Stepping Stones Playschool

Explorers, Adventurers and a garden shared during free-flow play give Stepping Stones Playschool a clear character: childhood has value here beyond preparation for school. Grass, paved space and climbing equipment extend the day beyond the classrooms, while the Playing to Learn approach builds experiences around the children attending. This is a playschool with room to move.

Beside Gossops Green Primary School in Crawley, Stepping Stones accepts children aged two to five and has 52 places in total. At its July 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated it Good and found safeguarding effective, with good progress for children including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The practical strengths are the shared outdoor space, a key-person relationship and ways for families to contribute to their child's learning.

Attendance is term-time, with morning, afternoon and continuous daytime patterns alongside additional Early Start sessions. That makes the choice about the shape of a child's week as well as the experiences within it.

Rooms and Ages

Explorers and Adventurers are the two class bases, each accommodating up to 26 children per session, with access during free flow to the shared outdoor areas. These are classroom caps, distinct from the playschool's total capacity. The outdoor space can also be divided so each class has its own area, allowing shared exploration and separate class use within the same setting.

The curriculum responds to the children currently attending rather than assigning a different educational identity to each classroom. For a parent, the useful combination is a familiar class base and opportunities to explore beyond it. Children can move between the outdoor areas during free flow; their day need not stay within one classroom.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care: in daily life, play supports communication, physical skills and growing independence alongside early literacy and other learning. Playing to Learn is Stepping Stones' approach within that framework, with experiences adjusted to children's needs and intended to help them form friendships and tackle new challenges.

In July 2025, children practised writing by making letters for friends and staff, and persisted with scissors while preparing tape for musical shakers. These are useful examples of learning with a purpose. Writing becomes a way to communicate; handling scissors gives a child a reason to practise control rather than simply complete an adult's task.

Conversation also grew from children's experiences. In July 2025, a child's account of rescuing a hedgehog led to discussion about how its spines protect it. There was a limitation alongside that responsive teaching: adults sometimes left too little room for children to contribute their own explanations. The balance between introducing information and hearing a child's thinking is an important part of the learning picture here.

Outdoor and Community Life

The enclosed garden includes grass, paving and climbing equipment. Gardening gives children opportunities to care for seeds and plants, while insects and animals in the outdoor habitat provide material for observation. Outdoor play includes both activities led by adults and play children choose themselves, so the garden serves more than a break between indoor activities.

In July 2025, outdoor experiences included balancing, climbing and learning to manage the challenge of small trees. Those activities gave children practical opportunities to develop coordination and judge what they could attempt. The emphasis was on trying and persisting.

Walk Once a Week, run by Living Streets, encourages active journeys to playschool and recognises participation with badges. The home-reading resources extend learning in another direction: families can borrow books, story sacks and chatterpacks to share equipment and stories with their child. Family Volunteer sessions also let relatives spend part of a session playing alongside the children, making family involvement something that can happen within the nursery day.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person who monitors development, discusses concerns and plans next steps with the family. That gives parents a main contact for both progress and the small details that affect a child's day. The relationship starts with understanding the child, rather than waiting for a difficulty to emerge.

Settling includes at least one Stay and Play session with a parent or carer, followed by an individual transition plan agreed with the key person. Further sessions are discussed according to the child. Family photographs are also part of settling, providing familiar people to talk about while a child gets to know the playschool.

Famly combines photographs, learning updates and messages with practical tasks such as invoices and payments. Parents can contribute their own photographs and comments to the learning journal, so achievements at home can inform the conversation with staff. Family members can also be added to share progress. This gives communication a route beyond a brief conversation at collection.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Support for additional needs has a defined sequence: the key person discusses concerns with parents, involves the SENCo and seeks advice from Early Help. An Individual Play Plan then sets out support based on the child's interests, with staff contributing observations and reviewing strategies. Regular meetings allow families to discuss progress and help shape the next steps.

Physical access includes ramps and an accessible toilet. Communication support includes signs, a visual timetable and emotion cards, giving children alternatives to spoken explanations alone. Additional funding may be explored for equipment or more adults in sessions; it does not automatically mean individual one-to-one support. That distinction matters when families consider what a support plan will provide.

