Busy Bees Egham

Sports lessons, Spanish classes and cooking give Busy Bees Egham a recognisable character, while a spacious garden has outdoor areas allocated to each room. These are useful additions to the everyday play and care that families need from a nursery. Outdoor space is part of the offer across the setting, rather than an experience reserved for its oldest children.

At the 5 March 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall and judged safeguarding effective. The current age range is 3 to 60 months. Based on Egham High Street, the nursery combines a town-centre address with on-site parking and storage for buggies, practical details that matter when childcare forms part of a working day.

Attendance can be arranged around full days, mornings or afternoons, with separately bookable early and late extensions. That choice is more useful than the opening window alone: families can build a regular pattern around shorter sessions as well as whole days.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care, bringing learning through play together with everyday routines. Alongside it, Egham uses the group-wide Bee Curious curriculum: purposeful play shaped around children's interests, with storytelling, role play, creative experiences and outdoor learning. Its practical value lies in connecting planned activities with the things a child already wants to explore.

Early literacy includes phonics and mark-making, while counting, patterns and problem-solving develop children's understanding of numbers. Guided group activities also give children opportunities to practise listening and concentrating. These strands make school preparation broader than learning letters: communication, participation and curiosity have a place alongside early reading and writing.

Book of the Moment supplies a theme for afternoon activities. It gives stories a role beyond a single reading session, linking books with further exploration and play. Spanish classes, sports lessons and cooking classes add different experiences to the programme, giving families specific activities to weigh alongside the core curriculum.

Daily Experiences

For babies, sensory activities explore texture and colour, with outdoor play guided by practitioners. Calm story periods and naps sit alongside those experiences. Sleep follows the child's home routine, so the nursery day allows for rest as well as activity rather than treating every baby as ready for the same timetable.

The toddler and preschool day includes a morning song, age-appropriate learning or sensory play, and exploration of nature in different weather. Later activities can involve maths, sensory exploration or a problem to solve. Quiet play or a nap provides a pause around lunchtime. The distinction between the age groups is useful: the emphasis changes as children develop, while outdoor activity and rest remain part of the day.

In March 2024, toddlers experimented with foam and water, and older children made dough, recalling ingredients and exploring how colours changed when combined. These examples show learning taking place through materials children can manipulate. Stories also led younger children into making potions, connecting what they had heard with imaginative activity.

Outdoor Life

Dedicated garden areas for each room make outdoor experiences part of the setting's physical layout. The daily programme includes adult-guided outdoor activity and themed play spaces. For families who value fresh air and movement, the garden is a substantial part of the offer, alongside the indoor creative and sensory experiences.

In March 2024, children used scooters, steps and balancing activities outdoors; smaller movements were practised through cutting, building, scooping and pouring. The combination matters because physical development involves handling tools and materials as well as moving the whole body. Both kinds of activity featured in the nursery day.

Bee Curious connects a child's key person with learning and caring routines. Encouraging independence during meals and supporting friendships are part of that approach, so learning also happens during ordinary moments between organised activities. For a young child, these repeated routines can provide opportunities to practise doing things independently and spending time with others.

At its March 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that staff supported children with special educational needs and/or disabilities through work with families and other professionals, but identified missed chances for some practitioners to deepen children's learning during play. This is the important qualification to the Good judgement: individual support was recognised, while the consistency of challenge across the team needed attention.

In March 2024, new children and babies settled with reassurance from staff, and children sought adults when they needed comfort. Families received updates about development and the next steps in learning. Those observations give useful substance to the care picture, while keeping the account tied to that inspection period.

Current communication includes the Busy Bees App, through which parents receive updates about their child's progress during the day. This gives families a way to keep in touch with nursery life between face-to-face conversations. The branch's team structure includes an assistant centre director and a senior room manager, as well as a chef, with responsibilities extending beyond the centre director alone.

Food is cooked daily at the nursery by its on-site chef, and the two seasonal menus have NHS Startwell accreditation. The nursery asks families to discuss allergies, dietary requirements and cultural preferences with the centre director so suitable alternatives can be arranged.

In March 2024, everyday health activities included conversations about food choices and looking after teeth, alongside handwashing before eating. These were practical experiences woven into routines. They gave children opportunities to connect caring for themselves with actions they could take during the day.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 85 High Street, Egham, TW20 9HF. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, across 52 weeks of the year, with bank-holiday closures. Year-round opening therefore needs to be read alongside the closure terms when planning work commitments.

A Full Day runs from 8am to 6pm. Morning sessions run from 8am to 1pm, and Afternoon sessions from 1pm to 6pm; a Full Week follows the full-day pattern from Monday to Friday. The minimum weekly booking is one Full Day or two Morning/Afternoon sessions. Childcare is booked in sessions rather than by the hour.

Early Session runs from 7.30am to 8am and Late Session from 6pm to 6.30pm, both requiring advance booking. These extensions are free for families who are ineligible for funding; whether they are free alongside funded sessions depends on attendance. The distinction matters if the opening hours, rather than the core session, are what fit a family's working day.

Getting There

On-site parking and buggy storage support journeys by car or on foot with a pushchair. Egham train station is a named transport link, making the High Street address relevant to families combining nursery with rail travel.

An Egham contact form provides an enquiry route, and visits can be booked through the branch. Fees are paid monthly in advance, calculated across the year; sickness and holidays do not qualify for exchanged sessions, credits or refunds.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered through the 15-hour and 30-hour schemes, subject to eligibility, including Universal Funding and local-authority support for eligible two-year-olds. Egham stretches funded hours across 50 weeks: the 15-hour scheme provides up to 11.4 hours each week and the 30-hour scheme up to 22.8. Additional childcare beyond the entitlement is privately paid.

For privately paid sessions, meals, snacks and drinks are included in the childcare fee. During funded sessions, food and non-food consumables such as nappies, wipes and sun cream carry separate optional charges through Busy Bees One, the package combining those items. Families should distinguish the childcare hours covered by funding from the extras they choose alongside them.

A non-refundable registration charge is partly credited against the first invoice. Fully funded places instead require a refundable deposit credited to that invoice, with the deposit waived for two-year-olds using the local-authority 15-hour scheme. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the funding and fees calculator provides an illustrative estimate.

• Challenge during play. In March 2024, some practitioners missed opportunities to take children's learning further. During a visit, ask how staff now develop a child's ideas and adapt an activity when it becomes too easy.
• The funded calendar. Funding is stretched across 50 weeks, while the fee terms also include non-funded weeks and an additional non-funded day. A written quotation should separate those periods, extra childcare and the optional food and consumables package.
• A regular booking commitment. The minimum is one full day or two morning/afternoon sessions each week, and sickness or holidays do not bring session swaps or refunds. Families needing occasional hourly care should weigh that structure carefully.
• Baby routines and dietary needs. Naps follow home routines, and dietary alternatives are arranged through discussion with the centre director. Use a visit to discuss settling, the handover of sleep information and, where relevant, current allergy practice.

Busy Bees Egham suits families seeking either full-day attendance or a regular morning or afternoon pattern, with pre-booked extensions for earlier starts and later finishes. Its strongest practical combination is the garden provision, specific sports, Spanish and cooking activities, and a High Street location with parking and buggy storage.

The March 2024 Good judgement supports consideration of the nursery, with consistency in extending children's learning the central qualification. For parents choosing between session patterns, the decision also rests on the minimum booking and the distinction between funded care, privately paid hours and optional extras. Those terms deserve as much attention as the activity programme.