Bradford Abbas Pre-School
GoodTakes funded hoursBirth to 5Open for decades
A pre-school in Sherborne for children from birth to 5, open 08:30 to 15:00, 5 days a week. £36.80 a day, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in November 2021. Open since 1993, with 24 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Price list dated March 2024.
| Age | Full day | Session | Hourly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All ages | £36.80 | £19.20Short Morning, 3 hrs £25.80Long Morning, 4 hrs | £6.80Per Hour |
Extras
Charged on top of the session rate.
- £2.55 Cooked Meal (optional)
- £3.50 Early Bird drop off 8.30am
Funded hours
Early education grant for two, three and four year old children.
Worth knowing. There is an additional charge of 55p per hours, for our funded children.
What childcare usually costs in Dorset
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Dorset 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
DT9 6RFWhat 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, 11 November 2021 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children arrive happy and settled at this welcoming pre-school. They separate confidently from their parents and become fully engaged in the wide range of activities on offer. Effective settling-in procedures help children to form good attachments to their key person. Staff use children's starting points to plan suitable activities that meet their interests. Children enjoy listening to stories and looking at books. Staff support children's understanding of the story by using visual props.
Children listen carefully and enjoy repeating phrases of the story. Children are offered a wide range of activities to support their physical development. For example, children take part in music and movement in the hall and enjoy balancing on stepping stones in the outside space. Staff regularly take the children on walks to the local park. Children have many opportunities to express themselves creatively. They enjoy playing in the role play shop and learn to mix paints themselves when painting. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the pre-school closed for a period of time. When they reopened, they worked closely with the local school and with parents to make adaptations to the pre-school. For example, they now use a different entrance to more easily help them support social distancing at arrival and departure times.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- focus teaching more sharply to develop children's understanding of people, families and communities and further extend their awareness of diversity n evaluate the effectiveness of staff's training and target further support more closely, to help to raise the quality of teaching even higher.
- 11 November 2021Good
- 19 October 2015Outstanding
- 21 January 2009Outstanding
Rated Good or Outstanding at 3 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Bradford Abbas Pre-School
- Youngest age taken
- 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 £36.80 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.