The staff structure includes a wellbeing lead, a designated safeguarding officer and team leaders, with degree-level early childhood education qualifications among the team. In July 2025, daily routines used songs and countdowns to prepare children for changes of activity, while children practised dressing and opening their own containers. However, support for understanding the effect of their behaviour and settling disagreements independently needed more consistency.

For children moving to school with additional needs, transition meetings can bring together parents, the key person and both settings' SENCO roles. Play plans and a summary of the child's interests are passed on, while teachers can visit to see the child in the playschool. The purpose is continuity of support as the child moves on.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Kidborough Road, Crawley, RH11 8HW, beside Gossops Green Primary School. The playschool operates during school terms. Universal and two-year-old funded sessions run from 9am to noon, Monday to Friday, with noon to 3pm afternoons from Monday to Thursday. A continuous 9am to 3pm block is also offered from Monday to Thursday.

Additional Early Start sessions run from 8.30am to 9am and sit outside universal and two-year-old funded entitlement. Working Families extended funding for eligible three- and four-year-olds can cover the wider opening window of 8.30am to 3pm, Monday to Thursday, and 8.30am to 12.30pm on Friday. Fee-paying families book fixed sessions within those windows; Friday has a shorter operating day.

Applications use an online waiting-list form. Priority considers children's ages, with older children first, alongside staff-child and sibling categories; applying earlier does not by itself give priority. Children already attending have priority for bookings in the following term or academic year. Reducing sessions or ending attendance requires written notice of at least four term-time weeks, including for funded places. Enquiries can be made by email.

Funding and Paid Extras

Stepping Stones offers universal funding for three- and four-year-olds, local-authority-issued funding for eligible two-year-olds and Working Families funding, including for eligible two-year-olds. The entitlements cover 15 or up to 30 weekly hours, depending on the scheme and eligibility, delivered here through term-time attendance. Private hours can sit alongside funded hours, and Tax-Free Childcare can be used towards fee-paying sessions.

A non-refundable security applies when families take non-funded hours; children using funded hours alone are exempt. Separate consumable charges cover a personalised water bottle, nappies and wipes, and sun cream, but these charges are not compulsory: alternatives, including supplying consumables from home, can be arranged with management. This also applies when funded attendance is combined with an additional Early Start booking. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the childcare costs and funding page sets out the charge structure.

Families supply lunch for all-day attendance, and snacks are optional and brought from home; water, milk or a dairy-free alternative are available. The food policy excludes nuts and products labelled as potentially containing peanuts or tree nuts, and lunchboxes need a cold pack.

Getting There and Moving On

Families are encouraged to walk where possible; when driving, the playschool asks them to park away from the gate and finish the journey on foot. Attendance at Stepping Stones does not guarantee a place at the neighbouring school or another local school: families still apply through the West Sussex school admissions process.

• Opening schedule. The main timetable and funding arrangements use an 8.30am start, while the homepage gives 8.45am and a later Monday-to-Thursday finish of 3.15pm. Confirm the applicable opening and collection schedule before agreeing sessions.
• Children's own voice. In July 2025, improvement priorities concerned opportunities to explain their thinking and support to resolve disagreements. During a visit, ask how staff now encourage children's ideas and help them understand another child's feelings.
• Settling and visiting. At least one Stay and Play session is required, with further settling planned individually. Regular Open Afternoons and Drop-in sessions require no advance booking, offering a chance to discuss how the transition would work for your child.
• Food and personal supplies. Packed lunches and optional snacks come from home, with restrictions on nuts and precautionary nut labels. Allergy-affected families should confirm current practice, and families using consumable alternatives should agree those arrangements with management.

Stepping Stones suits families seeking term-time mornings, afternoons or a continuous daytime block, with an additional early start where needed. The appeal lies in the two class bases, substantial shared outdoor provision and practical links between home, key person and additional-needs support.

The July 2025 improvement priorities deserve attention alongside the Good judgement. For parents who value play built around children's interests, outdoor exploration and opportunities to participate in nursery life, there is a clear offer here. The shorter Friday and the applicable collection timetable need to fit the family's week.