When Mary’s Little Lambs, an established day nursery with three sites in Barnsley, agreed to lease the former Little Ducklings site in Wombwell and was invited by the local authority to apply for a capital funding grant, there was a need to kit out the setting in double quick time. 

Opening in September 2025, Mary’s Little Lambs Wombwell has two baby rooms (0-16 months, and 16-24 months), a toddler room, and a pre-school. Like the other nurseries in Cudworth, Grimethorpe and Staincross, Wombwell will welcome children from the South Yorkshire community on Monday-Friday, term-time only. 

Founder Lucy Deakin registered Mary’s Little Lambs (named after her Nan, Mary) in 2011 and her family-first nurseries – ranging from 25-place to 115-place provision – have subsequently grown in size and flourished by reputation. Cosy was initially approached by Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council to view the Grimethorpe setting and, having made some recomendations on resources, the relationship began. 

“We made our first order from Cosy a couple of years ago and it was the most budget-friendly at the time,” Lucy explained. “Whilst we have a really good working relationship with the local authority, and are well supported by them, we didn’t have like a big budget so this was important.“ 

Having been awarded the 60-place nursery in Wombwell, the local authority provided grant funding which allowed Lucy to engage Cosy again. After ordering a delivery of all new nursery furnituture in March, it was ‘all hands to the pump’ to prepare the settting for its first open day at the end of April, with Managing Director David Hook, Head of Furniture, Fittings and Equipment and Room Planning Lead Jo Morgan, and other Cosy colleagues arriving on site to unload, unpack and assemble the new indoor (and some outdoor) learning resources. 

“We had the challenge of creating all these little spaces, with not much time to gather quotes, and honestly the budget was stretching much further by going through Cosy,” Lucy said. “However, more importantly we’ve literally been able to resource a full setting to high quality rather than having to compromise on anything. 

“For example, our pre-mobile baby rooms are full of sensory exploration, and there is a section on Cosy’s website which has given me lots of ideas there, such as curved tables and exploring mirrors as well as things like sleep mats. Our toddler main room has spaces dedicated to our sand, water and messy play areas, with seating for our lunches and snack time. Role play is an essential aspect of our provision, so we have a kitchen for instance, and we’ve also got a reading house for a focus story every week. 

“We’ve sourced lots of open-ended resources from Cosy too, such as planks, and these are really important for helping us to create the spaces we want which are literally dotted all over the nursery. We pride ourselves on giving children the best possible experiences.” 

Underpinning everything at Mary’s Little Lambs is a curriculum, and extra curriculum, both of which are desiged to support a “hierarchy of needs”. 

“We are absolutely flying – it’s hard work, but so satisfying,” Lucy replied. “I just want to keep those standards as high as possible and make sure that those families currently with us are supported. We aspire to be first choice in our communities, to have a good reputation, and be the voice of the children. For parents we want Mary’s Little Lambs to be more than just a nursery, to be part of their support network.” 

Lucy added: “The support from Cosy has been incredible. From this project alone, I was given a stock sheet and advised what was in stock, how that could all work together, and having agreed the project date we talked every other day. I didn’t realise we were going to get anything assembled – but Cosy thought about everything, and the team was on hand all day. For larger, and smaller projects, the service is brilliant.”