Busy Bees Horsham

A story about Super Potato became a growing project at Busy Bees Horsham: children planted edible crops and followed their development in September 2022. It is a useful picture of this nursery's inspection-era character, with children's interests shaping activities rather than stopping at story time.

At its September 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, found safeguarding effective and praised support for children needing additional help with learning. That judgement sits alongside specific improvements required in everyday teaching and the organisation of outdoor play. Both matter when weighing the setting.

Busy Bees Horsham occupies 11 Bartholomew Way, Horsham, RH12 5JL, and has capacity for 124 children, accepting ages from 3 to 60 months. Full-time attendance and morning or afternoon sessions give families different ways to organise childcare.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care. In parent language, that brings communication, physical development and growing independence into everyday play and routines, rather than treating learning as a separate lesson.

In September 2022, babies explored language through familiar rhymes, while older children used puppets, songs and story recreation to practise combining words. Those are concrete ways to make language useful: children have something to describe, a character to speak for or a song to join. The emphasis extended across age groups.

Super Potato supplied another starting point that September. Children grew vegetables, fruit and herbs, connecting a story character with observing living things and exploring where food originates. This was an example of an interest becoming a longer activity, rather than evidence of a fixed gardening timetable.

Outdoor and Community Life

The premises were purpose-built, with outdoor play forming part of the day in September 2022. Children could choose activities, but staff organisation sometimes cut outdoor play short so another group could use the space. The improvement required was practical: organise staff so children's chosen play could continue, including safe outdoor play across age groups.

The Academy, a school preparation programme, was also operating in September 2022. It helped children become familiar with the routines they would encounter at school, and leaders worked with local schools on preparation for the move. Its value was preparation for change; it should not be read as an admissions advantage.

Relationships and Communication

In September 2022, staff helped children put feelings into words and offered comfort when they were unsettled. That gives a child a way to communicate distress as well as an adult to approach. Children who had struggled with returning after the pandemic received support with that adjustment.

Room changes involved discussion with parents and information sharing between staff that September. Decisions took account of a child's personality and preferred ways of learning, including whether a quieter child might benefit from a smaller group. This is a useful distinction for families: moving room was considered through the child's circumstances, rather than simply described as progression through age bands.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Everyday routines were an area for improvement in September 2022. Adults sometimes completed tasks children could have tried themselves, and meals were not consistently used to develop conversation, problem solving and early mathematical understanding. The issue was how care routines supported learning, rather than the menu itself. For parents, independence includes the small opportunities to do things during an ordinary day.

Ofsted's later regulatory visits on 8 November 2023 and 20 August 2025 found requirements were not being met and action had been taken, with the first addressing supervision and movement between areas and the second revising garden-access procedures and risk assessments. In the November 2023 outcome, the action was accepted as satisfactory after incidents involving a child left briefly alone in a bathroom and another reaching the outdoor area independently.

The August 2025 outcome addressed concerns about children's safety and welfare, premises, equipment and information. Procedures for children moving freely into the garden had been revised. These later events mean the September 2022 safeguarding judgement needs to be read with its date, alongside the subsequent findings.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, throughout the year, with bank holiday closures. The attendance choices include full-time childcare and morning or afternoon sessions across those weekdays. Opening hours describe the nursery's operating window; they do not establish the length of each session.

The Horsham contact form provides an enquiry route, and new parents can telephone the enrolments team on 0330 333 8133. The nursery address is 11 Bartholomew Way, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 5JL.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare options include 30 Hours working families funding, 15 Hours universal funding for children aged 3 and 4, and 15 hours for 2-year-olds receiving support, subject to eligibility. These are separate entitlement routes, rather than a promise that every child qualifies for the same funded hours. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation.

• Garden access and supervision. The November 2023 and August 2025 outcomes addressed supervision or access between spaces. During a visit, ask staff to explain how garden access, handovers and checks work together during a busy day.
• Learning during routines. In September 2022, everyday meals and snacks offered missed opportunities for independence, conversation and maths. Ask for examples of what children now do for themselves and how practitioners extend their learning at these times.
• Your attendance quotation. Morning, afternoon and full-time choices serve different schedules. Request a written quotation for your intended pattern, including session times, the delivery of funded hours and the separate positions for meals and non-food consumables.

Busy Bees Horsham suits families considering morning or afternoon sessions as well as full-time attendance. Its September 2022 learning examples give the nursery character: stories prompted growing activities, and the Academy supported preparation for school routines. Careful room transitions also brought parents into decisions about change.

The balance rests on the detail. A Good inspection judgement supports the educational picture at that date, while later supervision and garden-access findings make current practice an essential part of a visit. Families should weigh both the learning offer and the way staff manage movement through the setting.