Hardwick Pre-School
GoodTakes funded hoursBirth to 5Open for decades
A pre-school in Hardwick for children from birth to 5, open 09:15 to 14:45, 5 days a week. They take the funded hours. They do not publish prices, so ask. Rated Good by Ofsted in December 2023. Open since 2002, with 26 places.
What you might pay
This setting does not publish its fees, and no national dataset holds them. This is what childcare costs across the council, as a starting point for the call.
What childcare usually costs in Buckinghamshire
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Buckinghamshire 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
HP22 4DZWhat 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, 4 December 2023 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children enjoy spending time at this welcoming pre-school. Staff have high expectations of children's abilities. From the outset, children show increasing independence in their self-care skills. They leave their parents with confidence, place their belongings on their pegs and walk into the main room to find their names for self-registration. Staff place great importance in nurturing children's individual characteristics. As a result, children feel valued, develop high levels of self-esteem and behave well.
Books are widely accessible in the pre-school. Children of all ages sit attentively as they listen to familiar stories read by staff with great enthusiasm. Overall, children are focused and engaged when they play. They demonstrate perseverance as they use wooden blocks to create roads and rearrange the blocks to create new shapes or ramps. Children understand early mathematical concepts. They compare shapes and count and match patterns when completing different puzzles.
Children are developing into confident talkers. They initiate interesting conversations with staff about their home experiences. Children hear new words provided by staff and begin to apply these in context. For instance, children in the role-play area pretend to be at the hairdressers. They discuss their own experiences at the hairdressers and even discuss their aspirations, as one child wishes to have a fringe when they grow up. Overall, staff use opportunities to reinforce language and extend and model vocabulary to children.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- support staff in how to plan and sequence the curriculum more effectively
- build on arrangements for staff supervision and training, to further improve their practice.
- 4 December 2023Good
- 26 March 2018Good
- 23 March 2015Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 3 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Hardwick Pre-School
- What it costs
- 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.
- What does it cost, all in? 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.