St Catherine's Pre School
GoodTakes funded hoursBirth to 8+Open for decades
A pre-school in Bridport for from 2 years up to school age, open sessions in term time, often mornings. £6.50 an hour, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in September 2025. Open since 2002, with 20 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Non-funded or additional hours are charged at £6.50 per hour.
One published rate. What you pay depends on the days you need and the funded hours you can claim.
Funded hours
15 and 30 hours for 3 and 4 year olds; 15 hours for some 2 year olds.
Worth knowing. Additional fees (£6.50 ph) are payable for any hours or part hours over and above the 15 or 30 government funded hours.
What childcare usually costs in Dorset
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Dorset 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
DT6 3TRWhat 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, 16 September 2025 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children thrive in this very inclusive and welcoming pre-school. Staff know the children very well, and children enjoy positive and nurturing relationships with their key person. Staff identify if a child may need additional support from the outset, and they work well with families and external agencies to ensure that children make progress in their learning.
Opportunities to access nature and the local environment underpin the setting's curriculum intent. Children are encouraged to understand the environment that they live in so they will care about it in the future. They regularly attend forest school and access neighbouring hills and coastlines. All children have highly positive attitudes towards their learning, especially in the outdoors, and are developing age-appropriate levels of curiosity, concentration, resilience and enjoyment. For example, children can be seen building dens, pouring in the mud kitchen, building pulleys and swings, and using tools like hammers and saws. They learn to understand about risks and fire safety.
Children have consistently high levels of respect for each other and are very keen to share and cooperate in both their play and learning. Children demonstrate high levels of self-control even when they encounter difficulties. When children do struggle, staff intervene with swift and effective actions to support them.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- further improve the precision of staff's questioning to identify misconceptions and provide clear explanations that strengthen children's learning.
- 16 September 2025Good Safeguarding: Yes
- 8 November 2019Outstanding
- 17 March 2015Outstanding
Rated Good or Outstanding at 3 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for St Catherine's Pre School
- 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.
- Is £6.50 an hour 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.