YMCA Stepping Stones Nurseries

Firmly rooted within our communities Derwent Stepping Stones brings ambition, passion and commitment to early education. Supporting children to be ready for school, families to thrive and young people to start a life-long career in childcare. Derwent Stepping Stones is a long standing, well established and respected charity working in partnership with local communities to deliver high quality and effective services. Derwent Stepping Stones began with a group of women in the Derwent area who were unable to work due to the cost and availability of childcare locally. At our St Marks Road site we have a large, spacious board room available to hire alongside catering and access to fee parking. Partnerships with Qube Learning and Eden Training have enabled us to deliver Traineeships and Apprenticeships to support local people to move into a career in childcare. A partnership was formed with Derby College 25 years ago, offering local people the option of studying with onsite childcare. In 2009 Derwent Stepping Stones opened a new provision in the St James Centre in Normanton in response to ESOL learners needing quality childcare they could rely on whilst they completed their studies. In 2013, working in partnership with Brackensdale Infant School, we opened a 12 place 2 year old unit within the school, this has since expanded to include a new 26 place room for 3&4 year olds. The newest addition to our family is Breadsall Hill Top which opened in September 2018, we offer 2 year old places and work with school to offer extended entitlement for 3 & 4 year olds. Having consistently achieved a good rating from Ofsted we are confident that each of our sites offer children the best possible start in their educational journey. We have always believed in close partnership working in order to offer the best possible services for families, this includes working with our local schools, health teams, social care, police and other community groups.