Puffin Community Nursery
GoodTakes funded hoursBirth to 5Long established
A pre-school in Carlton Hill for from 2 years up to 5 year olds, open 09:00 to 15:00, 5 days a week. £33.00 a day, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in September 2023. Open since 2014, with 24 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, price list dated Sept 25.
| Age | Full day | Session | |
|---|---|---|---|
| All ages | £33.00 | £16.50Mornings or Afternoons £27.50Flexible Hours, 5 hrs |
Extras
Charged on top of the session rate.
- £2.00 Hot lunches
- £2.75 per 15 minutes adhoc early drop off or late pick up
Funded hours
15 and 30 hours, plus 2-year-old funding.
Worth knowing. Extra sessions on top of funded sessions charged at the prices shown above.
What childcare usually costs in Brighton and Hove
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Brighton and Hove 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
BN2 9QGWhat 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, 21 September 2023 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Staff provide a warm and nurturing home-from-home environment. They spend time getting to know children and treat them as unique individuals. For example, they use a variety of strategies to communicate, such as through visual aids and sign language. This helps all children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities or who speak English as an additional language, to settle quickly into their daily routines and activities. There are many opportunities for children to make choices about their play. This promotes their decision-making and independence skills effectively.
Children demonstrate they feel happy and secure. They are motivated to learn and show high levels of social confidence. For instance, they excitedly show the inspector the activities they enjoy. They demonstrate good coordination skills and build on the muscles in their hands and fingers as they successfully turn the handle of the Jack-in-the-box. With support from staff, they learn new words in context, such as 'open', 'pop' and 'shut.' Children respond positively to the high expectations of staff. They play cooperatively with their peers and thrive on the praise they receive for their efforts and achievements. This helps to build on their self-esteem and confidence.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- support all staff to have a clearer understanding of the curriculum intent so that their teaching consistently focuses on what they want children to learn n continue to build on the support given to all staff to ensure that they understand and embed their new knowledge and skills into their daily practice, to help raise the quality of their teaching to the highest level.
- 21 September 2023Good
- 29 September 2022Needs improvement
- 11 October 2016Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 2 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Puffin Community Nursery
- 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 £33.00 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.
Pre-schools within a couple of miles
This one is first. Tick it and one or two others to see them side by side.