Broadmayne & West Knighton Pre-School
GoodTakes funded hoursBirth to 8+Open for decades
A pre-school in Dorchester for from 2 years 6 months up to school age, open 09:00 to 15:00, 5 days a week. £42.00 a day for 2-year olds, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in November 2023. Open since 1993, with 20 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
| Age | Full day | Session | Hourly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2-year olds2y to 3y | £42.00Fees for 2-year olds | £21.00Fees for 2-year olds | £7.00Fees for 2-year olds | |
| 3-4 year-olds3y to 4y | £39.00Fees for 3-4 year-olds | £19.50Fees for 3-4 year-olds | £6.50Fees for 3-4 year-olds |
What a funded hour still costs
Funded hours cover the childcare. These are charged alongside them.
- £1.50 a session resources paymentfor children aged 3 and 4 who attend preschool using funded hours
Where this came from
The outlined line is the one the price was taken from.
Funded hours
2/ 3/ 4 year old funding.
Worth knowing. Resources payment of £1.50 per funded session (half day).
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
DT2 8PHWhat 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, 21 November 2023 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children of all ages build strong bonds with their key person and other staff in the pre-school. They arrive happily and receive gentle support to settle quickly. Older children enjoy positive interactions with staff, and younger children seek them out to play. They pretend to take staff to faraway places on the ship they steer using plastic hoops. Children are keen to share their thoughts and ideas with staff. They feel safe and secure in this welcoming pre-school.
Children develop positive attitudes to their learning. They explore the many activities set out for them with enthusiasm. For example, older children competently use hammers to knock pins into corkboards to make creative patterns or pictures of vehicles. They learn to share and take turns as they pass around a pot of pins and shapes with their friends. Children behave very well. All children make good progress in their learning and development.
The manager and staff have high expectations for all children and plan a curriculum that reflects their individual needs. Staff have focused on supporting children's personal, social and emotional development following the COVID-19
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- focus professional development more precisely to further strengthen staff's teaching skills n strengthen ways to share information with parents about children's individual learning needs and how to continue learning at home.
- 21 November 2023Good
- 14 March 2018Good
- 7 October 2015Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 3 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Broadmayne & West Knighton Pre-School
- 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 £42.00 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.