Giant Steps on The Borough

Giant Steps on The Borough
Unique reference number (URN): 2792673
Address: Memorial Hall, The Borough, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP5 3NB
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registered with Ofsted: 28/05/2024
Registers: EYR
Registered person: Giant Steps (Yexley) Limited
Inspection report: 16 June 2026
Exceptional
Strong standard
Expected standard
Needs attention
Urgent improvement
Safeguarding standards met
The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for
governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open
culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively
identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.
How we evaluate safeguarding
When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:
Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding.
Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all
legal requirements are met.

Strong standard
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard
Leaders and staff have embedded clear, consistent and supportive approaches to
behaviour. They maintain high expectations for children and adapt these to suit their ages
and abilities. This ensures all children know what is expected of them throughout the day.
This helps them to feel safe and secure in their environment. Staff use gentle reminders to
guide children, including wiping their feet on the mat and to use their walking feet inside,
teaching them about personal safety. Children demonstrate deep engagement and
enjoyment through their play, maintaining positive attitudes throughout. Recent adaptations
to the environment have led to an increase in focus and collaboration with their peers.
Staff use highly impactful strategies to help children manage transitions meticulously. Staff
recognise when children need extra time to process what is happening next, and use visual
aids and timers. This leads to seamless transitions that positively impact children's self-
regulation. For example, when children hear the timer to finish, they immediately stop and
let each other know it is carpet time. Staff are excellent role models and help children to
begin to manage conflict for themselves. This encourages children's resilience and problem-
solving. Children and staff have formed wonderful, nurturing and trusting relationships with
each other.
Leaders carefully monitor attendance so that children benefit fully from their experiences at
the setting. From the start, leaders explain to parents and carers the importance of arriving
on time and of notifying staff of any absences. They follow up absences with families and
offer support where needed.
Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard
Leaders and staff place a keen focus on supporting children's welfare and wellbeing. They
create a nurturing and supportive environment, helping children to flourish in developing
their awareness of their physical and emotional needs. Staff are highly responsive to
children's needs and follow well-established routines that have been adapted to suit the
needs of individual children. For example, staff work closely with parents and carers to
prepare transitions to support those children who struggle within new environments and with
separation from parents. This creates positive partnerships from the start and helps children
to feel valued and heard. Staff use social stories to help prepare children for new
experiences such as 'leavers' parties'. This positively supports children's sense of belonging,
including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and those who face
barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing.
Children successfully engage in routines that promote healthy lifestyles. For example, they
wash their hands and attend to their own toileting needs. Children self-serve and use cutlery
confidently as they enjoy a healthy nutritious meal. Staff talk with children about healthy
foods and ensure they monitor lunchboxes to keep in line with healthy eating guidance. Staff
promote oral hygiene and children enjoy visits to the local dentist. Children have ample
opportunity to develop their physical skills and manage their own risks safely with daily
access to outside, supporting their physical health and wellbeing. Staff are mindful of

Expected standard
creating calm spaces for children, recognising the importance of this to help with self-
regulation. They implement co-regulation techniques such as holding children's hands and
breathing together, helping children to regulate their emotions and behaviour. Children adopt
these strategies and this creates an environment where children begin to manage their own
feelings. Children develop awareness of how to begin to look after themselves.
Inclusion Strong standard
Leaders and staff prioritise inclusion and have embedded a highly inclusive culture where all
children feel valued and supported. They form effective, trusting and supportive bonds with
families from the start, gathering important information about each child. The robust
assessment and monitoring procedures help staff to quickly identify when additional support
for children is required. This means that children receive the appropriate level of support
they need to progress throughout the curriculum. Staff have a secure understanding of each
child and their emerging needs; they use this information to shape purposeful play and
learning experiences that children can freely access. Parents comment on how they feel
listened to, valued and well supported in implementing strategies to support children at
home. For example, regular home-learning opportunities aim to further support children's
personal, social and emotional development as well as enhance their communication and
language skills. Leaders are flexible with their approach to supporting families. For example,
leaders adapt settling-in sessions to meet children's needs, building up the length and
frequency of their visits to build familiarity and self-confidence.
Leaders work excellently with external professionals to provide tailored support plans,
embed highly impactful strategies and ensure the environment suits the needs and abilities
of all children within the setting. For example, staff and children together have created
individualised sensory boxes to support their self-regulation and sensory needs. Children
independently access specific sensory toys when they are feeling upset. This demonstrates
that children have an emerging awareness of their own feelings and how they can manage
these. Leaders use additional funding to personalise children's experiences, including
resources that support children's personal, social and emotional development. Leaders and
staff ensure they target training to meet the needs of children and share new knowledge
with all staff to provide consistency. They work closely with the local authority, local schools
and parents to ensure a collaborative approach to children's learning. For example, leaders
regularly meet to discuss children's needs and abilities, providing supportive and gradual
transitions for children from other settings and on to school.
Achievement Expected standard
All children make sustained progress from their starting points across all areas of the
curriculum and are well prepared for their next stage of learning, including school. Children
show high levels of focus and engagement when pouring water to and from various-sized
containers. They use their senses to smell various flavours of opened tea bags and
excitedly share these with staff. Children learn to navigate space and test their balance and
stability as they ride bikes outside. Children independently sit and form letters of their

