Barney Bears Nursery
GoodTakes funded hours★ 4.2 on GoogleBirth to 8+Open for decades
A day nursery in Barking for babies from 3 months up to school age, open 07:30 to 18:30, 5 days a week. £97.00 a day for 2yrs – 3yrs, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in December 2022. Open since 2004, with 46 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
51 weeks a year.
| Age | Full day | Session | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3mths to 2yrs3m to 2y | £99.50Daily | £68.00s | |
| 2yrs – 3yrs2y to 3y | £97.00Daily | £66.00s | |
| 3yrs – 5yrs3y to 5y | £95.00Daily | £64.00s |
Before you start
One-off charges to take a place.
- £60.00 Admin feeon confirmation of nursery space
- £120.00 Deposit 2 days
- £220.00 Deposit 3 to 5 days
Extras
Charged on top of the session rate.
- £9.00 an hour Extra hours
What a funded hour still costs
Funded hours cover the childcare. These are charged alongside them.
- £80.00 a month Consumable Charge 11/15hours funding
- £160.00 a month Consumable Charge 22/30hours funding
Where this came from
The outlined line is the one the price was taken from.
Funded hours
Government Funding will be deducted from your child’s nursery fees and is based on 38 weeks per year. Funding is received from the term after a child’s birthday.
Worth knowing. Consumable charges are based on £1.54per funded hour attended weekly.
What childcare usually costs in Barking and Dagenham
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Barking and Dagenham 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
IG11 9LRWhat 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.
- 13 December 2024 — Concern: actions taken what Ofsted published
Ofsted inspector, 19 December 2022 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children are happy and display a good sense of belonging at the nursery. They benefit from a warm and welcoming environment that helps them to feel safe and secure. Staff are positive role models and provide support and encouragement to help children to engage in a broad range of activities. Children receive clear and consistent messages about kindness and sharing. As a result, children behave very well and have a growing understanding about expected behaviour.
Babies form good bonds with staff and enjoy exploring sensory activities. For instance, they show curiosity as they experiment with fake snow and enjoy exploring new words, such as 'snowman' and 'star'. Babies also hear new language when participating in a range of action songs. Toddlers show good levels of motivation as they enjoy writing letters in glitter and discussing the sounds in their name. This helps to support their early literacy skills. They also show a keen interest as they explore the differences between land and sea animals when discussing different habitats. This helps to foster children's understanding of the wider world.
Pre-school children display a positive approach towards learning and particularly enjoy mathematical activities. For instance, they enjoy counting planets and identifying the correct numbers that correspond. They also have opportunities to explore resources from the seaside, such as sea shells and moss, and staff encourage them to explore what sounds different objects begin with.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- support staff who work with babies to extend their language skills and learning to an even higher level n strengthen staff interactions across the whole nursery to provide children with more time to process and respond to questions, to further develop their thinking skills.
- 19 December 2022Good
- 8 March 2017Good
- 11 December 2013Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 3 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Run this setting? Claim this page and keep these details right.
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 £97.00 a day 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.