First Step Day Nursery Limited
GoodTakes funded hours★ 3.8 on GoogleBirth to 8+Open for decades
A day nursery in London for babies from 3 months up to school age, open 08:00 to 18:00, 5 days a week. £19.00 an hour for all age groups, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in January 2024. Open since 2004, with 90 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Term time only, 38 weeks a year.
| Age | Full day | Hourly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-2 yearsbirth to 2y | £98.00ad-hoc days | – | |
| 2-3 years2y to 3y | £97.00ad-hoc days | – | |
| 3-5 years3y to 5y | £96.00ad-hoc days | – | |
| All age groups | – | £19.00Our hourly |
What a funded hour still costs
Funded hours cover the childcare. These are charged alongside them.
- £6.00 a day meals and snacksChildren doing term-time only (funded hours) bookings, includes meals and snacks
Funded hours
15 and 30 hours, plus 2-year-old funding.
Worth knowing. Funding is offered during term-time only for a total of 38 weeks per year. Children doing term-time only (funded hours) bookings are charged for all meals and snacks provided by the Nursery at a flat rate of £6 per day. Extra hours and days booked outside of your free entitled funded hours are charged at our standard fee rates.
What childcare usually costs in Croydon
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Croydon from the Department for Education's 2025 provider survey. No national data holds what an individual nursery charges, so ring and ask.
Places, hours and the day
Who they take, when they are open, and what a day there includes.
Where it is
SE19 3PUWhat the inspector found
One grade is one visit. A run of them tells you whether it has been good for years or has only just got there.
- 14 March 2025 — Concern: actions taken what Ofsted published
Ofsted inspector, 30 January 2024 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Staff, leaders and managers work well as a team to provide a welcoming environment for children and their families. They support children well to build positive relationships with others and to make friendships. Children are happy as they share play experiences with others. For example, they make a cake with play dough, sing the birthday song and pretend to blow candles.
Staff manage children's behaviour positively and consistently. They explain clearly what they expect of older children's behaviour, such as 'good listening' as they read a book to them. Young children learn to wait for their turn as they roll a ball to each other.
Staff use a range of strategies to support children to build on their communication and language development. For example, while reading to the children, they pause at the end of a sentence allowing them to complete it. They use picture cards to support young children's understanding of the meaning of words. All children, including those who speak English as an additional language, make good progress from their starting points.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- enhance opportunities for babies to learn about similarities and differences between themselves and others and what makes them and their families unique n consider ways to fully support young children to express their preferences, particularly with regards to exploring activities to their satisfaction before moving on to another.
- 30 January 2024Good
- 27 February 2023Needs improvement
- 11 July 2017Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 2 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for First Step Day Nursery Limited
- Nappies
- Waiting list
No dataset holds any of this. Two parents telling us the same thing puts it on the page for whoever looks next.
What to ask them
Some of this is above, from the setting or from parents, and it can go out of date. The rest is in no dataset anywhere. Either way it is worth ten minutes on the phone.
- Is £19.00 an hour still the rate? What is on top: meals, nappies, late pick-up, and what happens if you are late.
- How do you apply my funded hours? Whether they stretch them over the year, and the minimum days you have to book.
- Do you have a place for a child of my age now? Baby rooms fill first and waiting lists are common.
- Who would my child's key person be? And how long have the staff been there. No dataset holds this and it matters more than anything above.
- Can I visit at a busy time? Mid-morning on a weekday tells you far more than an empty room after hours.
Day nurseries within a couple of miles
This one is first. Tick it and one or two others to see them side by side.