Bobtails Playgroup
GoodTakes funded hoursBirth to 8+Open for decades
A pre-school in Ware for children from birth to 8+, open sessions in term time, often mornings. £36.00 a day, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in July 2021, though that is 5 years ago now. Open since 2010, with 30 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
| Age | Full day | Session | |
|---|---|---|---|
| All ages | £36.00All Day | £7.50Lunch Club £18.00Morning or Afternoon, 3 hrs |
Funded hours
15 & 30 Hours Free Funding For 2, 3 Year Olds.
Worth knowing. *Can be used flexibly as part of your child’s 15 or 30 free hours.
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
SG12 8EZWhat 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, 5 July 2021 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children settle quickly and find something to do as soon as they arrive. They are enthusiastic learners and enjoy coming in to see staff and their friends. Children show good problem-solving skills, for example fetching utensils from the play kitchen to transport water into a river for their toy cars. They love reading their favourite stories that staff present with an interesting selection of props to bring the book to life. Children listen to 'Dear Zoo' and act out the various animals, enthusiastically making the animal noises. They stretch up to be a giraffe and roar like a lion.
Children are often well focused and become deeply involved in some activities that spark their interests. For example, they examine spiders on a web that they find in the garden. They fetch magnifying glasses and carefully look for different features of the creatures. They compare them with toy insects they have buried in their sandpit and sing 'Incy Wincey Spider' as they investigate a spider web. Staff are adept at responding to children's interests and help them to try things for themselves. Children learn different features of materials as they explore melting and freezing. They tell adults that ice is 'solid' and water is 'liquid'.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- continue to develop partnerships with other settings that children attend to promote a consistent approach to all areas of children's learning, particularly in relation to their literacy development n manage the planning of large group activities to enable staff to meet the learning needs of any children who wish to join in more successfully.
- 5 July 2021Good
- 6 March 2020Inadequate
- 4 March 2016Outstanding
Rated Good or Outstanding at 2 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Bobtails Playgroup
- 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.
- Is £36.00 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.
- 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.
Pre-schools within a couple of miles
This one is first. Tick it and one or two others to see them side by side.