Monkey Puzzle was established in October 1999 by Caroline Blondel in a small premise in Vauvert, St Peter Port.
The addition of premises at Les Cotils occurred in November 2000 when the Guernsey Montessori closed down, and with the help of the existing parents Monkey Puzzle took over.
Monkey Puzzle soon outgrew the Nursery at Vauvert however it took until December 2006 to find suitable larger premises. A move into a temporary nursery at Kings Club took place in January 2007 whilst the new bespoke premises were under construction. The construction was completed a year later and the Nursery was able to move into their superb new premises in April 2008. Monkey Puzzle at Kings is set in the grounds of Kings Life Health and Leisure club in St Peter Port. We are registered for 62 children between the ages 3 months and 5 years daily and have 20 staff who are either key workers or holiday and sickness covers.
In 2018 the nursery suffered a truly devastating flood meaning that the staff and children had to move locations and find temporary accommodation. The flood has allowed for the Monkey Puzzle staff to look at how they worked within the environment and where they felt changes were needed.
As of summer 2019 our new and improved Nursery reopened and we were able to welcome back our children into our permanent home. The flood allowed for us to rethink how our rooms were laid out and the emphasis we wanted to put on natural light. We were able to make improvements to the inner structure of the nursery and added as much light as possible whilst including glass partitions to allow for noise control but also a sightline all the way down through the building.
At the nursery children can join us from birth all the way through until school age. Our groups work in academic years with our children all moving groups together at the end of august and joining their new keyworkers and teachers for the start of the september term. By the children moving groups together it allows for them to continue on through the nursery with their friends