Derwent Stepping Stones @ St James | Ofsted Reports, Reviews (2024)

A group of women in the Derwent region who were unable to work because of the cost and lack of local childcare options founded Derwent Stepping Stones in 1988.
We are a long-standing, well-respected organisation that works in collaboration with regional communities to provide high-quality and efficient services.
In order to provide the community flexible childcare and nursery spots for all families and exciting employment prospects to those pursuing a career in childcare, we were Derby's first community business, combining being a Limited Company and a voluntary organisation.
We have been working to support local families and early education for more than 20 years, and we intend to do so for many more.
Derwent Stepping Stones takes pride in being Derby's first neighbourhood enterprise.
We can continue to provide high-quality early education in contemporary facilities, hire and develop highly qualified personnel, get first-rate early learning resources, and guarantee that nursery placements and childcare are accessible to all families in our neighbourhood.
We have always known that in addition to providing flexible and cheap daycare options for the neighbourhood, we also wanted to support locals in launching fulfilling careers in childcare.
Our main location, St Marks Road, offers convenient local childcare to the Derwent neighbourhood.
Aside from offering a variety of classes in anything from business and digital skills to mental health awareness, St. Marks Road also houses an adult learning centre with conference space that can be rented.
In Normanton's St James Centre community facility, we opened a new location in 2009.
English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students needed dependable and adaptable childcare while they finished their studies, allowing them to concentrate on their classes while knowing their children were being well cared for. This new Derwent Stepping Stones site was created in response to this need.
Although many of the parents are ESOL learners, the facility is accessible to all families in the neighbourhood and offers sessional care for children ages 2, 3, and 4 for 38 weeks out of the year.
In 2013, we created a 12-seat section for sponsored 2-year-olds in the centre of the school in collaboration with Brackensdale Spencer Academy.
With the addition of a vacation club in 2019, the facility now offers flexible childcare for the majority of the weeks of the year, ensuring that families are supported fully and that all children may gain the skills necessary for the next level of early learning.