Our 2024 Highlights
2024 was an amazing year at Muddy Boots, full of exciting developments and (of course) lots of adventures! To celebrate the work of our fantastic staff, and the support from our families, we’re looking at some of the big headlines and successes of 2024 across Muddy Boots as a whole.
Welcome to Muddy Boots Leeds
Towards the end of the year we expanded into a brand new city, welcoming three fantastic nurseries in Leeds, and a brilliant Out of School Club in York into the Muddy Boots family. The transition has been fantastic, and we’re excited about all the changes, developments and growth that 2025 is already bringing for Muddy Boots Leeds.
National Award Success
At the beginning of 2024, we set out some goals for Muddy Boots, one of which was to win one business and one industry award during the year. We’re so happy to have been able to achieve that goal due to the amazing work of all our staff, as we went on to win the Biz-X National Award for Best Service Business, and the NMT National Nursery Award for Best Small Nursery Group.
We brought this energy with us into 2025, as we are now also nominated for the Customer Service Award '25 at the Yorkshire Choice Awards! If you don’t already know, the winner is chosen by public vote which closes on 7th March, and you can only vote once per IP address, so if you’d like to support us, click here to vote.
Ofsted Outstanding Ratings
Following on from achieving our first ever Ofsted Outstanding at Muddy Boots Poppleton, in 2023, we were so proud to receive our second one this year at Muddy Boots Stamford Bridge. Additionally, Muddy Boots Gildersome (Kaleidoscope at the time) achieved their Outstanding rating this year as well!
Poppleton Nature School
Whilst it wasn’t the smoothest of journeys, we are so happy with the development and relaunch of the Poppleton Nature School. Thanks to our incredible facilities, Trailblazer and management teams for bringing it together - it’s looking brilliant and the children have already been making the most of it and enjoying their outdoor learning.
Staff Successes
Across the board, many of our staff members have advanced or are working to advance their childcare training and qualifications, as well as taking on new roles and continuing to work together as fantastic teams. Our nurseries really wouldn’t be what they are without each and every member of staff, and we are hugely grateful for them!
Charity Fundraising
With your help, we managed to raise money for Martin House, our Charity of the Year. We loved having families stop by for stay and plays and special events, which all worked towards raising money for such a fantastic charity. This year, York will be supporting York Inspirational Kids, and each of our Leeds settings will be supporting their own charity choices: Eve Merton Dreams Trust, The Brain Tumour Charity, and Young Lives vs Cancer.
A lot of exciting things have happened at Muddy Boots over the last year, and we’re already making an excellent start with 2025, we can’t wait to see what other amazing opportunities come our way!
