Stepping Stones Day Nursery & Pre-School

A separate sleep room for babies, a messy play room for toddlers and a dedicated Forest School area give Stepping Stones a clear identity: spaces change as children grow, rather than asking every age to share the same nursery experience. Forest School adds practical outdoor exploration, including handling tools and cooking over a fire. These are concrete reasons to look closely at this Grantham setting.

Stepping Stones Day Nursery & Pre-School cares for children from birth to five at Castlegate Annex, Agnes Street, Grantham, NG31 6QP. At its January 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective. That is a dated assessment, alongside a current offer organised around babies, toddlers and preparation for school.

Morning and afternoon sessions sit alongside full-time care. The strongest practical combination is age-specific indoor space, outdoor areas for each room and a key person who gets to know a child's needs and interests.

Rooms and Ages

The Baby Room, for children aged 0–24 months, combines space for crawling and walking with a separate sleep room and resources that encourage physical exploration. Keeping sleep apart from active play gives rest its own place in the layout. Staff aim to follow the routines families already use at home, so the baby's day starts with familiar habits rather than a completely new timetable.

For children aged two to three, the Toddler Room encourages choices and exploration, with a separate messy play room for sensory and creative activities. Materials children can manipulate give this stage a practical outlet for experimentation. There is also a dedicated outdoor area, as there is for each room, with movement between indoors and outdoors at specified points in the day.

The Pre-School Learning Centre serves children aged three to five, placing greater emphasis on independence and preparation for school while retaining play as the main way of learning. Its activities extend outdoors as well as indoors. The change is one of emphasis: children practise doing more for themselves as the next stage approaches.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS shapes learning, development and care, including language, physical skills, relationships and early literacy and mathematics. For a child, that means play and everyday interactions serve a learning purpose: a conversation, a construction task or a shared book can all contribute to development. It is the statutory framework for early years provision, rather than an extra programme exclusive to Stepping Stones.

In the younger toddler stage, books, songs and sustained conversation feature in the day. The two-year assessment usually takes place around six weeks after a child's second birthday, with the key person discussing it with parents beforehand so that experiences from home contribute. That creates a specific point for comparing how a child communicates and develops across both settings.

Preschool activities include puzzles, construction, painting and imaginative play, alongside time devoted to early literacy and numeracy. Independence has a practical meaning here: children work on self-care as well as learning activities. Their interests help shape what staff plan, so preparation for school still makes room for individual preferences.

In January 2022, toddlers explored real vegetables using knives in a role-play kitchen, while familiar stories prompted children to repeat words and anticipate what happened next. Those examples show the mix of practical handling and language activity at that time. They are useful illustrations of the nursery day, rather than a promise that the same activities run now.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School uses Stepping Stones' dedicated outdoor area for exploring natural materials, making potions, using tools and cooking over an open fire. Preschool children from both nurseries in the group can take part each term, with specially trained practitioners leading the sessions. Children are introduced to assessing risks and using unfamiliar equipment safely. For families seeking outdoor activity with more substance than a change of scenery, the actual tasks are the attraction.

Each room's outdoor area extends its indoor activities, with equipment for physical play and opportunities for imaginative exploration. Access between the two happens at designated times. This arrangement gives the youngest children outdoor space suited to their stage while preserving the separate organisation of the rooms.

Relationships and Communication

A key person spends substantial time with each child, learning about their abilities, preferences and needs. The role also supports movement to another room or on to school. For parents, there is an identifiable practitioner with whom to discuss development, rather than relying solely on whoever happens to be free.

Footsteps, the online learning journal accessed through the Parent Portal, brings together observations, photographs and examples of children's creations. It gives parents a view of learning beyond the daily conversation. More detailed meetings with the key person can take place in person or by video call; open evenings and regular newsletters provide further opportunities to understand nursery life.

