Hermitage Pre School Playgroup
GoodTakes funded hoursBirth to 5Long established
A pre-school in Hermitage for children from birth to 5, open 09:15 to 15:00, 5 days a week. £5.75 an hour, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in January 2024. Open since 2015, with 26 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
The current hourly rate is: £5.75 per hour , together with a voluntary snack charge of 50p per morning session.
One published rate. What you pay depends on the days you need and the funded hours you can claim.
Where this came from
The outlined line is the one the price was taken from.
Funded hours
Funding is available for three year olds and eligible two year olds. Eligible children receive a maximum of 30 hours free entitlement per week, which can be shared with one other setting.
What childcare usually costs in West Berkshire
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in West Berkshire 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
RG18 9WLWhat 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, 22 January 2024 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
The curriculum is ambitious for every child. Staff use their comprehensive knowledge and understanding of each child's development to help them make good progress. They work well as a team to meet children's individual care and learning needs, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
Children are motivated to learn. For example, staff help children to use binoculars they make during creative activities to look for wildlife in the area surrounding the pre-school. Children eagerly identify and talk about things they see in the trees, such as birds. Staff explain the names of the birds and help them to match them to related pictures. Children are inspired to engage in imaginative play. They run around pretending to be birds, flap their arms and make loud bird noises.
Staff have clear expectations of children's behaviour. They use positive language that gains children's cooperation as well as strategies that successfully help children with SEND self-regulate their emotions. Children are happy, settled and feel safe.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- strengthen the implementation of the curriculum outdoors so that children are inspired to engage in purposeful play and make even better progress.
- 22 January 2024Good
- 17 December 2018Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 2 of the last 2 graded inspections.
Still missing for Hermitage Pre School Playgroup
- 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 £5.75 an hour 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.