Sandpit Nursery
GoodTakes funded hoursBirth to 8+Long established
A day nursery in Barnsley for babies from 3 months up to school age, open 07:00 to 18:00, 5 days a week. They take the funded hours. They do not publish prices, so ask. Rated Good by Ofsted in July 2025. Open since 2016, with 112 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Funded hours
2-Year-Olds: 15 hours per week funded childcare for eligible families; 3-Year-Olds: 15 hours per week universal funding for all children; 30 hours per week for eligible working families.
What childcare usually costs in Barnsley
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Barnsley 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
S70 1ALWhat 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, 23 July 2025 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children enjoy their time at this welcoming nursery. Staff provide a well thought out and sequenced curriculum that links to children's interests. There is a strong emphasis on sensory exploration and the development of children's strength and coordination skills. For example, babies enjoy feeling sand on their hands. They progress from crawling to walking and use low-level equipment to pull themselves to standing. Babies pick up wooden pegs and place them independently in containers. Staff count one, two, as babies demonstrate their early hand-eye coordination skills. Toddlers and pre-school children explore with paint. They pick up different shaped items, dip them in paint and make marks on paper. Toddlers and pre-school children recognise some colours and the shapes they use, such as a circle and square. Outside, pre-school children show their physical skills as they step on tyres and walk across wooden planks, sometimes aided and unaided.
Children demonstrate that they are happy and feel secure in the care of staff. Staff sing and give lots of reassuring cuddles to babies, who quickly go off to sleep. Preschool children say sorry to their friends when they splash them with water.
Children learn how to make good friendships and resolve minor conflicts peaceably.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- support staff to consistently build on children's existing knowledge and skills during their self-chosen play n consider the curriculum for mathematics to extend and challenge children's learning even further.
- 23 July 2025Good Safeguarding: Yes
- 14 October 2024Needs improvement
- 10 May 2024Inadequate
- 13 December 2018Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 2 of the last 4 graded inspections.
Still missing for Sandpit Nursery
- What it costs
- 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.
- 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.
Day nurseries within a couple of miles
This one is first. Tick it and one or two others to see them side by side.