First Steps Day Nursery

A wooden hobbit house, a vegetable plot and a sheltered outdoor classroom give First Steps Day Nursery a recognisable character: imaginative play and growing things sit alongside preparation for school. This Shepton Mallet setting occupies a purpose-built building, with younger children upstairs and preschool children downstairs, where the garden extends the space for learning.

At its 2 July 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective, but identified delays in recognising some children's communication support needs. That balance matters. There was plenty of purposeful activity, alongside a specific weakness in assessment that families should weigh rather than overlook.

First Steps accepts children from birth to five and has 42 places in total. Full-day attendance and a term-time option for preschoolers serve different family routines; the August closure is an important consideration for anyone arranging care across the summer.

Rooms and Ages

Nursery, the upstairs room for younger children, combines sensory materials, movement and pretend play, with resources including clay, pinecones and a role-play fire station, plus access to a smaller side garden. These materials give children different ways to explore: handling, pretending, moving and talking, rather than relying on one kind of activity.

Pre-school, downstairs, emphasises communication through pretend shops and a post office, mathematical thinking through puzzles, and creativity through art and music, with direct access to the wet-pour garden. Each child has a personal drawer for their work, making recognising their name part of an everyday routine rather than a separate exercise.

The upstairs room is intended for children aged one to approximately two and a half; the move downstairs happens around two and a half when the child is developmentally ready. Readiness therefore matters alongside age. The downstairs accommodation includes an outdoor classroom, providing a sheltered place for activities outside.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage connects children's play with development in communication, movement, relationships and early literacy and mathematics. It is the framework for the day, rather than a special programme unique to First Steps. An online learning journal records development across its areas of learning, giving parents a way to follow what their child is doing.

Alongside that framework, the curriculum combines topics planned by adults with play shaped by children's interests. Short literacy and mathematics sessions add structure for older children preparing for school. The useful distinction is the combination: children have opportunities to pursue their own ideas as well as join a guided activity.

In July 2025, daily literacy games used letter sounds, rhymes and visual prompts. Mathematics activities included number songs and a chosen numeral, supported by staff development through maths champions, a project helping practitioners build their mathematical teaching. Music and movement also led into drawing: children rehearsed actions with fabric before using crayons on paper. That links larger movements with the control needed to make marks.

Communication has another route through sing and sign sessions, with British Sign Language used to support expression. Preschool book bags take shared reading home, allowing a familiar story to connect nursery activity with time spent with parents. These are concrete additions to the day, rather than a curriculum name standing on its own.

Outdoor and Community Life

The garden includes a sandpit, a climbing frame with a slide and the wooden hobbit house for imaginative play. A vegetable plot brings planting into children's experience of food. The sheltered outdoor classroom and heated side garden also give outdoor activity places to continue when the weather is less inviting.

In July 2025, children used balance bikes to negotiate obstacles and experiment with slopes and speed. Trips included farms and a nearby shop where children bought produce. Those outings connected nature and food with places beyond the nursery, while the bikes offered a different kind of challenge: judging space, changing direction and managing movement.

Relationships and Communication

Settling begins with a home visit involving the SENCO or key person, creating time to discuss the child's interests and needs before attendance starts. The current terms include two settling sessions lasting two hours each, with their cost taken from the registration deposit. For a child making their first separation from home, these are planned stages rather than a single introduction.

Parents can access the online learning journal and add experiences from home. This makes communication two-way: staff record development, while families contribute information about the child's life outside nursery. Book sharing provides another practical connection, especially for preschool children beginning to recognise familiar stories and talk about them.

In July 2025, adults explained personal-care routines to children and sought their agreement before changing nappies. Rest was also supported: staff helped children settle and remained alongside them as they slept. The Nursery room has travel cots and sleep mats, allowing rest to be accommodated within the younger children's space.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

SEND support uses a SENCO and key person working with parents through assessment, planning, action and review. Support plans are revisited, and outside professionals can be involved with parental agreement. Specialist resources, training or additional staffing depend on funding and staff availability, so an individual plan matters more than a broad promise of support.

The July 2025 assessment concern was precise: some children needing help with communication were identified too slowly, affecting their progress. At the visit, playful language activities were already being used, but the way needs were assessed required improvement. Families whose child has emerging speech or language difficulties should give this point particular weight.

Staff receive safeguarding and paediatric first-aid training. Collection arrangements restrict release to authorised adults, with a password required when someone else collects with the main carer's permission. These are practical procedures; the dated safeguarding judgement belongs to the inspection account above.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery's address is 44 Compton Road, Shepton Mallet, BA4 5QT. Under the July 2026 terms, opening hours are 8.30am to 4pm on Monday and Friday, and 8.30am to 5.30pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; an 8am start requires an agreed arrangement.

Full-day attendance is offered, and the current terms also refer to a morning session without lunch. Preschoolers can attend term-time only. These patterns should be distinguished from the opening window: the time the building is open does not itself define the session a family books.

August is a closure month, with additional closures over Easter and Christmas. Attendance reductions or leaving require a term's notice in writing, and booked sessions cannot be exchanged for other sessions. That gives the contract a fairly fixed shape, even for families whose working arrangements change.

Enrolment uses a booking form, and visits can be arranged through the nursery. Fees are paid monthly in advance. Booked attendance remains chargeable during bank-holiday and Christmas inset closures, so the childcare budget needs to account for those dates as well as days attended.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare and additional paid hours are offered. The working-parent entitlement is described as 30 hours childcare, subject to government eligibility criteria, with funding stretched across a maximum of 48 weeks; preschoolers also have a term-time option using 38 weeks. Funding paperwork includes an eligibility code where required and a parent declaration completed each term.

The current terms also describe Early Years Entitlement from the term after a child's third birthday. Funding, private hours and extras are separate parts of the bill. Families receive current prices in a written quotation, with further contact details on the fee information page.

Since September 2026, families provide lunch, while breakfast, snacks and tea are charged separately, including for funded attendance. The nursery has allergy forms and a nut-free policy; allergy-affected families should confirm current practice as part of planning a lunch box.

Parents supply nappies, nappy cream when needed and sun cream; replacement nappies supplied by the nursery can incur a charge. Additional resource and service charges cover items including personal-hygiene resources, book bags and outings. The non-food position therefore varies by item, rather than everything being included in the childcare fee.

An administration charge applies on registration, with a partial refund on the first invoice once sessions are secured. Settling and home-visit costs are taken from the deposit. These terms deserve attention alongside the hourly quotation because they affect the cost of starting and changing attendance.

• Communication assessment. The July 2025 concern involved children needing language support being recognised too late. At a visit, ask how staff now identify difficulties and agree early support with parents.
• Summer cover and working hours. August is a closure month, and Monday and Friday finish earlier under the July 2026 terms. Match those arrangements to work commitments before choosing an attendance pattern.
• Lunch and allergies. Parents now provide lunch, while other food is billed separately. Families managing allergies should confirm how lunch boxes, food storage and the nut-free policy work together in current practice.
• Changing attendance. Reducing sessions or leaving requires written notice a term ahead, and sessions cannot be swapped. Ask for the proposed booking and funding breakdown in writing before agreeing the contract.

First Steps suits families choosing full-day attendance, mornings without lunch or preschool term-time care who value outdoor space, shared reading and a mixture of child-led play and short guided activities. The hobbit house, planting plot and outdoor classroom give that offer substance.

The Good judgement from July 2025 sits alongside a clear assessment concern, while the August closure and notice terms make practical planning essential. For families comfortable with that calendar and contract, there is a concrete learning offer to weigh, with communication support the key question to explore.