Busy Bees Day Nursery at Huntingdon
Busy Bees Day Nursery at Huntingdon is a day nursery in Huntingdon for children aged 0 to 4, with 100 registered places. Ofsted report card, 19 March 2026: Strong standard in 6 areas; safeguarding standards met.
Kingfisher Way, Hinchingbrooke Business Park, Huntingdon, PE29 6FN
Key facts
- Type
- Day nursery (Full day care) (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Ages
- 0 to 4 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered places
- 100 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
- Registered
- 12 July 1999 (Ofsted childcare register, as at 30 June 2026)
Opening hours
Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:30
Source: Ofsted report, inspection on 19 March 2026
Who runs it
Busy Bees Day Nursery at Huntingdon is run by Busy Bees Nurseries Limited (Ofsted register).
Latest inspection
- Inclusion: Strong standard
- Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard
- Achievement: Strong standard
- Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard
- Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard
- Leadership and governance: Strong standard
- Safeguarding standards met
Source: Ofsted, inspection on 19 March 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
What it's like to be a child at this setting
Children truly thrive at this warm, welcoming and highly inclusive nursery. Staff are passionate about the care they provide for children. The key-person system is highly effective, and children form loving and trusting relationships with staff. Staff consistently place children's wellbeing at the centre of everything they do. This helps children to feel safe and secure and underpins their confidence to explore, play and learn.
Staff demonstrate high-quality teaching. All children, including those who face barriers to their learning, are very well supported to achieve and make excellent progress. Staff's thorough understanding of children's different learning styles and their enthusiasm for ensuring that children have the best possible time shines throughout the whole nursery. Children benefit from rich learning experiences, and staff make learning fun and exciting. For example, children can be heard laughing and giggling as they chase and pop bubbles or act out familiar stories in the garden. This helps children to actively engage and develop extremely positive attitudes to learning.
Staff value the importance of attendance and work in partnership with parents to ensure that children can benefit from accessing the whole curriculum. Parents are encouraged to be part of their children's nursery life. They attend regular stay-and-play sessions and take books home to read with their children. Children are very well prepared for starting their next stage of education. They are encouraged to be fully independent and confident to manage their own self-care. Older children are taught how to identify potential risks in their environment and learn how they can keep themselves safe. Staff help children build resilience and to keep trying when faced with challenges, such as when attempting to throw a ball through a hoop. Children relish the excited praise from staff when they succeed. This helps to build children's confidence and self-esteem.
What Ofsted found in each area
Inclusion: Strong standard
Leaders have high ambitions for all children. Staff are quick to identify when children may be facing additional barriers to their learning. They know children very well and use this knowledge to help set well-considered targets that help them achieve and thrive. Staff are proactive in making referrals to other professionals so that children gain specialist support and expertise as quickly as possible. The progress children are making and the strategies used to support their development are regularly reviewed and assessed to ensure that they are having a positive impact on children's overall learning and wellbeing.
Leaders prioritise and target their training to keep their knowledge of special educational needs and/or disabilities up to date. Staff skilfully and consistently adapt the environment and their teaching to meet children's individual needs. They use a range of techniques, such as counting and breathing exercises, to help children who struggle to regulate their emotions. Leaders work with parents to access additional funding for children who are eligible. Funds are spent with individual children's learning needs in mind, such as story bags for those children who need further support with their communication and language. Leaders regularly monitor the impact the use of additional funding is having on children's progress.
Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard
The curriculum is ambitious and inclusive for all children, including those who may face barriers to their learning, and helps to prepare them very well for moving on to school. Leaders have high expectations of staff and consistently review practice to ensure that the curriculum is being taught to a high standard. Teaching is highly effective across all rooms of the nursery. Staff are experienced and skilled at making the most of incidental learning. They ensure that every interaction is purposeful. For example, staff discuss the weather and rain clouds in the sky when children comment that the ground is wet. Staff use assessments effectively to plan next steps that support all children to achieve well from their starting points and thrive.
Leaders place a great emphasis on supporting and developing children's communication and language skills across the whole nursery. Staff encourage children to listen and follow instructions. They excitedly praise children for their efforts and gently encourage and support those children who may be more reluctant to join in activities, such as story time. Leaders encourage children to develop a love of reading and stories through story sessions, acting out stories and making up their own stories with friends. Staff support children to count with confidence and use mathematical language accurately in their play. They help babies engage in activities that develop the muscles needed for standing and walking.
Achievement: Strong standard
Children, including those who face barriers to their learning, quickly make considerable progress from their starting points. Transitions and sequenced learning as children move through the nursery are thoughtfully planned. For example, babies are carefully supported to develop their climbing and stepping-up and stepping-down skills in preparation for using stairs. Children getting ready to start their next stage of education develop a breadth of knowledge and skills. They are highly confident, articulate and resilient learners.
Children engage in regular stories and singing throughout the day to help support their language development. Older children gain confidence in holding meaningful conversations. They talk confidently about their home life and are excited to be starting school. Children show excitement when they find a ladybird in the garden and are eager to show their friends. Babies interact very well with staff and demonstrate their emerging language skills. Across the whole nursery, all children develop the confidence to express their wants, needs and ideas.
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard
Relationships between staff and children are exceptionally warm and nurturing. This is consistently evident throughout the nursery. Staff listen attentively to children and respond with genuine care and interest. Staff encourage children to express how they are feeling through discussions, stories and the use of props. This helps children to recognise and understand their feelings with increasing confidence. Staff teach children the importance of kindness and considering others in their play.
Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. Staff's calm, sensitive and nurturing approach helps give children positive role models to aspire to. Children closely follow routines and understand the rules in place. This helps to provide them with a sense of belonging and a feeling of security. Children demonstrate growing resilience and independence skills, such as learning to wait and be patient. For example, older children sensibly wait for their name to be called at lunchtime for them to independently collect their meal from the trolley. Parents are informed about the importance of regular attendance, and any unexplained absences are explored. This supports all children, including those who face barriers to their learning, to attend consistently and experience a full curriculum.
Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard
Leaders ensure that children's welfare is consistently prioritised. Key persons nurture and support children's needs. They work closely with parents to ensure that they are aware of any changing needs and behaviours at home, especially for children who may face barriers to their learning. Babies gesture for cuddles from their trusted adult and continually smile at face-to-face contact. Children settle well and are eager to join in activities. They spend most of the day accessing the outdoor environment, with great opportunities to develop their physical skills that enable them to climb, run and balance.
Leaders and staff encourage children to develop good hygiene routines. They skilfully teach younger children how to manage their self-care. Children demonstrate that these routines are embedded as older children use the toilet independently and know that they must wash their hands before eating food. Older children learn how to manage risks in their environment. They know how to walk with scissors safely and how to be careful with hot food during mealtimes. Staff support children in developing an understanding of effective oral health routines through fun activities and stories they read. Routines, such as those for sleeping and mealtimes, are managed very well and consistently respectful of each child's individual needs.
Leadership and governance: Strong standard
Leaders have high expectations of staff and ensure that they consistently and professionally deliver high-quality care and education for all children. Leaders know the context of the setting and demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of all the families and children that attend. There is high engagement with parents to ensure that children's needs are consistently met. Parents speak extremely positively about the nursery, leaders and staff. All children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who may face barriers to learning, are supported to make excellent progress from their starting points.
Leaders support staff to carry out their roles with pride and value what they have to say. Staff's wellbeing is given high priority by leaders. They ensure that they 'check in' with all staff twice a day and that workloads are manageable. Staff feel extremely well supported. Leaders regularly monitor staff practice and identify professional development opportunities. They monitor the impact any training has on practice. For example, recent training on managing the behaviour of 2-year-olds has helped staff to have deeper insight into why young children may behave in certain ways and how they can better support them. Staff are committed to continually developing their practice and improving outcomes for all children.
What the setting must and should do next
The provider should:
- Leaders and those responsible for governance should sustain their work to ensure continued improvement and high standards. They should focus on creating a transformational impact on the outcomes and experiences of disadvantaged children, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, those who are known (or previously known) to children's social care and those who may face other barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing.
Ofsted's words, from the report on the inspection on 19 March 2026. Read the full report on the Ofsted website. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Inspection history
- 19 March 2026: Full inspection, report card: Strong standard in 6
- 23 March 2023: Actions after a complaint (report)
- 1 August 2022: Actions after a complaint (report)
- 27 April 2022: Full inspection, Good (report)
- 23 May 2016: Full inspection, Outstanding (report)
- 7 March 2011: Full inspection, Good (report)
- 30 October 2007: Inspection (report)
- 22 November 2004: Inspection (report)
Ofsted report cards (England, from November 2025)
Since 10 November 2025 Ofsted has graded nurseries and pre-schools on a report card. There is no single overall grade. Instead, each of six areas gets one of five grades: Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention, Urgent improvement.
The six areas are inclusion; curriculum and teaching; achievement; behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines; children's welfare and wellbeing; leadership and governance. Safeguarding is judged on its own, as met or not met.
Expected standard means the setting does what Ofsted expects of every setting. Strong standard and Exceptional are above that; Needs attention and Urgent improvement mean Ofsted found things the setting has to put right.
Source: Ofsted reports
Funded childcare hours in England
All 3 and 4 year olds in England can get 15 hours of free childcare a week, for 38 weeks of the year.
Working parents of children aged 9 months to 4 years old can get 30 hours of free childcare a week for 38 weeks of the year (Free Childcare for Working Parents), if they meet the earnings rules. You confirm your details every 3 months.
Some 2 year olds can get 15 hours a week when the family gets certain kinds of extra support.
The hours are used at a registered provider that offers them, so ask each nursery how it offers the funded hours.
Source: GOV.UK: Free Childcare for Working Parents, check if you're eligible · GOV.UK: Free childcare and education for 2 to 4 year olds (checked 31 October 2026)
Other nurseries nearby
- Theatretrain Huntingdon - Pre-school, Huntingdon PE29 6UH, 0.4 miles
- Little Acorns Pre-School - Pre-school, Huntingdon PE29 6UH, ages 3 to 4, 24 places, 0.4 milesOfsted, 6 December 2023: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- Mother Goose Corner Nursery - Day nursery, Huntingdon PE29 7FH, ages 0 to 4, 96 places, 0.9 milesOfsted, 21 April 2022: Outstanding overall; safeguarding is effective
- Vantage Park Day Nursery - Day nursery, Huntingdon PE29 6SR, ages 0 to 3, 64 places, 1.0 milesOfsted, 16 October 2024: Good overall; safeguarding is effective
- Camplay Saturday Club - Huntingdon - Pre-school, Huntingdon PE29 1JE, 1.0 miles
Schools nearby
- Cromwell Academy - Primary, 0.2 miles
- Stukeley Meadows Primary School - Primary, 0.5 miles
- Hinchingbrooke School - Secondary, 0.6 miles
- St Peter's School - Secondary, 0.9 miles
- Huntingdon Primary School - Primary, 1.1 miles