Silver Steps Day Care Ltd
GoodTakes funded hoursBirth to 8+Long established
A day nursery in Witham for from 2 years up to school age, open 07:00 to 17:00, 5 days a week. £6.00 an hour for from age 2 to school reception age, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in April 2022. Open since 2018, with 26 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
£6 per hour
One published rate. What you pay depends on the days you need and the funded hours you can claim.
Funded hours
Government Funding available.
What childcare usually costs in Essex
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Essex 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
CM8 3QGWhat 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.
Ofsted inspector, 27 April 2022 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children enjoy their day. They wave goodbye to parents and carers at the gate.
Children are greeted by smiling staff who show them into the foyer to remove their coats and place their belongings on their labelled coat peg. Children confidently do this, recognising their names on the labels. They find their friends and begin playing with or alongside the other children. They work together with their peers in the role play area, creating delicious plates of pretend food and pouring drinks for each other.
Children behave very well. They are kind and caring towards each other. Gentle discussions fill the room as children sit with and speak to staff. They talk about the activities they are engaged in, for example making gingerbread people at the dough table. Children excitedly retell the story of how the fox carried the gingerbread man across the river on his back. Children think carefully about how they build constructions across the large tray for the fox and gingerbread man to cross the pretend river. Their ideas and thoughts are well supported by staff, who are on hand and encourage them to use familiar and new words to articulate their thoughts.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- raise staff's understanding of the importance of effective questioning to help children to further enhance their critical thinking n review activities and group times to further enhance children's opportunities to develop independence.
- 27 April 2022Good
- 8 November 2021Inadequate
Rated Good or Outstanding at 1 of the last 2 graded inspections.
Still missing for Silver Steps Day Care Ltd
- Meals
- 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 £6.00 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.