In the baby provision, staff note and share details of the child's day, and families can telephone or speak directly with the manager or supervisor. Keeping that communication attached to feeding and home routines matters for children who cannot yet explain their own day.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The SENDCO coordinates identification of additional needs and communication with families, practitioners and outside services. This is a defined support mechanism: concerns have a person responsible for bringing the relevant adults together. The nursery also supports nappy changing and toilet training as part of daily care.

Medication requires a signed medicine card setting out the dose and administration times. Following sickness and diarrhoea, children must be symptom-free for 48 hours before returning. These arrangements affect family planning directly, especially where both parents have fixed working hours.

An external caterer supplies separately charged hot lunches, with a packed lunch as the alternative; complimentary breakfast is offered to children aged at least six months who arrive before 8.30am. Packed food must follow the nursery's lunch policy, travel in an insulated container with ice packs and require no heating, while families must tell the nursery about allergies and dietary needs.

Parents of babies supply their food, milk, feeding equipment, nappies, wipes or cream and spare clothes. This is a practical part of the care arrangement, so preparing the daily bag involves more than a change of clothing.

Sessions and Attendance

The nursery opens Monday to Friday from 7.30am to 6pm. Its structured morning session runs from 9am to noon, and the afternoon session from 1pm to 4pm; full-time care is also offered. Bookings must include at least two sessions each week. The opening window and the shorter sessions serve different routines, so the booked pattern matters as much as the earliest opening time.

Bank and public holidays and the Christmas closure interrupt the year-round arrangement. Fees are paid monthly in advance, and the nursery accepts bank transfer, cards, childcare vouchers and Tax-Free Childcare. Cash payments are excluded. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

A non-refundable deposit secures the booking and is deducted from the final invoice. Cancelling a place requires one month's notice; insufficient notice can bring charges and loss of the deposit. Illness and holiday absences attract half fees, whereas an unnotified absence attracts full fees, and absences must be reported by 8.30am.

Getting There

The address is Castlegate Annex, Agnes Street, Grantham, NG31 6QP. Enquiries can be made on 01476 593643 or by email to steppingstones@granthamnurseries.co.uk.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded entitlement bookings sit alongside privately paid nursery hours. Funded hours missed through absence cannot be moved to another day or time. This makes the chosen attendance pattern consequential: an unused funded booking is not a credit to spend later in the week.

Food and non-food supplies have separate arrangements. Hot lunch is charged separately or supplied from home, breakfast has the age and arrival-time conditions above, and parents provide babies' nappies, wipes or cream. These items should be considered alongside the attendance quotation.

During the term before children leave for school, their new teachers are invited to visit the nursery. Meeting in a familiar setting gives the child an opportunity to begin that relationship before the change. This is transition work, rather than an admissions advantage.

• Daily routines. In January 2022, Ofsted identified interruptions to absorbed play, lengthy routine transitions and staff support that needed a sharper emphasis on improving education. During a visit, ask how snack times and changes between activities are organised now.
• Feeding and supplies. Babies' food and milk come from home, as do nappies, wipes or cream. For an allergy-affected child, discuss current food handling and how dietary instructions reach both staff and the caterer.
• Booking commitments. The two-session weekly minimum, advance payment and one-month cancellation notice make the attendance choice a continuing commitment. Ask how the proposed funded and paid pattern fits your entitlement and working week.
• Seeing the rooms. Tours can be virtual or in person. Use one to discuss the move between age groups and how the key person and SENDCO would support your child's particular needs.

Stepping Stones suits families seeking either shorter morning or afternoon sessions or full-time care, with clearly different spaces for babies, toddlers and preschool children. The separate sleep and messy play rooms, practical Forest School activities and Footsteps journal give parents tangible features to weigh.

The January 2022 concerns about routine interruptions deserve a current conversation. Against that, the room organisation, defined communication routes and school-transition visits make the day and the next steps reasonably easy to understand. The decision turns on how those arrangements fit the child, alongside the booking commitment and supplies families provide.