STEP BY STEP SCHOOL LIMITED

Registered charity 1091258 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as STEP BY STEP: A SCHOOL FOR AUTISTIC CHILDREN LIMITED

Step by Step School is registered as an independent special day school for pupils with autism, over the age range 4-19

Objects

THE OBJECTS ("THE OBJECTS") FOR WHICH THE CHARITY IS ESTABLISHED ARE TO:A. PROMOTE, MAINTAIN, IMPROVE AND ADVANCE THE EDUCATION AND HEALTH OF CHILDREN DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM AND/OR OTHER AUTISTIC AND COMMUNICATION DISORDERS ("AUTISM") IN EAST SUSSEX AND SURROUNDING DISTRICTS, BY PROVIDING A SCHOOL, TRAINING FACILITIES AND TRAINING MATERIALS;B. PROVIDE HELP AND GUIDANCE TO FAMILIES AND CARERS OF CHILDREN DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM AND TO PROVIDE FACILITIES TO ENABLE FAMILIES AND CARERS TO MEET AND ACHIEVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR AND THEIR CHILDRENS' PROBLEMS; ANDC. PROMOTE A GREATER KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF AUTISM PEOPLE AMONGST THE PUBLIC AND AMONGST THOSE CONCERNED IN THEIR EDUCATION AND CASE MANAGEMENT, INTER ALIA, BY THE PROVISION OF INFORMATION AND PUBLICITY, LECTURES, COURSES AND CONFERENCES.

Area of benefit: EAST SUSSEX

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · Disability · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity generated a net income of £393,219 for the year ended 31 August 2025, with total funds increasing to £2,761,220. The trustees report that free reserves amounted to £1,568,885, which exceeds their policy target of three months of projected expenditure. The auditors confirmed that the financial statements give a true and fair view and identified no material uncertainties regarding the charity's ability to continue as a going concern.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by WBD Accountants Limited. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Inspection and regulatory ratings

Matched to this charity by name; verify provider identity on the regulator’s site.

• Ofsted — Step by Step School Limited: Outstanding (NULL) · Ofsted

In its annual return the charity told the Commission it is also regulated by: Ofsted (Office For Standards In Education). This is the charity’s own declaration; it is not a rating and has not been verified by the Commission or by this site.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 04305048

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Dr Olivia Kurzeja — Headteacher (source)
• Clare Eastwood — School Business Manager (source)
• Martin Colyer — Interim Chair of Governors (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• KOLADE, Kerry Suzanne — director, appointed 17/03/2026on trustee list
• KENNEDY, Paul John — director, appointed 04/12/2025on trustee list
• PATEL, Sonal Bhavin — director, appointed 13/05/2025on trustee list
• BROWN, Matthew Binfield — director, appointed 09/10/2023on trustee list
• COLYER, Martin Stanley — director, appointed 10/03/2023on trustee list
• SCOTT, Helen Augusta Allison — director, appointed 21/03/2022on trustee list
• HOLMES, Diana — secretary, appointed 05/06/2024

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

2 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/08/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~7.3 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (97% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.1% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Helen A A Scott
• Kerry Kolade
• Martin Colyer · trustee of 1 other charity
• Matthew Brown
• Paul John Kennedy
• Sonal Patel

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Bexley · Bromley · Croydon · East Sussex · Kent · Surrey · Sutton · West Sussex

Income and spending

Common questions

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE ST ALBANS & HARPENDEN CHRISTIAN EDUCATION PROJECT.

• THE ST ALBANS & HARPENDEN CHRISTIAN EDUCATION PROJECT income £226k
• STEEPHILL SCHOOL income £1.2m
• STEP (SWINDON) income £290k
• STEPS CLUB FOR YOUNG PEOPLE income £111k
• STEP BY STEP (WALES) income £155k
• STEP (UK) LTD income £225k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.