We’ve got lots of space inside and out and use it for a huge variety of activities. There’s a quiet sleep room for the babies, dressing up areas, craft areas, separate quiet areas for stories, reading and enjoying music. All the children enjoy music and movement sessions, baking and planting in our nature garden. The older children can choose books from the quiet corner, enjoy time on our interactive white board, craft activities, puzzles, construction or role play. We also take them on short excursions to local places of interest – like the museum, parks or local canal.

Our Staff

We are a small and friendly nursery where our qualified team create a reassuring environment for the children.

Mary Gabriel

Nursery Owner

Mary has owned and run the Marmalade Cat Day Nursery for fourteen years. Within this time, she has been privileged to have come to know many children and their families. She is extremely passionate about offering children a play-based curriculum that allows them to experience the joy of learning.

Mary always works hard to ensure that all nursery staff members are highly skilled and committed to creating a welcoming environment where children can socialise and make friends. She does this through creating a language and imagination-rich environment that supports children’s learning. She ensures that the team consistently develop creative learning strategies which suit children’s learning styles and their interests. Mary has also been committed to ensuring that foundation skills are embedded in children’s learning, so that children are well-prepared for starting school when the time comes.

Jade Wesley

Jade Wesley

Nursery Manager

Jade has worked in childcare for five years and has completed various training throughout her time at the Marmalade Cat Day Nursery. When she achieved her Level 3 childcare qualification she achieved a distinction grade and always upholds very high standards. She really enjoys watching the children grow and being a part of that. Jade states, “when children accomplish something that I haven’t seen them do before, it gives me so much pride and happiness”. Jade also learns a lot from them too and finds it interesting to see what the children know and have achieved.

Jade’s experience and expertise over her many years working in childcare has helped her build a strong team of like-minded professionals, all dedicated to creating the best possible environment for the children.

Room Leaders

All Room leaders have a level 3 childcare qualification, have undertaken a paediatric first aid course as well as safeguarding training.

Jodie Osborne

Jodie Osborne

Babies room leader (Kittens) / Deputy manager

Jodie has over thirteen years of experience working in a childcare setting. She also has 2 boys and a girl of her own, and they attended the Marmalade Cat Day Nursery also. Therefore, she has seen first hand what it feels like from a parents’ perspective as her children journeyed through each room until they were ready to leave pre-school and begin school.

Jodie particularly enjoys little ones and spending time in the baby room. She likes to watch them as they begin to learn as well as develop new skills. One of the key things she finds fascinating is seeing the babies begin to build bonds with their peers and practitioners.

Kasia Czerwieniec

Kasia Czerwieniec

Babies room leader (Kittens)

Kasia has been working at the Marmalade Cat Day Nursery since August 2019 following Au-pairing for a British family. She has experience working in the baby and toddler rooms and is always happy and enthusiastic and enjoys the outdoors and working with different age groups. She particularly enjoys setting up tasks to help challenge children in the toddler room to help them meet their milestones.






Izzy O’Sullivan

Toddlers room leader (Cats)

Izzy went to a local Primary School in Berkhamsted for her work experience placement. She enjoyed it so much, that she then decided to pursue a career in childcare.

In October 2022 she began her journey at the Marmalade Cat Day Nursery, where she has since gained experience working across all 3 rooms with the majority of her time being in the toddler room. She gained her Level 3 childcare qualification in July 2024 and as a valued team member has since worked her way up to be a room leader. Izzy enjoys baking with the toddlers and helping them get stuck in, always finding new recipes so that they can try making together.

She particularly has a keen interest in animals and regularly sets up animal activities- this reflects through her story telling and when singing songs as well as playing with the toddlers.

Lily Harradine

Lily Harradine
Pre School room leader (Tigers)/SENCO lead/ 3rd in charge

Lily started her career in childcare in 2019 and has experience working for an independent childminder before she came to the Marmalade Cat Day Nursery. She gained her Level 3 childcare qualification in 2021 and worked her way up to be a room leader in January 2023. Lily particularly enjoys a tuff tray and all of the endless opportunities it can bring to encourage play and allow the pre schoolers to engage and learn new skills. She loves watching children develop and believes that this stems from them playing and having lots of fun.

