First Steps Nursery, New Mills

A story cave, a woodwork bench and regular walks through the Torrs give First Steps Nursery, New Mills a clear character: children have space to invent, make and explore beyond their base room. Its purpose-built interior contains four base rooms, alongside a sensory room and a family area. The setting has 68 places in total and accepts children aged 3 to 60 months.

Ofsted rated the nursery Outstanding on 14 February 2025, finding that children made strong progress through carefully planned learning and close relationships with staff. The useful detail beneath that judgement is the connection between language, movement and play: babies experimented with sensory materials, while older children developed stories and explored colour through painting.

This is the New Mills branch at 1 Hibbert Street, High Peak, SK22 3JJ. Its indoor rooms and daily outdoor access form the everyday base; older children also have weekly swimming and forest sessions. Families can choose term-time or year-round attendance.

Rooms and Ages

Explorers is the babies' base, with mirrors, accessible toys and furniture arranged to support early movement, plus a carpeted space for stories and natural materials. That layout gives babies opportunities to reach, choose and practise moving for themselves. Edible materials are used for messy activities, with choices adjusted for dietary needs and allergies.

Adventurers gives toddlers a wooden climbing frame, a home corner and a story cave, alongside a hard-floor space for water, sand and creative play. Physical exploration and pretend play sit together here. Children can reach the equipment themselves, rather than relying on an adult to select everything they use.

Children join Discoverers at around two and a quarter years old, using carpeted and hard-floor spaces for stories, construction, small-world play and messy activities. Cooperative play becomes a greater part of the day. The arrangement keeps quiet activities and materials that need a washable surface within the same base room.

Investigators, for children aged 3 to 5, combines a story cave with a light table, story headphones, a computer and a woodwork bench where children learn to handle real tools safely. Books, technology and making things each have a practical place. These are resources children can use independently, with staff supporting the activities that need guidance.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for learning, development and care: here, stories, conversation, physical play and exploration turn those expectations into activities children can understand and enjoy. The additions are concrete. In Investigators, Tales Toolkit is a storytelling scheme used in small groups to help children invent and tell their own stories.

The Music Room contains instruments for experimenting with sound, percussion, rhyme and rhythm. In the sensory room, tactile materials, lighting and sound provide different ways to explore. These spaces broaden the day's activities beyond the equipment in each child's base room, with music and sensory exploration given their own settings.

In February 2025, babies handled books with textures and flaps, while older children used sorting games to organise invented stories into their component parts. Staff expanded babies' emerging speech by responding to their sounds and describing activities as they happened. Language practice was woven into play, rather than confined to a single scheduled activity.

Mathematical experiences were equally tangible in February 2025. Babies explored patterns and sequences through movement and sorted natural materials; older children used large dice to practise counting and recognising quantities. The examples matter because children were working with objects and actions, giving abstract ideas something they could see and handle.

Outdoor and Community Life

Daily outdoor play includes a fenced space for babies, surfaces of grass and tarmac, soft play, a planting area and a mud kitchen. The separate baby space gives the youngest children their own outdoor provision. Growing and messy play also extend the indoor emphasis on handling materials and trying things out.

Regular walks take children into the local community, the meadows and the Torrs; babies and toddlers travel in double buggies. Older children also visit the local library. This makes the surrounding area part of nursery life, with books and outdoor exploration continuing beyond the building.

Weekly swimming lessons are offered to older children, alongside weekly forest sessions at Furness Vale Forest Nursery. Forest sessions add learning and exploration outdoors to the New Mills routine. Families choosing this branch should understand that those sessions involve its sister setting, while everyday outdoor access remains part of life at New Mills itself.

Relationships and Communication

The family area gives parents somewhere to share a book with their child, borrow reading material for home and discuss development or concerns with staff. It is a useful physical provision: conversations about a child's day have a space of their own, and reading can continue across nursery and home.

In February 2025, induction activities helped staff build relationships with children and their families. Staff worked with parents to understand each child's interests, personality and needs. For a parent assessing settling, the significant point is that the initial relationship included family knowledge, rather than treating the child as someone staff needed to understand in isolation.

At that time, the nursery employed 13 childcare staff, nine holding early years qualifications at level 3 or above. Training in communication and language was followed up to assess its effect on children's learning. These are February 2025 staffing details, separate from the room arrangements and current attendance offer.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the February 2025 inspection, Ofsted found effective safeguarding and purposeful support for children with SEND, including early identification of developmental needs, specific targets and collaboration with speech and language therapists and social workers. That describes a practical support process: identify the need, plan the response and involve the relevant professionals.

Within Explorers, babies can sleep in cots in an insulated area with an open doorway, or on soft floor beds. The sleeping space is separated from the room's busier activities while keeping babies visible to staff. Families whose baby has a strong preference for one sleeping arrangement have something concrete to discuss during settling.

Two chefs prepare food on site, with meals including fish pie, casseroles and turkey jambalaya, lighter teas and snacks during the morning and afternoon. Dietary needs and allergies are addressed through consultation with parents, so allergy-affected families should confirm the arrangements for their child.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday. Both term-time and year-round attendance are offered, giving families a choice between a pattern tied to the school calendar and care across the year. The nursery closes for Bank Holidays and one week between Christmas and New Year.

The New Mills address is 1 Hibbert Street, New Mills, High Peak, Derbyshire, SK22 3JJ. Enquiries can be made through the contact form, by email to firststepsnursery01@gmail.com or by telephone on 01663 745000. These contact routes are for the Hibbert Street branch.

Funding and Paid Extras

In February 2025, the nursery provided funded early education for children aged two, three and four. Funding and private childcare costs need to be considered separately when deciding on an attendance pattern. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Baby sleep and settling. Explorers has cots in an insulated, open-door sleeping area as well as soft floor beds. During a visit, discuss how your baby's familiar sleep routine would fit those arrangements and how staff would support the initial separation.
• Activities beyond Hibbert Street. Older children are offered weekly swimming lessons and take part in weekly forest sessions at Furness Vale Forest Nursery. Ask how journeys, participation and clothing are organised for your child's age, especially if these activities are central to your choice.
• The written cost breakdown. Term-time and year-round attendance are different commitments. Request a quotation for your chosen pattern that separates funded and private hours, meals, non-food consumables and any activity charges, so you can assess the whole arrangement.

First Steps suits families seeking either term-time attendance or childcare across the year, with an indoor base that still makes room for outdoor activity and trips. Explorers' sleeping provision gives parents of babies a concrete care detail to weigh; Investigators' storytelling resources and real-tool woodwork offer older children different ways to pursue an idea.

The February 2025 Outstanding judgement strengthens the case. Music, sensory exploration and regular outings make this a useful choice for families who value varied play.