Mount Carmel Kindergarten
OutstandingTakes funded hours★ 5.0 on GoogleBirth to 8+Long established
A day nursery in St Albans for from 2 years up to school age, open 08:00 to 17:00, 5 days a week. £538.91 a month for two year old, and they take the funded hours. Rated Outstanding by Ofsted in September 2024. Open since 2016, with 62 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Term time only, 38 weeks a year, minimum 3 days a week, price list dated 2025-2026.
| Age | Monthly | |
|---|---|---|
| Two year old2y to 3y | £538.913 days £718.554 days £1045.005 days | |
| Three year old3y to 4y | £720.283 days £844.643 days £960.374 days £1229.824 days £1304.095 days £1615.005 days | |
| All ages | £1155.553 days £1540.734 days £1925.915 days |
Extras
Charged on top of the session rate.
- £13.00 a day Breakfast club from 8:00am Pre-booked in regular schedule
- £15.00 a day Breakfast club from 8:00am Ad-hoc
Where this came from
The outlined line is the one the price was taken from.
Funded hours
All children over three years old receive the Early Years Entitlement Funding. All parents are entitled to 15 hours funding and eligible parents can claim 30 hours per week during the term time.
Worth knowing. Funding for working parents is only available for parents who meet the eligibility criteria.
What childcare usually costs in Hertfordshire
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Hertfordshire 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
AL4 0BXWhat 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, 9 September 2024 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Staff greet children and families warmly on arrival, providing reassurance and support to help new children settle in comfortably to this outstanding setting. Staff build strong relationships with their key children, fostering a sense of security and belonging from the start of the day. Children quickly become engaged in the highly effective and ambitious curriculum. Their imaginative world is captured as they race cars up and down tracks they have made, and skilfully use tools to manipulate dough to make cakes for their friends. Staff take every opportunity to introduce new words to children, such as 'crunchy' and 'squidgy', as they describe foods they eat for lunch, fully supporting children to develop complex language.
Staff promote a democratic and child-led learning environment where children have a strong voice. Children engage in collective decision-making processes during assemblies. Staff encourage children to express their preferences as they use tokens to vote for the activity they would like to do. Children are extremely well behaved. They learn to show respect for their environment as staff encourage them to tidy away toys when they have finished. Staff provide an abundance of positive feedback and praise when they complete these tasks, fully supporting children's positive behaviour and building their already-high self-esteem.
- 9 September 2024Outstanding
- 12 November 2018Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 2 of the last 2 graded inspections.
Still missing for Mount Carmel Kindergarten
- 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.
- Is £538.91 a month 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.