Busikids Day Nursery

An upstairs sleep room, a garden threaded with bamboo dens and a preschool creative room where unfinished projects can wait: Busikids Day Nursery gives children different spaces for different parts of their day. This Hedge End setting combines the rooms of a converted house with a purpose-built preschool area. Its capacity is 72 children, with a current age range of 15 months to five years.

At its February 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated Busikids Good and judged safeguarding effective, while identifying improvements needed in curriculum delivery, the implementation of individual SEND plans and communication about older children's learning. Those concerns matter alongside the practical strengths. Attractive resources need purposeful adult support, and daily updates need to explain development as well as care.

Penguin Room Up and Penguin Room Down serve the under-twos, followed by the Monkey Playroom and Giraffe Playroom. Full days and morning or afternoon half days give families different attendance options, with Breakfast Club providing an earlier start.

Rooms and Ages

Penguin Room Up accommodates up to twelve children under two, with an adjoining kitchen, individual cots in a separate sleep room and resources for exploring textures, movement and stories. That room cap is useful for parents weighing the youngest children's care. Children use both Penguin areas, so the upstairs room is part of a broader daily arrangement rather than their only play space.

Penguin Room Down gives under-twos a more open space for movement, easy outdoor access and activities involving music, stories and messy materials. Its exploratory ramp and stairs offer a concrete way to practise emerging physical skills. Moving between the Penguin areas also gives children access to different resources as their mobility develops.

For children aged 24 to 36 months, the Monkey Playroom combines a changing pretend-play corner with construction, threading and puzzles, alongside doors to the garden and nearby toileting facilities. A pretend library, hairdresser or tea shop can connect play with experiences children recognise. Having potties and small toilets close by also makes developing independence part of the room's everyday routine.

Giraffe Playroom serves children from three to five, combining child-chosen play and guided group activities with a separate creative room and direct patio access. Children can return to a project after another activity or meal. That is a useful physical arrangement for work that takes more than one sitting, rather than requiring everything to be cleared away immediately.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the shared framework for learning, development and care: children learn through play, conversation, movement and activities that staff adapt to their interests and next steps. It is the foundation here, rather than an extra programme.

The Busikids Curriculum 2025 organises the nursery's own goals into named strands. Confident Communicator includes conversation, gesture, music and early marks; Independent Individual addresses feelings, relationships and self-care; Exceptional Explorer brings together investigation, construction and mathematical ideas. These labels have practical content behind them. The progression moves from younger children exploring objects and seeking familiar adults to preschool children explaining ideas, solving problems and managing more for themselves.

Aspects of The Curiosity Approach add real-life objects and reclaimed materials to the play environment, encouraging children to investigate how things work and consider consequences. The emphasis is on exploration rather than resources with a single fixed use. The curriculum page explains how this sits alongside the EYFS and the nursery's own planning.

The February 2025 curriculum concern was specific: adults did not consistently extend what children could already do, with completed jigsaws sometimes cleared away before another learning opportunity was explored. The relevant question is therefore how staff use an activity, not simply whether it is offered.

Outdoor and Community Life

A mud kitchen, permanent sandpit and construction area give the garden several different kinds of play. Bamboo and shrubbery provide places for dens, while the apple tree and play house add settings for imaginative games. The soft-surfaced patio can hold stories, snacks and water or chalk activities, extending indoor experiences outside.

Children also help grow beans, lettuce and tomatoes, watching plants develop and sometimes eating the produce. This makes gardening tangible: a child can see the connection between looking after a plant and food on a plate. Quieter garden spaces give children room to talk with a friend or spend time with a book.

Regular community outings include posting letters, visiting parks and going to the local library. Trips are staggered across different days to include children with different attendance patterns. The enrichment programme also includes cooking, gardening and woodwork, alongside visitors and celebrations; its charge arrangements belong in the family budget as well as the account of learning.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person, with a buddy providing another familiar contact when that adult is away. Settling begins with a minimum of two hour-long visits: parents stay for the first, while the second involves a short separation of up to an hour. Further visits can be arranged. This gives families time to share routines, comforters and dietary needs before regular attendance begins.

Room changes are gradual too. Children spend short periods in the next area, initially accompanied by their existing key person, while parents meet the incoming team. Staff exchange information about routines, interests and development. The intention is to carry familiar knowledge into the new room, rather than make the move solely an age-based change.

