Busy Bees are looking for the next budding children's 'storyteller' among our talented staff teams, as we continue our very own Storytelling Competition across all of our 146 nurseries throughout the UK.

The competition is open to all Busy Bees trainees and newly qualified staff members, with the aim of finding an individual who can inspire people to pick up a book and share the excitement of a story.  It was launched across all of our sites last month, with a finalist picked from each nursery going on to our regional finals this month.  The finalists chosen from each region will then be invited to attend a prestigious event in October at the House of Lords, where children's novelist, poet and the fifth Children's Laureate, Michael Rosen, will present the winner with a prize of £500 worth of books for the nursery and £100 worth of High Street Stores vouchers.

The children at our Busy Bees nurseries enjoy 'story time' every day and our dedicated Busy Bees nursery staff all know exactly how to make a story come to life, and really enjoy igniting their children's vivid imaginations.  Now, we are taking the most inspiring member of our childcare teams - someone who consistently gives animation to a story and brings energy, imagination and fun to their storytelling.

Lisa Snell, Childcare and Curriculum Manager, explains why Busy Bees decided to launch this competition: "We at Busy Bees believe reading stories to children is the foundation for a successful reading programme.  This is a great opportunity for our staff teams to demonstrate how you can really bring a good story to life and capture their children's imagination to ensure that their daily 'story time' is enjoyed by each and every one.

We are all looking forward to exposing the array of fantastic talent we have in our nurseries and we urge every nursery to encourage those who are eligible to come along and share their gift with their colleagues."