Mini Stars Childcare LTD
GoodTakes funded hours★ 5.0 on GoogleBirth to 8+Open for decades
A day nursery in Luton for babies from 6 months up to school age, open 08:00 to 18:00, 5 days a week. £70.00 a day for 2-3's, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in January 2025. Open since 2009, with 33 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Full Day 8am-6pm £ 70 Breakfast Lunch Tea & Snacks contact Us 2-3's
One published rate. What you pay depends on the days you need and the funded hours you can claim.
Funded hours
15 hours a week free government funding to eligible children from 9 months to 2 year olds; 30 hours a week free government funding to 3 and 4 year olds.
Worth knowing. If you do wish to send your child for the 15 or 30 hour entitlement you can pay a consumable charge for your child to have food provided by the nursery. Alternatively you can bring in snacks and lunch for your child as long as it is in line with our healthy eating policy.
What childcare usually costs in Luton
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Luton 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
LU1 3JAWhat 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, 30 January 2025 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Management and staff provide a nurturing environment. Children and their parents are warmly greeted by a member of staff on their arrival. This supports a smooth transition into their nursery day. Staff provide a good range of adult-led and childinitiated play. This includes daily opportunities for children to practise their skills and previously learned knowledge. Children eagerly explore the environment, behave well and demonstrate a positive attitude to their learning. For example, younger children concentrate as they manipulate and mould dough. They make models, such as pretend monsters and snakes, demonstrating their understanding of the difference between short and long as they describe their models.
Staff encourage babies and younger children to develop their hand-eye coordination skills as they learn to scoop and pour sand from one container to another. They encourage children to explore the texture of shaving foam, demonstrating how to make marks and draw different shapes. Children copy drawing wriggly lines and circle shapes. Staff support children to link numerals and amounts. For example, children place the correct number of pegs into wooden blocks to match the written numeral. Staff then encourage children to count the number of pegs. Additionally, staff support children to explore different shapes.
They are able to identify that a square has four sides and a circle is round.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- use every opportunity to extend children's learning during spontaneous activities, including challenging their physical skills when in the outdoor environment.
- 30 January 2025Good Safeguarding: Yes
- 22 November 2019Good
- 4 February 2015Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 3 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Mini Stars Childcare LTD
- 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 £70.00 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.
- 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.