My name is Lesley Berrington. I am NNEB qualified and the former owner of Stepping Stones Day Care Limited. I opened my first Nursery in 1997 and went on to open 2 more Nurseries and 2 Kids’ Clubs within 4 years.
After attending a course about the Disability Discrimination Act in 2004 I began searching for story books, featuring disability, to use in my Nurseries. It was very difficult to find any and the ones that I did find used the story to explain the disability. This is not what I wanted in my books. I wanted the child with a disability to be part of the story to introduce the disability to other children, but not to draw attention to it. I created ‘Hattie and friends’ to meet the growing demand for inclusive resources.
‘Hattie and friends’ inclusive stories and resources are now used in hundreds of EYFS settings around the UK.
After selling 8.000 copies of these books, it’s exciting to announce new updated editions for 2019
I always love to hear feedback about my stories so please let me know what you think.