Busybugs Day Nursery

Six-child baby and toddler rooms, a garden that supplies the kitchen, and three nurture rooms for children with additional needs give Busybugs Day Nursery a clear identity. Families can join gardening and cooking activities at this Shelton setting.

At its 27 January 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated Busybugs Good, judged safeguarding effective and found that children with SEND received carefully planned support through close relationships and work with other professionals. That positive assessment sits alongside specific teaching improvements, which deserve attention when choosing the nursery.

Based at Bedford House, Havelock Place, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1 4PR, Busybugs accepts children aged 1 to 60 months. Full days, morning and afternoon sessions provide different ways to organise attendance.

Rooms and Ages

Seven rooms occupy two floors: four mainstream rooms and three nurture rooms for additional needs. Natural materials and gentle lighting shape the surroundings.

Baby Room accommodates six children, with an emphasis on sensory discovery, attachment and early movement, alongside its own outdoor area. Crawling Caterpillars, for children aged one to two, also has a six-child maximum and combines early language, growing mobility and exploration with separate outdoor play.

Ladybird Room serves two- to three-year-olds, using hands-on play to develop language, physical skills and relationships, with outdoor access of its own. For children aged three and over, Pre-School Room combines the Curiosity Approach with art, construction, books and outdoor activities. The approach uses natural materials and resources that children can use in different ways, giving them scope to decide what to make or explore.

Nurture Room 1 accommodates up to 12 children and emphasises attention, communication and targeted preparation for learning. Nurture Room 2 has a nine-child cap and uses personalised targets, adapted activities and support for emotional regulation. Nurture Room 3 also accommodates nine children, with individual planning directed towards independence and the move to school. Ages in these rooms depend on children's needs.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage provides the framework for learning and care: play, conversation, movement and relationships help children develop their communication, physical and social skills. Busybugs adds its Curiosity Approach through materials that invite exploration and planning built around children's interests. A fascination with water or textures can become the starting point for an activity, rather than a distraction from it.

Pre-School Room has home and book corners, small-world and construction play, plus an outdoor mud kitchen and mark-making areas. Children can express ideas through pretend play, building and drawing.

BEE Active provides weekly movement sessions, with activities directed towards balance, coordination and physical skills. Cooking adds another recurring experience: children make pizzas on Fridays, while families can cook together in the nursery kitchen using seasonal ingredients, including produce from the garden.

Outdoor and Community Life

Every age group has its own outdoor play space, and the gardening area is used daily across the nursery. Children grow fruit, herbs and vegetables that become ingredients in meals and snacks. An outdoor art area extends the garden's use beyond planting, with natural materials providing starting points for creative work.

Parents can join Tuesday gardening sessions, sharing the process of tending and harvesting food that reaches the nursery kitchen.

The Nurture Garden includes a sensory wall, play house and play kitchen, allowing tactile exploration and pretend play outdoors. Inside, the Sensory Room offers individual or small-group use for sensory exploration and emotional regulation. Light tables and textured panels were added to the nurture provision in January 2026, broadening the materials available for individually planned activities.

Community connections extend beyond outings. Swap Shop is an exchange for clothes, household items and toys, while Children's Library welcomes local families as well as nursery parents. These services give families reasons to use the setting together beyond their child's booked childcare.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person responsible for knowing their interests, routines and development. In Baby Room, staff work with parents around the baby's own routine, helping connect care at home with care at nursery.

Settling for children with additional needs can include repeated visits spread over time and a gradual increase in attendance. Busybugs can mirror a child's home visual timetable or now-and-next board. Using a familiar system in both places gives staff and families a shared way to explain what happens next.

In January 2025, visual schedules helped children anticipate changes between activities, and a lending collection included books in children's home languages. Translation support is offered for Urdu, Punjabi and Italian, with other languages requiring advance notice.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The current support structure includes two SENCOs, a family support role and a SEN Lead who coordinates referrals with parental consent. Individual targets are worked on weekly and draw on advice from outside professionals. Support can begin without a formal diagnosis, so the nursery's planning responds to the child's needs while assessments are underway.

Nurture provision combines adapted activities with access to quieter sensory spaces. Depending on the child, plans can address communication, social interaction, emotional regulation or self-care. Busybugs also contributes information when families seek an Education, Health and Care Plan, connecting everyday observations with the wider assessment process.

A nursery cook prepares meals on a four-week menu cycle, catering for vegetarian, non-vegetarian and Halal diets. The nursery's allergy arrangements include adapting ingredients where possible so children can share the same dish.

Preparation for school becomes part of everyday activities in the summer term. Children use stories and role play to explore school routines and practise managing coats, shoes and personal care. With parental permission, learning records and support plans go to the receiving school; for children with additional needs, staff can also speak directly with its SENCO.

Sessions and Attendance

Busybugs opens Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm. A Full Day runs for that whole window; Morning Session runs from 8.30am to 1pm, and Afternoon Session from 1pm to 5pm. Morning attendance includes lunch in its session description, while the afternoon includes a snack. Flexible sessions are also offered.

A separate School Day pattern runs from 9am to 3pm. The nursery operates across the year, with a two-week Christmas and New Year closure, bank holiday closures and occasional training days announced in advance; Christmas dates are confirmed each autumn term.

Getting There

The address is Bedford House, Havelock Place, Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1 4PR. Telephone enquiries go to 01782 287 959.

Funding and Paid Extras

Busybugs offers working-parent funding from nine months, alongside funded provision described for two-year-olds and three- and four-year-olds. Its fees page includes 15-hour entitlements for those age groups and a 30-hour entitlement for three- and four-year-olds; funded attendance is usually during term time. Eligibility depends on the family's circumstances.

Private childcare is also offered through individually arranged payment packages. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. Freshly cooked meals carry a separate daily charge, with the alternative of supplying healthy meals from home; lunch appearing within a session description should therefore be read alongside that charging arrangement.

• Choosing the right room. The youngest mainstream rooms each accommodate six children, while nurture rooms are organised around additional needs. Walk-in visits are welcome without an appointment: use one to discuss which environment, settling pace and support plan would fit your child.
• Teaching consistency. The January 2025 improvement actions concerned questioning to develop children's thinking and closer monitoring of differences in teaching. Ask how those changes now shape child-led play and staff feedback.
• Funding and the total bill. Funded attendance is usually term-time, with nursery meals charged separately each day. Before agreeing a pattern, request a written breakdown covering your funded schedule, extra hours, food and any non-food consumables.
• Dietary arrangements. The nursery adapts meals for dietary needs and allergies where possible. Families managing an allergy should discuss current ingredients, preparation and how the home-meal option would work for their child.

Busybugs suits families seeking either full-day attendance or shorter morning and afternoon sessions, especially those who value small youngest rooms and a practical support structure for additional needs. Its garden-to-kitchen activities, weekly BEE Active sessions and community services give nursery life a recognisable character.

For children needing individual support, nurture rooms, sensory spaces and professional liaison are central to the decision. Balance that provision against the January 2025 teaching improvements and the meal arrangement.