Busy Bees Nursery in Chatham are excited to announce they have received the Busy Bees ‘Centres of Excellence’ award.

Four of the groups 132 nurseries have been chosen as the Centres of Excellence in an aim to encourage Childcare Professionals to continue to develop and provide a good all round environment for the children at Busy Bees. The initiative promotes a proactive approach to best practice by giving Nursery Staff at Busy Bees across the UK the opportunity to visit the nurseries chosen as Centres of Excellence. During their visit, staff will observe areas such as; creative displays, free-flow, child development monitoring systems, learning journals, and training. All the observations are designed to give inspiration and ideas to staff across the whole of Busy Bees, ensuring the nurseries are always exciting and efficient settings for children to develop and play.

Chatham receive the award after the Busy Bees Childcare and Curriculum team carried out an extensive audit on the nursery. Childcare and Curriculum Manager, Lisa Snell, said: “Chatham has been selected as a flagship nursery due to their passion and continued commitment to improve outcomes for children. The nursery is currently rated as ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, and the staff team continue to explore new ideas and update their knowledge through regular training.
“They maintain a high standard of care and education through a dedicated key person approach with the children at the heart of everything. Everyone on the team is aware of the settings improvement plan and accept that they all have a part to play in sustaining their current judgment.”

Nursery Manager, Karen Povey, was delighted with award, saying: “We’re very excited to have received the award, and I’m very proud of the Nursery Staff team. We set the standards of care in our nursery very high, with a dedicated and hard working team providing exceptional care for the children in our nursery.”

As Manager covering Maternity Leave Sarah Young has made it her mission to maintain the Flagship Status and ensure continuous improvement within the setting to achieve the highest standard of childcare and build a lasting impression on the children and their families.

The Centres of Excellence are part of a larger project being developed by Busy Bees throughout 2011. ‘See the Difference’ campaign ensures that every Busy Bees nursery maintains a high level of care and service by answering to a strict and thorough criterion.

The five Centres of Excellence are located in Brough, Southport, Evesham, Chatham, and Oldbrook, Milton Keynes. The nurseries were marked on areas such as Ofsted inspection results, partnerships with parents and the local communities, support with child development and learning, and capturing child creativity.

Operations Director, Marg Randles, said: “Busy Bees are committed to offering quality childcare to every child that attends our nurseries. In continuing the passion, enthusiasm and drive our Childcare Professionals display, we want to give them a visual example of outstanding practice to help develop and inspire their existing skills. We believe that all childcare setting across the UK should to have this visual role model to develop best practice across the sector.”