Bar Hill Day Nursery
GoodTakes funded hours★ 5.0 on GoogleBirth to 8+Long established
A day nursery in Cambridge for children from birth to 8+, open 07:30 to 18:00, 5 days a week. They take the funded hours. They do not publish prices, so ask. Rated Good by Ofsted in January 2022. Open since 2016, with 58 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Funded hours
Most children become eligible for free childcare places from the school term after they turn 9 months old. Children over 9 months are usually eligible for free childcare for 15 hours a week during term-time or can spread the hours over the full year. From September 2025, this will become 30 hours per week. Children of working parents may be eligible for 30 hours childcare a week.
Worth knowing. At Buttercups, we currently do not pass on to parents any charges for consumable items or any other top ups. In real terms, this means that your child's funded hours are deducted from your invoice as complete hours and you will only be charged for any extra hours above those covered by the funding.
What childcare usually costs in Cambridgeshire
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Cambridgeshire 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
CB23 8DYWhat 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.
Ofsted inspector, 10 January 2022 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children receive good-quality education at this warm and homely nursery. They arrive happy and eager to learn. Children and their families are enthusiastically greeted on arrival by friendly staff, who are skilled at helping children who are new to the nursery to quickly settle and to feel comfortable in their surroundings.
Children of all ages have developed close relationships with the adults who care for them and feel comfortable to approach staff and communicate their wants and needs. Babies' welcome cuddles and close interaction. They enjoy snuggling on staff's knees to look at books.
Children take great delight in participating in the sensory and creative opportunities that are presented to them. Toddlers thoroughly enjoy playing with foam and making handprints with paint. Babies excitedly squish sand, cooked spaghetti and noodles between their fingers. In the pre-school, children re-enact their favourite stories in the garden. They are fascinated by a bee they find in the sandpit. Staff take the opportunity to teach children about bees and their features through a number of interesting activities and rich conversations. Children show great pride in their drawings of bees that they create with their friends.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- build staff's understanding of how to support children who speak English as an additional language n reorganise snack and mealtimes to ensure the needs of all children are met.
- 10 January 2022Good
- 6 October 2017Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 2 of the last 2 graded inspections.
Still missing for Bar Hill Day Nursery
- What it costs
- Youngest age taken
- Meals
- 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.
- What does it cost, all in? 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.
- Is there a place for my child's age? 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.