The Willows Pre-School Nursery
GoodTakes funded hours★ 5.0 on GoogleBirth to 8+Open for decades
A day nursery in Nottingham for babies from 3 months up to school age, open 07:30 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 They do not publish prices, so ask.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 1993, with 32 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Funded hours
30 hours funded childcare for children aged from 9 months through to 4 years old; 15 hours funded childcare for children aged 3 and 4 years old from the term after their third birthday.
Worth knowing. Funding is normally provided across the 38 week school year. At Poplars Blossoms Nursery School we offer the option to stretch funding across 51 weeks of the year. When funding is stretched across the year, 15 hours becomes approximately 11.17 hours per week, while 30 hours becomes around 22.35 hours per week. Any additional care required outside of funded hours is optional and charged for. A small daily consumable charge helps cover the cost of meals, utilities, cleaning supplies and learning r.
What childcare usually costs in Nottingham
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Nottingham 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
NG5 6EXWhat 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.
- 8 January 2025 — Concern: actions taken what Ofsted published
Ofsted inspector, 31 July 2025 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children show positive relationships with staff. When they arrive, they are greeted warmly by staff, who offer open arms for cuddles when children need this. Children are supported to understand how they are unique. For instance, staff help them to identify different hair styles. Children learn that their hair is shorter because it has curls and bounces upwards.
Children show positive attitudes in their play and are supported to persevere when they struggle to find solutions to problems. Staff support children during these times, offering suggestions. When children use pens to create artwork, they remember previous learning, explaining to visitors that they need to put the lids back on pens or else they will dry out. Children invite staff to join their play, who model how to play cooperatively with others. Children show kindness to their peers, such as by picking daisies in the garden for them.
Children who speak English as an additional language benefit from staff finding out words in their home languages and using these, alongside English, to support their understanding of routines when they first start. Children's home traditions are celebrated in the pre-school, helping children to have a sense of belonging and for other children to learn about other people's cultures.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- strengthen partnerships with parents, using what parents already provide when children start and gathering ongoing information about children's abilities at home, to help plan more precisely for their development n support staff to develop their interactions with children to help build on their language skills.
- 31 July 2025Good Safeguarding: Yes
- 21 October 2019Good
- 22 July 2016Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 3 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for The Willows Pre-School Nursery
- What it costs
- Meals
- 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.
- 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.