Little Acorns Nursery
GoodBirth to 8+Open for decades
A day nursery in Barnsley for children from birth to 8+, open 8am to 6pm. They do not publish prices, so that is the first thing to ask. Rated Good by Ofsted in March 2024. Open since 1993, with 28 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 Barnsley
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Barnsley 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
S70 5HJWhat 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 March 2024 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children excitedly bound into the nursery, where staff welcome them with a warm and friendly greeting. Children have secure emotional attachments with staff. This helps them to feel safe and secure, settle quickly and play happily. Children benefit from a broad range of learning opportunities. These, overall, take good account of children's stage of learning and their interests. This helps all children to progress well and develop fundamental skills for moving on to school.
Children make choices about their play. They independently access resources that support many aspects of their learning. Staff recognise that many children love being outside. They enable children to freely access the well-resourced garden, which helps children to thrive and develop great confidence in their physical skills.
For example, children use tools to dig for worms and balance on planks, which they strategically place on tyres, large industrial cotton reels and crates. Children explore, investigate and have immense fun. For example, they splash in muddy puddles, negotiate and slide down the muddy banking, make a 'mud' pie and roll balls down plastic tubes.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- take greater account of, and support, two-year-old children's individual learning needs more precisely during care routines and activities n share more information with the host school, to complement children's learning and help them to make the best possible progress through a shared and consistent approach n strengthen the arrangements for monitoring, coaching and training, to help staff to raise the quality of education to the highest level.
- 19 March 2024Good
- 12 April 2018Good
- 9 May 2017Needs improvement
Rated Good or Outstanding at 2 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Little Acorns Nursery
- What it costs
- Funded hours
- 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
None of this is in any national dataset and this setting has not published it, which is exactly why it is worth asking.
- What does it cost, all in? What is on top: meals, nappies, late pick-up, and what happens if you are late.
- Can I use my funded hours here? 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.