Cheeky Monkeys Day Nursery, Hemdale Business Park

A nursery food larder and a colour run for the Hindu Festival of Colours give Cheeky Monkeys Day Nursery, Hemdale Business Park a character that goes beyond childcare logistics. In September 2025, children were taking part in charitable activities and exploring other cultures through practical experiences. These examples put kindness and curiosity into something children could actually do.

At its September 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall and found safeguarding effective. The setting has capacity for 120 children, with a current age range of 2 to 60 months. That is a whole-nursery figure, rather than the size of an individual room or daily group.

The Hemdale branch is based at Unit 8, Eastboro Fields, Hemdale Business Park, Nuneaton, CV11 6GL. Morning, afternoon and full-day bookings give families different ways to organise attendance; the detail matters most when combining funded and paid hours.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage brings learning and care together: children develop communication through stories and conversation, practise physical skills through movement, and build independence through everyday routines. In September 2025, room teams worked with a curriculum organised around skills for different ages, adapting resources to children's interests and next steps. The practical distinction is between an age-based plan and the activities chosen for an individual child.

Small-group experiences that month included games involving problems to solve and practical exploration. Books also had a regular place in the day: babies shared stories with repeated patterns, while older children gathered for reading each day. These are different ways into language, from enjoying familiar sounds to thinking about what might happen next in a story.

Yoga, investigation workshops and drama were part of the September 2025 experience. They brought movement, questions and imaginative activity into the nursery day. These examples give a clearer picture of the learning than a curriculum label alone, although they describe that period rather than a fixed timetable for every child.

Outdoor and Community Life

The Hindu Festival of Colours was explored through a colour run in September 2025, alongside photographs and conversations about life elsewhere. The event connected a cultural celebration with an activity children could join. It was an example of learning about difference through participation.

The nursery food larder gave charitable activity a similarly concrete purpose that month. Children were involved in helping others, while everyday interactions included recognising a friend's helpful behaviour. Community learning therefore reached both organised activities and ordinary exchanges between children.

Relationships and Communication

In September 2025, staff collected information before children started and used it to shape their first day. Children had a key person as well as their room team. For families, the useful detail is that settling began with knowledge of the child, rather than a single routine applied to everyone.

Babies' individual rhythms also shaped their care that month. Staff responded to their signals, offered comfort and used gentle rocking when helping them sleep. Children's routines included helping prepare the lunch table and cleaning their own faces, giving them manageable responsibilities within daily care.

Parents could join events and drop-in sessions in September 2025. These gave parents opportunities to see their child's progress through participation in nursery life. Introduction and settling sessions are free, which keeps those first steps separate from the cost of booked care.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the September 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that assessments helped staff identify children needing additional help, including those with SEND, and that targeted support involved health visitors and speech and language therapists. The important mechanism was a link between noticing a difficulty, arranging help and reviewing progress.

In September 2025, the nursery employed 28 childcare staff, of whom 23 held early years qualifications at level 2 or level 3. Those figures describe staffing at that time; they are neither a room ratio nor a measure of how many adults a child sees during a session.

There were also teaching points to address that month. Older children did not consistently encounter sufficiently challenging or varied language. Less-experienced practitioners needed further development in recognising what suited children's stage and changing an activity or routine when interest faded. For parents, these are useful areas to explore alongside the positive account of relationships and practical learning.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.45am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks each year. Standard bookings run from 8am to 1pm for an AM Session, from 1pm to 6pm for a PM Session, or from 8am to 6pm for a Full Day. The earlier opening time should be read alongside the separate early-drop-off arrangement, which is offered on request.

Funded-only attendance follows five-hour or ten-hour sessions, using the same morning, afternoon and full-day times. Funding is allocated by term. Where care exceeds that allocation, funded hours can contribute to part of a session's childcare costs, so the distinction between a funded-only booking and a mixed booking matters.

The Hemdale enquiry route accepts telephone, email and contact-form enquiries. Selecting Hemdale Nursery on the form distinguishes a childcare enquiry from one for the playcentre at the same address.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded care is offered for the nine-month, two-year, and three- and four-year age categories, with care across the year. Additional private care is also offered. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the nursery fees page sets out the booking and charge structure.

For standard paid care, meals and snacks are included: mornings cover breakfast and lunch, afternoons cover a snack and tea, and a full day combines them. Standard care also includes consumables, trips and additional enhanced education sessions; funded attendance carries separate charges for consumables and enhanced provision for each attended funded hour.

A non-refundable registration charge applies to children joining chargeable care. A holding payment is credited towards future care, but becomes non-refundable if reserved care is reduced or cancelled within 90 days of the start date. Families planning a change of work pattern should consider that condition before reserving their attendance.

• Older children's language. In September 2025, teaching did not consistently extend vocabulary far enough. On a visit, ask how practitioners now introduce unfamiliar words and develop children's conversations.
• Keeping children involved. Less-experienced staff needed further support in adapting activities when children lost interest in September 2025. Ask how room teams recognise this and change what happens next.
• Funded booking costs. Funded attendance has separate consumables and enhanced-provision charges, while funded-only bookings use five-hour or ten-hour blocks. For your proposed pattern, ask what the consumables charge covers and how meals are treated.
• Reserving care. The holding payment can become non-refundable when care is reduced or cancelled within 90 days of starting. This deserves attention if your childcare needs may change before the first day.

Cheeky Monkeys suits families considering morning or afternoon sessions as well as full-day attendance, with funded-only bookings organised into defined blocks. Its September 2025 experience included practical learning, cultural activities and a tangible community contribution through the food larder.

The balance is clear: a Good inspection outcome and specific examples of individual care, alongside work needed on older children's vocabulary and less-experienced staff's responses when engagement drops. Attendance choices are useful, but funded charges and the holding-payment condition deserve the same attention as the nursery day.