Twistin Tots began as a Tuesday afternoon session in Belper in June 2006, when I was six months pregnant with my second child. I couldn’t find any other music classes locally and as my (then) 16-month old daughter loved music and dancing, I thought I’d get something started. I have always been musical and theatrical, which combined with a background in marketing – in the education and training fields – meant I did have some idea of what I was doing!
The Tuesday class was a great success and a Friday class followed a year later in October 2007, with a second Friday class – to meet demand – starting soon after in November 2007 and in a few years we were running 14 classes weekly.
In 2013, 2-hour Music & Play sessions were introduced, combining the fun of the Twistin Tots music session with an additional open play session for the same price.
In January 2014, our first new class – Twistin Tinies Adventures – for parents and carers with children under 18 months – was launched in Belper. Our new parents had been asking for their own class for a while and the time was right. We introduced our baby programme, not only to entertain our families but also form a Community where they could meet other parents with babies of a similar age and get parenting advice – something that came into its own when Covid hit!! In 2019, we bought another baby business – Baby World & Me – and combined the best elements of both programmes, making our Twistin Tinies Adventures classes even better!
In October 2017, we were awarded Gold Star Accreditation from the Children’s Activities Association (CAA). (subsequently reassessed and reawarded in 2023) which gives parents the peace of mind of knowing that all of our classes have been assessed to be of a very high standard and offering sessions which help your children to learn and develop key skills. 
In 2018, we introduced our Care Home sessions – Twistin Tots Golden – where we took our classes into Care Homes allowing our children and parents to mix with elderly residents. These sessions were proving to be a great success until Covid arrived and we have just resurrected them in June 2025.
In 2019 Twistin Tots and Twistin Tinies Adventures were nominated and became Finalists in the What’s on 4 Kids national Awards. This has been the same for the past 7 years.
During Lockdown, we received the 3 Gold Kite Award from ICAP (their highest Award) and in 2021 we won 4 Awards in the Every Giggle Awards. 2024 saw us nominated in 3 categories of the local Lots for Tots Awards and for 2025, we were nominated in four categories and reached the Finals for Best Session Leader!
During Lockdown we also ran our classes for free – online – for 20 weeks, 5-days a week to help our parents, plus we developed our Private Members’ Areas which customers at our face-to-face classes now also receive access to as part of their class fee. These PMAs include tips, activities, useful information and a video of one of our classes.
All of our classes aim to promote learning, co-ordination and movement – in young children, and now also with the elderly. The sessions use simple actions that children can copy and memorise, helping them with language development and there are a variety of props used to assist children’s learning development and motor skills. Classes are suitable from birth to age five.
We have children coming from different backgrounds and of different ages – from newborns to those almost at school. We try to offer a range of different songs and rhymes so there is something for every age. Numbers at classes vary and classes are popular. We have a core of regular mums, dads, grans and granddads who come each week, but lots of others who turn up on spec, so hopefully that means we are am doing something right! If you are looking for something to use up some of that surplus energy that your child has, bring them along and help them develop new skills and meet new friends while still having fun. 
All children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
Public liability insurance to £5m. CRB checked.
