Providing your child with the best possible start in life!
Our nursery has developed from a term time only pre-school into a thriving full time day care nursery catering for children aged 0-5 years of age.
Our dedicated team of nursery staff is led by our manager Charlotte Gainey (Fully L3 Qualified), supported by Jenni Collins (Executive Manager), and overseen by Linda Norman (NNEB) and Claire Burgess (BA Hons with Qualified Teacher Status).
Little Pips Nursery in Chippenham offers a caring, family-friendly environment which enables children to develop and thrive in a safe and secure atmosphere.
Our commitment to the provision of high standards of childcare in Chippenham and exciting and engaging learning environments and activities ensures we can bring the best out of all of our little pips!
We are open all year Monday to Friday 7:30am-6:00pm, except for bank holidays and Christmas Eve.
Linda, a mother of four, has worked in Education for over 30 years. With four children of her own Linda trained as a NNEB in the 1990s, working in specialist schools and childcare settings.
In 2006 the Little Pips journey began, originally through the acquisition of the Chippenham setting and adding the Cheltenham setting 9 years later in 2015.
Claire, a mother of three, qualified as a teacher in 1995 working in a middle school as well as primary schools and finally as an assistant head teacher for 5 years.
Claire joined Linda to develop the business in 2010 and together they have created the two full, thriving day care settings that make the Little Pips Family.
With over 25 years in the business, Jenni has been instrumental in the development of the Little Pips Nurseries. Working closely with Claire and Linda, Jenni now works across both settings supporting the senior management teams in helping to maintain high standards. Jenni’s own experience as a mother of two as well as her extensive experience in settings enables her to use her expertise to support our strong staff team in providing the highest possible level of childcare.
Beginning her career at Little Pips Nursery as an apprentice over 13 years ago, Charlotte has steadily worked her way into senior management, working as Room Leader in every room and gaining a wealth of knowledge and understanding for every age group.
In addition to being Manager, Charlotte also supports our children and staff in her role as SENDCo, working alongside our families and multiple agencies to ensure our children receive the best possible care.
Charlotte also oversees the support and guidance of our apprentices in her role as Apprentice Manager
Training at Little Pips Nursery as an apprentice, Abigail has gathered a strong understanding of high standards and leadership. Abigail leads the toddler room with the support of her Deputy Room Leader, enabling her to ensure high quality care is implemented as part of daily practice.
As well as supporting Charlotte with the leadership of the nursery, Abigail supports our children and staff in her role as SENDCo, working alongside our families and multiple agencies to ensure our children receive the best possible care.
These are the dedicated Baby Unit (Baby Bunnies), our Toddler Room (Happy Hedgehogs) and our thriving Preschool Room (Wise Owls). Each room has free flow access to a bright and inviting outdoor learning environment. Please click on any of the links to find out more…..
Our Baby Bunnies have a purpose-built baby unit, offering a warm, homely environment where they can feel comfortable and secure. Our amazing team of baby specialists is led by our experienced room leader Natalie Barnes, and each baby is assigned their own key person who will work in liaison with parents to ensure a smooth and secure transition between home and nursery.
As a family run nursery, we place great value on the importance of close partnership working with our families and all our staff are trained in the Little Pips Programme of Excellence to ensure the highest possible standard of childcare is always provided.
Our Happy Hedgehogs room is a home from home room offering a safe, warm and exciting environment for our little tots to learn in. Our staff have been specifically trained to deliver a high quality of care whilst also creating a supportive, fun and engaging learning environment for the children to develop in.
The room offers different areas for the children to explore and their learning is carefully supported by our hard working ladies. Our toddlers go out for regular walks as we believe fresh air and learning about nature are an important part of children’s development. In addition to this, we also have free flow access into our dedicated toddler garden, a wonderful space for the children to explore and play in.
Our toddlers also make regular visits to our preschool room, supported by staff from the Happy Hedgehogs room to ensure they feel safe and confident. We also offer a dedicated sensory room for all of our Little Pips which is full of wonderful things for the children to explore.
Our Wise Owls room is a hub of exciting and engaging activities where young minds are actively encouraged to create and explore.
Our children are very much a part of this room and help to design the role play area as well us giving input on fun ideas for activities.
Our daily routines enable the children to play and explore freely and independently while also understanding the importance of group activities such as singing, dancing, stories, acting, circle time and much, much more! This also helps our children to start developing their understanding of routines that will be followed when they start big school.
In addition to this we also encourage the development of key skills including phonics, mark making (writing), numbers and shapes through fun activities for all and our daily ‘Graduate’ sessions for our children who are starting school the following year. These short, 20-minute fun sessions ensure our children start Big School with a firm understanding of crucial key skills and knowledge.
Our Wise Owls room enables our children to continue growing in confidence and skills while also developing their learning and of course having great fun!
It is an extension of the indoor learning environments enabling the children to explore independently as well as take part in more structured activities. Our mud gardens (which are incredibly popular!) encourage the children to role play as well as developing their scientific knowledge about textures and mixing.
Occasionally they can also find out about living things here too with the help of a wiggly worm or two!
We also offer music areas with a range of fun, homemade instruments to play with, a story area with a big story chair in preschool, an obstacle course complete with a ‘Wow’ box full of material, nets, bits of wood and carpet tiles for the children to create their own dens in both toddlers and preschool. Every garden also has a sit in sand pit for the children to play in. We also offer water play, drawing, painting and much more.
As well as all of this we are very proud of our growing areas where the children grow herbs, plants and vegetables from seeds. They help to nurture these and eventually eat the fresh produce!
At Little Pips Nurseries we strongly believe in the importance of fresh air and an understanding of nature for children’s learning and development. Our wonderful gardens enable us to ensure that our children have access to the best possible learning environments both inside and outside.
At Little Pips Nursery we believe that full children are happy children! Our dedicated cook prepares all snacks and meals from fresh and we work very hard to ensure our menu provides healthy, balanced meals for all of our children.
The children have a healthy morning snack, a two-course lunch, an afternoon snack and milk and a two-course tea (if staying on after 4pm). All meals and snacks are complimented with water or milk.
Our cook is a talented baker, always ensuring a healthy approach is taken to treats such as cakes. The children also take part in baking a snack once a week which they thoroughly love!
Allergies and medical dietary requirements can be catered for as well as vegetarian options.
Allergies and medical dietary requirements must be endorsed by a medical professional.
Please discuss with the nursery.
5-7 Arle Avenue
Cheltenham
Gloucester
GL51 8JP
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