Stoborough Nursery
GoodTakes funded hours★ 4.6 on GoogleBirth to 8+Open for decades
A pre-school in Nr Wareham for from 2 years 6 months up to school age, open 08:30 to 15:30, 5 days a week. £8.00 an hour for 2- year-olds, and they take the funded hours. Rated Good by Ofsted in March 2022. Open since 1994, with 20 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.
| Age | Hourly | |
|---|---|---|
| 2- year-olds2y to 3y | £8.00 £9.50Privately Paid Hours | |
| 3- and 4-year-olds3y to 4y | £7.50 £9.00Privately Paid Hours |
Before you start
One-off charges to take a place.
- £20.00 registration feepayable for any children accessing hours or services beyond their
Extras
Charged on top of the session rate.
- £2.00 to £4.00 a session Voluntary Contributionsoptional
Where this came from
The outlined line is the one the price was taken from.
Funded hours
15 hours (term-time only) for all families with children aged 3–4 years. 15 hours (term-time only) for eligible 2-year-olds from families receiving certain additional support. 30 hours (term-time only) for eligible working families with children aged 2–4 years.
Worth knowing. Funding hours can be used term-time only (38 weeks per year). They may be taken in 3- or 6-hour blocks. Any hours outside these times are charged as privately paid hours. Payment is not a condition of accessing a funded place at the nursery.
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
BH20 5ADWhat 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, 8 March 2022 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children respond positively to the warm, friendly greeting staff give on their arrival, helping them feel safe in their care. Children settle quickly to play and engage well in the range of motivating activities provided. Children interact very well with their friends and show kindness and consideration for others. For example, they willingly make space for a friend to sit with them at circle time, with no prompting from staff to do so.
Staff have a clear intent for children's learning. They provide a curriculum to motivate children's curiosity and investigation through play and help them make good progress from their starting points. Children develop their imaginations well.
They like to rock their 'babies' while pretending to feed them. They squeeze, squash and roll out play dough and tell a visitor they are making some 'green peas'
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- develop ways of monitoring children's use of resources in the garden area to support more effectively those children who learn best outdoors - review the organisation of some daily routines to give children sufficient warning of changes in activities and enable them to finish their play to their own satisfaction.
- 8 March 2022Good
- 18 May 2016Good
- 10 June 2015Needs improvement
Rated Good or Outstanding at 2 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Stoborough 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 £8.00 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.