favourite animals, developing their pencil control, and others enjoy colouring and painting.
Children chat happily with their peers, sharing their experiences, including where they have
been on holiday. Children listen attentively and show a genuine interest in their back-and-
forth conversations. They use mathematical language, such as taller and one more, and
begin to estimate when counting. Children explore shapes and confidently name these.
Although children access a range of activities and enjoy these, leaders should support staff
to tailor their teaching more precisely to help children to further build on their skills and
knowledge.
Curriculum and teaching Expected standard
Leaders have recently introduced a new curriculum that is ambitious and covers all key
areas of the curriculum. Staff plan and deliver a curriculum that generally supports children's
progress across all areas of learning. They work together well as a team to consider what
resources and activities to provide, based on children's interests and next steps. This means
that all children make steady progress in their learning and are well supported. However,
staff do not always tailor their teaching to fully target children's individual next steps in
learning. This limits opportunities for children to further build on what they know and can do.
Staff know children well, including their starting points, needs and stages of development.
Children enjoy working together as they pretend to be mechanics fixing the bikes outside
and others explore their creativity when making their own creations using small construction.
Staff promote children's communication and language through daily stories and singing, and
children enjoy learning sign language. Staff help children to recall what they have learned,
helping to embed learning. They introduce new words and consistently narrate to children,
helping children to become confident communicators.
Staff provide opportunities that help children to develop their early maths skills, skilfully
weaving these through daily routines. Children learn new concepts, such as estimating
quantities and checking their guesses with the correct answer. Children count confidently
and name shapes, including 3-D shapes, such as cube.
Leaders and staff place a high focus on children's personal, social and emotional
development. They support children to express their emotions and implement a variety of
ways for children to make their own choices around this. For example, children access
personal resources when they feel overwhelmed and use the 'calm choices board' to help
them direct their focus and attention. Staff respond sensitively, helping children to feel safe
and secure.
Leadership and governance Expected standard
Dedicated leaders care about their roles and responsibilities in providing high-quality care
and education for children. They use self-evaluation well to inform improvements and build
on their strengths. They share improvement plans with staff to provide open and transparent
working relationships and goals. Recent changes to the curriculum and the environment
have had a positive impact on children's wellbeing, routines and focus. However, leaders
have yet to reflect on staff deployment during child-led times to ensure children access
consistent high-quality teaching. Leaders provide ongoing commitment to the wellbeing of
staff and staff report high levels of enjoyment in their roles. Staff undertake targeted training

by leaders to help expand their knowledge and skills. For example, leaders have worked
closely with the local authority and staff to embed effective strategies, helping to reduce
barriers in children's learning. Leaders make decisions based on the best interests of
children and families.
Leaders have formed trusting relationships with parents and carers and value their
feedback. Parents comment positively on the swift identification of when children need
additional support and value the home-learning strategies offered by staff. Parents value the
flexibility of starting procedures and appreciate the care that staff show in supporting their
children. Leaders have created a real sense of community; they engage with community
fetes and provide opportunities for parents to attend events, such as Easter fun days.
Leaders engage with local schools and welcome teachers to visit to support children's
transitions on to school.
What it's like to be a child at this setting
Children and families are greeted warmly as they eagerly arrive. Children hang their
belongings on their pegs and happily enter the setting, excitedly anticipating what they are
going to play with. When children need reassurance, staff swiftly implement strategies that
are closely created with parents and carers to support a peaceful and calm transition into
the setting. Leaders promote and monitor attendance to ensure all children attend regularly,
building positive habits for the future. Children and parents benefit highly from an effective
key-person system with meaningful communication, helping to create robust partnerships.
This fully supports children's emotional wellbeing. This includes those children with special
educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who face barriers to their learning
and/or wellbeing. Children feel safe and secure within their environment.
Children thoroughly enjoy exploring the large inviting space. They immerse themselves in
activities inside and outside, suiting those children who prefer to learn outside. This provides
an inclusive environment for all children to access. Children demonstrate confidence and
test their own abilities as they swing happily from the climbing frame. They show physical
strength in their upper body as they pull themselves up and manoeuvre their bodies in
various ways. Children have fun finding toy animals that match the story that staff read to
them, and others independently look through their chosen books. This helps children to
develop keen early literacy skills, in preparation for their future learning. Children with SEND
and those who face barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing access the same ambitious
curriculum through carefully planned adaptations, including room layouts, visual prompts
and tailored resources for play and learning. All children make steady progress from their
starting points.

Inspector:
Chelsea Woollard
About this setting
Unique reference number (URN): 2792673
Address:
Memorial Hall
The Borough
Salisbury
Wiltshire
SP5 3NB
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registration date: 28/05/2024
Children demonstrate kindness towards their peers and are keen to help staff. For example,
children enjoy the responsibility of small tasks, such as setting the table for snack time and
helping to set up new activities. They consistently show positive attitudes, high levels of
focus and engagement throughout their time at the setting. This provides children with
secure foundations for their future learning.
Next steps
Leaders should help staff tailor their teaching more precisely to help children further build
on their skills and knowledge.
Leaders should review the deployment of staff during child-led play to ensure consistent
high-quality teaching for children.
About this inspection
The inspector spoke with leaders, staff, children and parents during the inspection.
We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the
quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The
registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for
children's learning, development and care, known as the early years foundation stage.

Registered person: Giant Steps (Yexley) Limited
Register(s): EYR
Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 08:00 - 18:00
Local authority: Wiltshire
Facts and figures used on inspection
This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.
This data is from 16 June 2026
Children numbers
Age range of children at the time of inspection
3 to 4
Total number of places
32
Our grades explained
Exceptional
Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.
Strong standard
The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of
them.
Expected standard
The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are
following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional
standards expected of them.
Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary
improvements.
Urgent improvement
The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of
education and/or care.
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) inspects
services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects
and regulates services that care for children and young people.
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