EYparent carries updates about eating, sleep and toileting, together with photographs and observations; parents can contribute experiences from home. Home-link bags provide books, games and suggested activities to borrow. These are useful ways to connect nursery and home, although the February 2025 improvement point remains relevant: older children's parents were not consistently getting enough detail about the skills being developed.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A SENCo supports staff and families, with visual timetables, the Picture Exchange Card System (PECS) and Individual Target Plans (ITPs) among the mechanisms used to organise additional help. Plans can involve parents and outside professionals. At the February 2025 inspection, Ofsted found that staff recognised additional needs and sought professional advice promptly, but did not consistently carry out all the support in individual plans, leaving some children without the full help intended.

The upstairs Penguin sleep room has allocated cots and bedding; older children can use sleep mats. In the Monkey area, children who need rest can sleep after lunch while others continue playing elsewhere in the room or outdoors. Individual routines and parents' wishes inform these arrangements, which is useful where a child's sleep pattern differs from the room's usual rhythm.

Staff development includes training within the nursery and courses chosen for individual team members. Safeguarding and paediatric first-aid training are updated.

The nursery cook prepares fresh food, with a seasonal menu rotating over three weeks. Its No Nut policy covers children's meals and staff food, and its allergy procedures use labelled red plates, a cook's handover and a further check by senior room staff.

School preparation includes inviting teachers to meet children, using uniforms in pretend play and sharing pictures of school spaces. Where extra transition support is needed, a Transition Partnership Agreement (TPA) brings the family, school and nursery together to plan the move. These activities prepare children for a change of setting; they do not confer a school place.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Upper Northam Drive, Hedge End, Southampton, SO30 4BG. Busikids operates Monday to Friday across the year, closing for Bank Holidays and a week over Christmas and New Year; those closures are not charged.

Full days run from 8am to 6pm. Half days run from 8am to 1pm or 1pm to 6pm, and Breakfast Club runs from 7.30am to 8am at an additional charge, including breakfast. The earlier start can be booked as an ongoing arrangement or when required, with two weeks' booking notice. The minimum attendance wording needs clarification, as set out below.

Admissions priorities include looked-after children, children known by the local authority to have SEND whose needs can best be met here, vulnerable children receiving specified support, siblings and local families. A full-time booking may receive preference over a part-time one, depending on parents' work commitments, occupancy and room arrangements. Enquiries can be made by telephone or email, and bookings are confirmed in writing after the required forms and applicable registration charge are received.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare and additional privately paid hours are offered. Funding arrangements include claims for 15 or 30 hours, stretched over 51 weeks, alongside term-time-only funded sessions. Disadvantaged two-year-old funding is also covered, separately from the Working Families entitlement; eligibility conditions apply.

Meals and snacks are included in the private full-day fee. Meals are charged separately during funded hours generally, while meals within disadvantaged two-year-old funded sessions are included. Non-food consumables attract a funded-hours charge covering items such as sun cream, additional hygiene supplies and spare clothing. Parents also supply nappies, wipes and nappy cream, plus any milk or formula that differs from the nursery's own.

An optional enrichment fee is subject to terms and conditions. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, with the fees page outlining the attendance arrangements. A non-refundable registration charge applies unless proof of funding eligibility is supplied when booking. The first four weeks' fees are paid three months before starting, are non-refundable and are credited against those first weeks of attendance.

Four weeks' written notice is required to end a place, with fees payable during the notice period or instead of notice. Changing confirmed sessions also requires four weeks' notice, and ad hoc day swaps are not permitted. These terms make a stable weekly pattern easier to manage than frequently changing childcare needs.

• Adult support during learning. The February 2025 curriculum action concerned extending children's existing skills. During a visit, ask how a practitioner would develop a completed puzzle or a child's ongoing creative project.
• SEND plans and useful updates. The February 2025 actions covered both consistent individual support and information about older children's progress. Ask how agreed targets are followed through each day and how parents receive examples they can use at home.
• Minimum attendance. The fees page requires two days each week, while the terms require two separate sessions. Clarify which rule applies to a proposed half-day pattern before signing the contract.
• Allergies and funded costs. The No Nut policy and red-plate procedure provide specific arrangements to discuss. Confirm current allergy practice and obtain a quotation separating the relevant funded-hours meal terms, consumables, parent-supplied items and optional enrichment charge.

Busikids suits families seeking either full-day attendance or morning and afternoon half days, with an optional breakfast start. Its strongest practical features are the separate upstairs sleeping space, creative projects that can remain in place and a garden equipped for both active and quieter play. Gradual settling and room moves add useful continuity.

The February 2025 Good judgement sits alongside three concrete improvement points, rather than cancelling them out. Families should give as much attention to how staff extend learning, implement support plans and explain progress as to the rooms themselves. For those comfortable with a regular attendance pattern and the notice terms, this is a setting with substantial everyday detail to assess.