Springboard Chippenham is a charity that provides support for pre-school children (aged 0-5) with special needs and their families.
Our motto is ‘maximising ability, minimising disability’.
We are based in the town of Chippenham in Wiltshire, but our catchment area covers the whole of North Wiltshire. We have been successfully helping children and their families since 1976 and we are the only specialist service of our kind in the north of the county.
Younger children and their families attend our stay and play groups whereas children aged 2 and above can access our specialist preschool. We have 78 child places available per week and we are currently oversubscribed. We also provide information, support and training to families and other members of the community that interact with the Springboard children e.g. other preschool settings, childminders & primary school teachers/TAs. In February 2022 Springboard was rated outstanding by Ofsted, this is our 4th outstanding Ofsted rating in row.
What makes our Chippenham Centre unique and successful is our high staff to child ratio’s (1:1 or 1:2 occasionally 1:3). In addition, our staff are trained to deal with the specific medical and learning needs the children might have. Mainstream preschool settings are generally not able to provide this level of extra specialist support that some children with additional needs require to make progress.