Lily has recently undergone her SENCO training so that she can particularly focus on liaising with parents and children with any concerns and putting the appropriate systems and support in place.

Julie

Chef

Julie has been our chef for almost a year now, and she really enjoys being able to prepare nutritious meals and snacks for the children and seeing their little faces light up as they tuck into her freshly prepared food. She has worked closely with our nursery owner to create a weekly food planner to ensure our children get a wide variety of nutrition, vitamins and minerals within the meals and snacks we provide. We are a nut free nursery and our chef Julie also always checks thoroughly any dietary requirements and allergies to ensure food safety and high standards are met for all children at all times.

Our Food

The pre-school room is situated right next to the kitchen. The children get used to the appetising smells, chopping, stirring, sizzling that accompany the preparation of our tasty meals. Our kitchen produces a wonderful menu of snacks and main meals, freshly prepared from scratch every day and eaten with relish by the little ones, according to their dietary needs/preferences. Children partake in regular cooking sessions, which helps them with preparing vegetables and fruit, making pizzas, biscuits and buns –even our toddlers are budding chefs! Parents are sometimes lucky enough to sample the goodies when they are taken home for sharing!

Our food is of the highest quality, and all meat, fish, fruit and vegetables are bought fresh every week. Children are encouraged to try different flavours and textures in their food, and new dishes are introduced regularly. Each week children eat dishes made with fresh chicken or turkey, pork, beef or lamb, fish as well as a vegetarian dish. We cater for vegans and vegetarians, for children with religious dietary requirements, and of course for children with food allergies.

We try to encourage good food etiquette and self independence within each of our rooms where possible and particularly at meal times. Self feeding and using cutlery in the appropriate ways are encouraged. As children advance within the nursery we place tongs on top of food plates so they can self serve and practice using their fine motor skills when dishing out their own food. In our pre school room we also encourage children to scrape any waste into waste bins. They are very good at helping tidy after they have enjoyed their delicious meals.

Our kitchen has the very highest Health & Safety Inspection rating. We recognise the importance of nutrition and a developing palate in our children, and work closely in partnership with parents in this regard, listening to their comments and having regular taster evenings. Please click the button below to view our menus.

Within a full nursery day children receive:

• Breakfast
• Morning snack
• Lunch and pudding
• Afternoon snack
• Tea and pudding
• Snack

Water is always available in each room and children are given their own cup/water bottle, drinking water is encourage throughout the day as well as at meal times.

Activities

We enjoy story time throughout the day, the children like to play dress up and enjoy listening to music. Craft sessions are regularly carried out within each room and within the preschool room the older children also get to play interactive activities on our tablet to support them with their learning. Puzzles, role play and other objects and toys are used to allow your child to construct and play.
 
We are a huge fan of tuff trays and each room uses them to stimulate play and encourage the children to explore the world around them. We also like to support and guide the children with sessions in baking and decorating foods.

See what activities are available in each room:

Enrichment

Within our setting we have a lot of space inside and out (including a large nature garden) and use it for a huge variety of activities. There’s a quiet sleep room for the babies, dressing up areas, craft areas, separate quiet areas for stories, reading and enjoying music. All the children enjoy music and movement sessions. The older children can choose books from the quiet room, enjoy time on the computer, craft activities, puzzles, construction or role play.

Our preschoolers recently got frogspawn and have been watching it change into tadpoles, they are looking forward to seeing them change into frogs. We also are taking care of living eggs and awaiting them turning into chicks.

We regularly plant a variety of fruit and vegetable seeds( both in our nursery rooms and in the nature garden) and help look after them and watch them grow.

Externally trips out that we like to take children on include going to Tring Zoological museum, out for nature walks and local attractions. We have enjoyed trips to find Dinosaurs in the memorial gardens and local parks . Our older preschoolers always go on a planned trip to Whipsnade Zoo before they graduate.