Pinecones Nursery School
GoodTakes funded hoursBirth to 8+Long established
A day nursery in Sidmouth for babies from 9 months up to school age, open 07:30 to 17:00, 5 days a week. They take the funded hours. They do not publish prices, so ask. Rated Good by Ofsted in August 2025. Open since 2017, with 40 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Funded hours
We accept all the current funding offered for children over 9months. We offer the option to use funding term time only and to spread the funding all year around to suit your family's needs.
What childcare usually costs in Devon
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Devon 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
EX10 0PDWhat 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, 5 August 2025 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children arrive happily and receive a warm welcome from staff, who know them well. Staff support children to become independent learners and follow their own interests. They provide an exciting learning environment that helps children develop their imaginations. Children delight as they play a game of 'hot lava' with staff. They giggle as they carefully negotiate climbing on different resources, such as tyres and wooden boards, on the ground. They work together well to move these resources into a circle, enabling them to climb off the floor. Staff support children to develop a good level of confidence and control in balancing. Children demonstrate high levels of engagement and enjoyment.
Leaders have put in place a rich and ambitious curriculum that builds on what children already know and need to know next. They have high expectations of what children can achieve and carefully consider the way they think children learn best in the nursery. Children make good progress in all areas of the early years foundation stage curriculum. They benefit from a wide range of learning opportunities, which enrich children's experiences and help develop their character.
Staff encourage children to suggest their ideas and vote regularly in the nursery on different subjects. For example, children decide what to bake with fresh blackcurrants and rhubarb brought in from their gardens.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- ensure staff provide children with consistent strategies to communicate their needs and ideas to others n support children to learn about other ways of life and communities beyond their own to help them to have a greater understanding of diversity.
- 5 August 2025Good Safeguarding: Yes
- 24 August 2022Good
- 24 February 2022Inadequate
- 29 January 2020Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 3 of the last 4 graded inspections.
Still missing for Pinecones Nursery School
- What it costs
- Meals
- Nappies
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.
- What does it cost, all in? 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.