Discover Stepping Stones Nursery
Helping little people grow
Stepping Stones Nursery is a 80 place private day nursery based in Roundhay, Leeds. The nursery is open all year round and cares for children from birth until five.
The nursery is open Monday- Friday from 7.30am-6.30pm.
We offer the following sessions:
Full day (7.30am-6.30pm)
Morning (7.30am-1.00pm)
Afternoon (1.00pm- 6.30pm)
For current prices please contact the nursery directly.
Stepping Stones Nursery Story
At Stepping Stones Nursery, we’re proud to provide a caring and safe environment for your children. By following our mission, vision and values, we create a nurturing, stimulating and welcoming learning environment for all children.
We provide our children with the tools they need for future happiness and success. Our unique programs incorporate a variety of educational theories, while always keeping the child’s best interests in mind and allowing for hands-on, experiential learning. Get in touch to learn more!
Starting nursery
Starting nursery
The settling period at nursery can be an emotional time for both children and parents. We understand how important it is for parents to trust those caring for your most precious things in the world. At Stepping Stones we will want to make the transition as smooth as possible for you all as a family. In addition, of the traditional settling in sessions we have an abundance of classes, stay and play sessions and events we would encourage you to sample before we even begin settling visits.
We want our families to feel relaxed and welcome into our setting from the start. Every child is unique, and their settling period is designed to reflect this.Â
As parents it's completely normal to feel unsure or even anxious about children beginning their nursery adventure. We are here to support you through that journey and will continue to work with you closely to ensure that our children flourish throughout the early years.
Nursery provision
'Children thrive in the welcoming, safe and exciting environment the nursery has to offer. They explore a wide variety of resources that ignite their imagination and investigation skills'. (Ofsted inspection 2020)
The Early years is all about creating enabling environments that stimulate, excite and provide opportunities to explore the characteristics of effective learning. At Stepping Stones we carefully select our play resources, focusing on authentic objects, natural materials and loose parts. This focus on resources create awe and wonder for children who are able to relate their play to every day life. Generic resources of bright, colourful and plastic representations of everyday objects offer limited play experiences as they often have a singular purpose. In our holistic play based approach to learning we want to challenge our children to explore and learn limitlessly, supported by passionate and knowledgeable practitioners.
Parent partnerships
'Partnerships with parents are exemplary. Leaders work hard to involve families in all that they do. Parents are encouraged to share information from home, attend a range of stay-and-play sessions and contribute to feedback for the nursery'. (Ofsted inspection January 2020)
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Our partnerships with parents are imperative and we pride ourselves on our warm relationships with families that attend the setting. From your very first visit we want you to feel welcome and at ease.
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As a nursery we have many different ways to get you involved from our traditional stay and play sessions, celebrations, parent workshops, learning events, family competitions, progress meetings, Fayre's, mum's night out, parent story time etc. The list is endless!
Community work
We believe that our setting should embrace and explore our surrounding environment. Children are therefore encouraged to be active within the local community and numerous opportunities exist to exploit this. This we believe in turn enrich children with the necessary skills to be valuable citizens within the immediate community and wider world.
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The children at Stepping Stones have continuous opportunities to be interact in the community such as visits to our local nursing home, litter picking scheme, visits to local attractions such as Roundhay park and Oakwood library, raising money for local charities, supporting food banks and working with local schools and businesses.
Outdoor play
Countless research highlights the benefit of our children exploring the outdoors. Outdoor play therefore is another huge focus for us at Stepping Stones.
We have large outdoor spaces available for our children to use in all weathers. Some children thrive and learn best in the outdoors, recognising this we have the ability to have continued free-flow play from the indoor/outdoor areas. This encourages children to direct their own play based on their needs and interests.
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The nursery children also often explore the local woods- Gledhow woods (a five minute walk from the nursery). The pre-school children enjoy a forest school session each week in the woods which is met with great excitement!
Events
At Stepping Stones we take part in a wide variety of events, celebrations and special days.
We are immensely proud of the diversity amongst our staff team and the children who attend. Across the nursery, children engage in our religious celebrations such as Eid, Easter, Diwali etc aswell as themed special days such as World book day, British science week etc.Â
Nursery should be an exciting place for our children and we endorse that with a variety of events across the nursery throughout the year. We make sure that we always give as much notice as possible about events so that you can hopefully come and join in our celebrations!
Staff
Our staff team are our most valued asset. The staffing team is made up of highly qualified practitioners that are utterly in love with their jobs. We are lucky enough to have staff that have been part of our Stepping Stones family for over 20 years. All of our staff are full time and based in specific rooms.
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Nursery Manager- Clare Gorman (Joined in 2016, Level 6 BA (hons) Childhood, education and culture, Early Years Professional status
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Nursery Deputy Manager- Emma Radley (Joined in 1995, Level 6 BA (hons) childhood studies)
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Food
All of our nutritious nursery meals are included in our private sessions.
Our amazing cook Soheila, has been with the nursery for the last 10 years and continues to focus our food on vibrant and inspiring dishes from around the world.
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All of our meals are freshly prepared and cooked onsite. The nursery has four seasonal menus throughout the year. We encourage all children to develop some of our dishes and the pre-school council will decide on some of the delicious meals through using their own ideas or having experienced a taste testing of new dishes.
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We are also able to cater for children with any allergy or dietary requirements.
Mission Statement
At Stepping Stones Nursery we aim to create a warm, welcoming and loving environment for our children to learn and develop. We believe that children should be cared for in a safe and stimulating environment that ignites their curiosity and wonder. The Early Years is a magical time for our children and families. We recognise the importance of our role during this time and adopt a shared approach to learning. Working closely alongside families our children’s learning and development flourish to ensure the best possible start. Children’s individuality and identity is at the heart of all we do. With a strong emphasis on children’s personal, social and emotional development, we aim to provide the highest level of care specifically tailored to each child that attends our setting. We believe that our setting should embody our surrounding environment. Children are therefore encouraged to be active within the local community and opportunities are plentiful. This will in turn enrich children with the necessary skills to be valuable citizens within the community and wider world.
Contact Us
Interested in learning more about Stepping Stones Nursery? Please feel free to get in touch, and a member of our team will get back to you as soon as possible.
Stepping Stones Nursery, Gledhow Lane, Roundhay, Leeds LS8 1RT, UK
0113 266 8005
