend it.

Spanish is offered during term time, adding another language to the nursery's activities. Separately, in June 2023, children practised counting and animal words in Romanian as well as English. That was a concrete example of language learning at that time, rather than a reason to assume an ongoing Romanian programme.

Books begin with babies. In June 2023, staff shared sensory books with them and introduced words describing texture, connecting what babies could feel with what they could hear. Older children helped with table-setting, bringing responsibility into an ordinary part of the day. These examples show learning attached to tangible experiences rather than confined to formal group sessions.

Outdoor and Community Life

The sense-focussed garden gives outdoor play a defined role in the premises, and children from every room take local educational outings, including visits to shops and places of interest. These trips extend exploration beyond nursery resources into everyday surroundings.

In June 2023, children built a balancing challenge together and practised moving across it, with staff helping them assess risks. Children also explored cultural festivals and raised money for a guide dog charity. The examples connect physical problem-solving with learning about people and purposes beyond their immediate group, while remaining a picture of practice at that date.

Relationships and Communication

Each child's key person maintains a Learning Journey documenting progress. Parents can discuss it whenever they wish and add experiences from home, giving staff a fuller picture of the child than nursery observations alone. This is a practical route for sharing interests, changes and achievements across both parts of a child's day.

Parents' evenings take place twice a year, with stay and play sessions monthly. The two formats serve different purposes: a planned conversation about development and a chance to join the activities children experience. For families who want to understand how play connects with learning, participating can make that connection more concrete.

In June 2023, babies received comfort when tired or upset, and children developed close relationships with their key person. Toddlers practised taking turns during a threading activity. These were small, everyday interactions, but they explain how relationships and social learning were woven into the day at that time.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

In June 2023, staff worked with families and other professionals on individual learning plans, with one-to-one activities addressing communication and social interaction. Current arrangements also include working with outside agencies and schools to support participation for children with additional needs and those learning English as an additional language. The emphasis is on connecting support with play and teaching.

Later Ofsted compliance outcomes dated 4 March 2024 and 17 November 2025 recorded safeguarding-related requirements that had not been met and action taken to put matters right: the first concerned accurate injury-at-home records and management checks, while the second involved staff retraining in safeguarding and risk assessment alongside practical safety measures. Both outcomes describe corrective action, but the recurrence makes these relevant to a family's decision.

The Early Years Nutrition Partnership supports the nursery with guidance on nutritious food for young children. Session prices include breakfast, a morning snack, lunch and light tea where appropriate to attendance; that condition matters when comparing a morning booking with a full day.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 140 Aberford Road, Leeds, LS26 8LG, in Woodlesford. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks of the year, excluding bank holidays and a week at Christmas. Families need to accommodate those closures alongside their working arrangements.

Full-day bookings run from 7.30am to 6.30pm. Morning sessions run from 7.30am to 1pm, and afternoons from 1pm to 6.30pm. The half-day choices therefore serve families whose childcare needs fall on different sides of lunchtime, while the full day covers the whole opening window.

Enquiries use a contact form requesting a potential start date and the days required. This makes the proposed attendance pattern part of the initial conversation. The nursery also accepts funding-only bookings, a useful distinction for families seeking to use entitlement without adding private hours.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded provision includes 30 hours for eligible working parents with children from nine months to four years, beginning in the term after the child reaches nine months. There is also a 15-hour entitlement for children aged three to four, delivered over 38 weeks, with an option to stretch hours across the year. Eligibility conditions remain part of the offer; the age band alone does not establish entitlement to the working-parent hours.

Private session fees are paid ahead of attendance by direct debit on the first working day of each month. Charges are spread into fixed monthly payments using the booked weekly sessions over 51 weeks, while full-time places are charged over 50 weeks. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the fees information explains the payment structure.

Food is included in session prices where appropriate, as described above. Funding-only attendance deserves its own discussion about charges, rather than assuming that the private-session meal arrangement applies unchanged. Tax-Free Childcare is also accepted.

• Repeated safeguarding compliance action. The outcomes dated 4 March 2024 and 17 November 2025 both describe corrective action after safeguarding-related requirements were not met. At a visit, ask how staff now apply the record-keeping and risk-assessment changes, and how managers check that practice consistently follows them.
• Purposeful group learning. In June 2023, staff were not consistently clear about the learning intended during group activities. Ask for a current example of a planned group session, its intended learning and how it is adapted for children taking part.
• Funding and the full bill. Funding-only bookings are accepted, while session prices include food where appropriate and full-time charging uses 50 weeks. Ask for a written breakdown covering your funded pattern, any meal charges, nappies and other consumables, and how stretched hours work around closures.
• Sleep and the room sequence. The baby provision includes an observable sleep room, while later rooms offer progressively different routines and outdoor access. During a viewing, discuss sleep arrangements and how a move between rooms is matched to your child's development.

Cheeky Monkey suits families seeking either a full-day booking or a morning or afternoon session, especially those who value a key-person relationship and regular opportunities to participate. The glass-walled sleep room, sensory resources, free-flow preschool garden access and term-time Spanish give concrete substance to the offer.

The decision also needs to account for the dated group-teaching improvement point and repeated safeguarding compliance action. Corrective steps are documented, but those practical questions belong alongside the facilities and attendance choices when deciding whether this nursery fits your child.