Little Gruffalos (Hemsworth)
GoodTakes funded hours★ 5.0 on GoogleBirth to 8+Long established
A day nursery in Pontefract for from 2 years up to school age, open 08:00 to 16:00, 5 days a week. £7.08 an hour, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in August 2022. Open since 2015, with 38 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Additional hour £7.08 If you need an additional hour added onto the end of your funded session this is available to you at the cost of:
One published rate. What you pay depends on the days you need and the funded hours you can claim.
Funded hours
15-hour and 30-hour funding.
What childcare usually costs in Wakefield
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Wakefield 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
WF9 4AZWhat 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, 3 August 2022 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children are happy, settled and secure at this fun and welcoming setting. Children form strong bonds with staff, who are caring and friendly. Staff provide good support for children's personal, social and emotional development. Children learn to share as they pretend to make ice creams in the sand tray. They take turns as they choose which song to sing at circle time. Staff teach children the importance of being kind to their friends and other living things as they carefully carry a snail that they have found in the enclosed garden.
Children benefit from secure daily routines and prompts from staff about what to expect next. This helps children to feel emotionally secure. Children delight in their own achievements. Staff praise and encourage them as they travel along balancing beams in the garden. This helps to raise children's confidence and self-esteem.
Staff are specific in their praise, so that children know exactly what they have achieved and are being praised for. Children are eager, enthusiastic and motivated to learn. They show great excitement as they play with their friends and staff during circle games using a parachute. Children grow in independence. They pour their own drinks and clear away their bowls at snack time.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- provide children with enough time, when questioned, to respond and to formulate their thinking, words and ideas n strengthen ways to provide detailed information more frequently to parents about what their children have been doing and learning.
- 3 August 2022Good
- 16 August 2021Needs improvement
- 9 August 2016Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 2 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Little Gruffalos (Hemsworth)
- 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 £7.08 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.
- 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.