Bright Sparks help families at unit for babies

Bright Sparks Childcare in Airedale held the official launch of its new baby unit, which opened to youngsters on Monday.

Babies can be looked after at Baby Sparks after it was set up at the Elizabeth Drive nursery by co-owners Maria Pye and Jodie Heinsohn.

Mrs Pye said the idea for a baby unit came after Bright Sparks, which first opened in May 2014, was praised by the education watchdog Ofsted. Mrs Pye said: “We’d had a really good Ofsted inspection and we thought from that we would open a baby unit.

“We’ve always been open to 0-5s but we wanted to develop and open something that had the wow factor of 0-2 year olds.”

Baby Sparks includes and an outdoor area where tots can find out about the outdoors in a safe space.

Mrs Pye said: “It has got grass and trees and it is really peaceful. At that age children are developing and their brains can take in so much so we wanted to create something stimulating for them. We looked at some nurseries abroad to find out how they do things there.”

The opening of Baby Sparks would also free up more space at the nursery for youngsters aged under five.

Mrs Pye said: “The demand for nurseries from working parents is quite big round here.”

Pontefract and Castleford MP Yvette Cooper was among guests at the official launch on Saturday, March 4.

Mrs Pye added: “We had a bouncy castle, Peppa Pig, face painting and free fruit and vegetables.”

Ofsted’s last inspection of Bright Sparks in July 2016 rated the nursery as “good” overall.

The inspection report included an “outstanding” score for the personal development, behaviour and welfare of youngsters.