Acorn Playgroup & Pre-School
Ofsted report card Dec 2025Takes funded hours★ 5.0 on GoogleBirth to 8+Long established
A day nursery in Welwyn for from 2 years up to school age, open 09:00 to 15:00, 5 days a week. £7.70 an hour, and they take the funded hours. Inspected under Ofsted's new report card in December 2025. Open since 2013, with 32 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Term time only, 38 weeks a year.
| Age | Session | Hourly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| All ages | £23.10fees, 3 hrs | £7.70Session fees |
Before you start
One-off charges to take a place.
- £30.00 Registration feenot refundable
Extras
Charged on top of the session rate.
- £7.70 a day Lunch Club
Where this came from
The outlined line is the one the price was taken from.
Funded hours
15 hours free childcare, per week, for 38 weeks of the year; 15 and 30 hours working families free childcare schemes; 2 year old 15 hours free childcare scheme.
Worth knowing. If your child attends less than 15 hours with us, the extra hours may be used for the lunch club.
What childcare usually costs in Hertfordshire
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Hertfordshire from the Department for Education's 2025 provider survey. No national data holds what an individual nursery charges, so ring and ask.
Places, hours and the day
Who they take, when they are open, and what a day there includes.
Where it is
AL6 9FNWhat Ofsted found, area by area
Since November 2025 Ofsted gives a standard in each of seven areas rather than one overall grade. Expected standard means it is doing what it should.
What the inspector found
One grade is one visit. A run of them tells you whether it has been good for years or has only just got there.
- 5 December 2025Report card seven areas graded separately Safeguarding: Met
- 4 February 2020Outstanding
- 18 October 2013Outstanding
Rated Good or Outstanding at 2 of the last 2 graded inspections.
Still missing for Acorn Playgroup & Pre-School
- Nappies
- Waiting list
No dataset holds any of this. Two parents telling us the same thing puts it on the page for whoever looks next.
What to ask them
Some of this is above, from the setting or from parents, and it can go out of date. The rest is in no dataset anywhere. Either way it is worth ten minutes on the phone.
- Is £7.70 an hour still the rate? What is on top: meals, nappies, late pick-up, and what happens if you are late.
- How do you apply my funded hours? Whether they stretch them over the year, and the minimum days you have to book.
- Do you have a place for a child of my age now? Baby rooms fill first and waiting lists are common.
- Who would my child's key person be? And how long have the staff been there. No dataset holds this and it matters more than anything above.
- Can I visit at a busy time? Mid-morning on a weekday tells you far more than an empty room after hours.
Day nurseries within a couple of miles
This one is first. Tick it and one or two others to see them side by side.