About Stepping Stones…

Stepping Stones was founded in 2004 by proprietor, Paula Lukins. Paula is a B.Ed Honours teacher of early years, with 35 year’s experience.

Her extensive time working within academic environments has now led Paula’s focus on outdoor learning, following children’s natural development paths and interests, and the value of it’s vast benefits.

‘Learning is about inspiring children: creating beautiful spaces to play, and create, and to explore the natural world and all that it has to offer. That’s what we want here at Stepping Stones - a hub for creative freedom and learning how to learn in one, welcoming, inclusive, diverse environment. And our Stepping Stones team are here to support your children with this every step of the way. Play, is every child’s right as a developing human being.’

-Paula Lukins

Meet the Team!

Paula Lukins – Proprietor

Lauren Wilkinson – Manager, DSL, ELSA, SENCO, DPO and ENCO

Toni Betty – Deputy Manager, Deputy safeguard lead

Vicky Hobbs – Play Teacher

Bridie Moloney- Play Teacher

Hattie House – Play Teacher

Kimberly Knight - Play Teacher

Gracie Phillips – Play Apprentice

What is the Natural Curiosity Approach and why do we use it?

The Natural Curiosity Approach is the use of lots of natural play resources to explore and be creative with! This approach, encourages children to use their own imagination to instinctively challenge and extend individual abilities at their own level of achievement. Here at Stepping Stones, we focus on the natural awe and wonder of the world to learn and challenge through our play - FUN being the most important aspect and the channel for our learning and development. Our outdoor environment is used to its full potential, incorporating lots of forest school and risky play activities.

Everyone welcome! We are a totally inclusive setting…

Here at Stepping Stones, we celebrate everybody’s similarities and differences. Diversity is valued, bias challenged, and kindness praised. A happy and safe child having fun will experience a high quality of learning and not even realise that they are learning. 

We believe in EQUITY, not just equality:

Equality implies giving each child the same opportunities, irrespective of their differences. EQUITY, is recognising the different needs and pathways of every child and providing those needs on an individual basis. No matter where our feet start, we aim to take the steps needed in order to finish our learning journey together.

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To find out more about our Local Offer, please click here.

To see our latest Ofsted report, please click here.