Forbury Gardens Day Nursery
GoodTakes funded hours★ 4.5 on GoogleBirth to 8+Open for decades
A day nursery in Reading for babies from 3 months up to school age, open 08:00 to 18:00, 5 days a week. £101.00 a day for over 2 years, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in September 2024. Open since 2002, with 95 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Term time only, 38 weeks a year, minimum 3 days a week, price list dated MAY 2026.
| Age | Full day | Hourly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 3 yearsbirth to 3y | – | £9.605 Days £10.501-4 Days | |
| Under 2 yearsbirth to 2y | £96.005 Days per Week £108.00Part times - Daily | – | |
| Over 2 years2y to 5y | £87.505 Days per Week £101.00Part times - Daily | – | |
| Over 3 years3y to 5y | – | £9.005 Days £10.501-4 Days |
Before you start
One-off charges to take a place.
- £50.00 Registration feenot refundable
- £100.00 a day Depositper day of attendance, refundable
What a funded hour still costs
Funded hours cover the childcare. These are charged alongside them.
- £0.55 an hour Food (£11 per day) - Discounted rateper funded hour
- £1.10 an hour Food (£11 per day)per funded hour
Where this came from
The outlined line is the one the price was taken from.
Funded hours
15 hours per week term time only (38 weeks per year) and 30 hours over 38 weeks (term time only) applied across the whole year giving up to 22.35 hours per week.
Worth knowing. We will claim up to a maximum of 8 hours funding per day of attendance up to 22.35 hours across the week (over a minimum of 3 days). You will also be charged for Food and consumables associated with any funded hours per week.
What childcare usually costs in Reading
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Reading 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
RG1 3HWWhat 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, 19 September 2024 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children arrive happy at nursery and separate from their parents and carers with confidence. Staff show genuine care and affection for the children. They give lots of reassurance to new and younger children when changes happen, such as when children move from outside back indoors. Babies are given lots of cuddles, and staff are interested in what older children have to say.
Leaders and staff are successful at implementing a curriculum that builds on children's existing knowledge and interests. For example, when children indicate that they would like to do some painting, staff tidy away some resources to make room and accommodate their wishes. Staff then use the opportunity to reinforce children's learning about colours and how colours can change when they are mixed together. Staff also provide experiences that broaden children's understanding of their local community and of each other. For instance, children visit the local museum and parks. They donate food to the local church and foodbanks for harvest festival. Staff play music from different cultural backgrounds, and students from the nearby university are invited to read stories in children's home languages.
Children show that they feel safe and secure at the nursery. They speak confidently to visitors and engage them in play. Staff encourage children's independence and set clear expectations for behaviour. Older children know, for example, to wait for headcounts to be completed before they move from the garden, and they join in with the counting to check their friends are with them.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- continue to support staff's professional development to create consistently strong practice when staff are covering to work with different-age children n review the organisation of mealtimes and staff deployment to support children effectively as they wait.
- 19 September 2024Good
- 1 July 2019Good
- 5 May 2015Outstanding
Rated Good or Outstanding at 3 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Forbury Gardens Day Nursery
- Nappies
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 £101.00 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.