Warboys Underfives Pre-School

Parent and community volunteers help run this village pre-school, a charity serving Warboys and its surrounding hamlets. That gives Warboys Underfives Pre-School a clear community identity: families are part of its organisation, rather than simply customers of a childcare service. It has 30 places in total.

At its September 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the provision Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities progressed quickly with support from staff and other professionals. Children attending then were aged 2 to 4. Morning, afternoon and full-day attendance provide different ways to organise time here, with an age-related condition on full days.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care: in everyday terms, play and daily experiences help children develop communication, movement and growing independence. In September 2025, staff planned learning around what individual children could already do, while familiar routines helped newcomers understand the shape of the day.

There was space for children's own ideas alongside activities organised by adults. Dinosaur hotel building gave imaginative play a concrete purpose, and children talked about what they were making. Staff joined their play and encouraged conversation, giving children opportunities to express ideas rather than simply follow instructions.

Dough, drawing and painting provided practice in hand control and coordination in September 2025. These were useful foundations for later writing, with children handling different drawing materials and making pictures. These activities gave children opportunities to practise the hand control needed for writing.

Outdoor and Community Life

In September 2025, children rode balance bicycles and tricycles. Children steered around one another, bringing movement, coordination and awareness of other children into the same activity. Indoors and outdoors both contributed to the day's learning.

Ofsted's September 2025 inspection also identified uneven teaching during some adult-directed activities, group experiences and everyday routines, and asked staff to make these more consistently effective. This is the important qualification to the positive picture: the activities themselves were varied, but children did not benefit equally well from every teaching opportunity.

Relationships and Communication

In September 2025, staff knew families well and spent time playing with children, adjusting their help to the child and the task. Everyday independence had practical expression: children practised putting away coats and sorting their lunch boxes. Those small responsibilities gave them manageable tasks to master within familiar routines.

Parents interviewed that month described receiving information about activities and getting prompt responses to concerns. This matters for families whose child is starting pre-school: communication covered both what children were doing and questions parents wanted addressed.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A designated Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) has responsibility for identifying learning difficulties and arranging appropriate action plans. That gives families a specific support mechanism, with an identified role and a plan for responding to needs.

In September 2025, staff gathered information about children's needs and worked with professionals involved in their care. Preparation for moving to school was also part of their work, with staff taking steps to make the change less stressful. This transition support concerns the child's experience of moving on; it should not be confused with an admissions advantage.

Sessions and Attendance

Morning sessions run from 9am to noon, afternoons from 12.30pm to 3.30pm, and full days from 9am to 3.30pm. Full-day attendance starts from the term before a child turns 3. That age condition matters when comparing a sessional arrangement with a whole day.

In September 2025, opening hours were 9am to 3.30pm on weekdays, during term time. The pre-school is on High Street, Warboys, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE28 2TA. Enquiries can be made by telephone or email, with an answering machine outside opening hours.

Funding and Paid Extras

The pre-school accepts the 30 hour code, the Funded 2 code and the Working Parent Code for 2 year old’s. Acceptance of the 30 hour code does not mean every child can use all 30 hours here. Children using the two-year-old codes may be limited to 15 hours, depending on staff ratios and availability. It works with individual families on arrangements that can use funded hours without additional cost, but this depends on the attendance arrangement and availability; it is not a blanket promise of cost-free attendance.

Private sessions are charged separately. A full day includes an additional half-hour beyond two sessions, and a separate full-day charge applies if attendance exceeds the family's 15 or 30 funded hours and that time cannot be claimed. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the funding and fees page explains the charging structure.

• Teaching consistency. The September 2025 improvement action concerned teaching during adult-directed activities, group experiences and routines. A visit is an opportunity to ask how staff now plan and review these parts of the day.
• Full-day age condition. Children can attend a full day from the term before turning 3. Families planning earlier attendance should discuss how morning or afternoon sessions fit their child's routine and funded-hours arrangement.
• Food and everyday supplies. When discussing the morning, afternoon or full-day pattern, ask how meals and non-food consumables are arranged and charged.

Warboys Underfives suits families seeking a community-run pre-school with morning or afternoon sessions, as well as those considering full days once the age condition is met. Its volunteer-led charity structure and practical arrangements for funded hours give it a clear identity. The September 2025 findings provide a positive assessment of care and inclusion, balanced by a specific need for more consistent teaching across the day.