Goldfinch Nursery
GoodTakes funded hours★ 5.0 on GoogleBirth to 8+Open for decades
A day nursery in Herne Bay for children from birth to 8+, open 07:00 to 18:00, 5 days a week. £28.50 a day, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in April 2022. Open since 2010, with 57 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
49 weeks a year, price list dated 30th March 2026.
| Age | Full day | |
|---|---|---|
| All ages | £28.50Two Day Package |
Extras
Charged on top of the session rate.
- £12.00 an hour Extra Hours outside of these
What a funded hour still costs
Funded hours cover the childcare. These are charged alongside them.
- £15.00 a month Consumables FeeIncluded when opting for 3 days of the £28.50/day package., includes Wipes, tissues, sunscreen, Party days and
Funded hours
15 hours universal (for all 3 & 4-year-olds), Up to 30 extended hours (for working parents of 3 & 4 year olds), 30 hours for eligible 2 year olds, 30 hours for eligible 9 - 23 month olds, Free for 2 15 hours for eligible 2 year olds.
Worth knowing. We stretch these funded hours across 49 weeks. Funded hours are free within sessions (7:30am - 5:00pm, 7:30am - 5:30pm). Hours outside this time are not covered by funding and are chargeable. Funded only places are limited to set days based on funding, and can be changed with short notice. Do not include early drop off, snacks, or flexibility. Cannot be combined with extras unless opting into a paid package. Require parents to provide all consumables and meals, unless voluntarily opting in to pa.
What childcare usually costs in Kent
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Kent 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
CT6 7ADWhat 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, 12 April 2022 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children thoroughly enjoy their time at this friendly, welcoming nursery. The rural setting is extremely inviting. On arrival, children enjoy stopping and watching pigs happily playing in their pens, and looking at tractors and other machinery nearby.
These features provide a great start to the day and help to ignite children's interests and curiosity. Children benefit from good-quality teaching, which supports their learning and the good progress they make. Each child's personal qualities are planned for. Staff work hard to make sure all children achieve to the best of their abilities.
Children behave very well. They make friends easily and form close attachments to the staff. These relationships continued well during the COVID-19 pandemic as staff kept in touch with children and parents regularly to check on their well-being and offer support. For example, staff encouraged families to upload their home experiences so that they could continue a strong connection. Staff provided additional resources so that parents could continue to support children's learning at home. When children returned to nursery, they settled back in easily.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- improve teaching to the highest level by ensuring that staff are always responding to what children are doing and saying, and allow them time to embed learning before moving on n strengthen the planning of group times to focus more precisely on all children's learning to help ensure they remain focused and engaged.
- 12 April 2022Good
- 24 November 2016Good
- 10 May 2013Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 3 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Goldfinch Nursery
- 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 £28.50 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.
Day nurseries within a couple of miles
This one is first. Tick it and one or two others to see them side by side.