First Steps Nursery

We have two nurseries, one in New Mills and one in Furness Vale. The two sites complement each other and although they have very different layouts and facilities our ethos remains the same

At First Steps Nursery we are passionate about working in partnership with you as parents/carers to ensure your child develops to their full potential.

We value every child as a unique individual and our aim is to provide high quality care and education where ‘childhood is valued’.  

A huge emphasis is placed on children’s emotional well-being and on helping children to develop a high self-esteem and a love of learning.  Our children leave us with a high self esteem and the confidence and inquisitiveness to find out about things which is a skill that will remain with them throughout life.

 Come and see us at either nursery at any time – we will always make you feel welcome!

We have spaces from 3 months to 5 years and funded places are available for 2, 3 and 4 year olds for both 15 and 30 hours at both our settings.  

We strongly believe that children need three things for their well-being:

‘Play, Nature and Nurture’

Come and see us and let us show you how we help your child to learn in a fun, exciting and safe way.  Let your child experience childhood as it should be, outside in all the glory of the natural world.  This is nature helping to nurture your child into a happy, inquisitive, interested in learning child who will then be ready to take the next step in life. 

Research has confirmed that a connection to nature is as important for well-being as established factors, such as income and education.  Research has also shown that time in nature is essential to our physical, psychological health and well-being and this is needed more than ever now!

Because we spend the majority of our time outdoors children are much less likely to spread or catch illnesses.  We staff on a very high adult to child ratio (1:4 for our older children) which enables us to encourage their skills and learning.  We have a very safe learning environment at Furness Vale with security fencing and a bio-metric entry system. 

Our babies also access the outdoors as much as possible daily as well as having their own spacious indoor space. 

If you are looking for something different visit our Forest Nursery page!! 

The children at our New Mills Setting also access outdoors daily both in our play area and the local area and our children make regular visits to our Furness setting, where the older children access forest sessions.  Swimming lessons at the local swimming pool are offered to all our children over 3 years old. 

 We have spaces from 3 months to 5 years and funded places are available for 2, 3 and 4 year olds for both 15 and 30 hours at both our settings  

Our nursery opening hours are between 7:30 am and 6:30pm from Monday to Friday.  Both nurseries are open all year round (except for Bank Holidays and 1 week between Christmas and New Year).   Both term time and all year options are available.  Wherever possible we try to support people with different shift patterns.