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Busy Bears (Durham)

Ofsted: Good
(Jul 2024)
·
4.6(9 parent reviews) ·Field View, Bearpark, DURHAM, DH7 7AA · Durham
Number of places
172 places
Age range
0–5 yrs
Last inspected
Jul 2024
Local authority
Durham

About this day nursery

Busy Bears Nursery in Durham provides a high standard of care and education in a fun, safe, and stimulating environment. The nursery is registered for 172 children and is located in a purpose-built, double-storey building in Bearpark, easily accessible from Durham and surrounding villages with good links to the A1.

They encourage active parental involvement in a child's learning journey. The dedicated staff team supports child-initiated play and offers focused activities, challenging children to be inquisitive and make progress.

The nursery offers a homely and caring environment where children learn through play. They boast an experienced and highly skilled team with strong staff retention, dedicated to fostering children's development.

The nursery prides itself on its indoor and outdoor facilities, including extensive enclosed gardens, which provide outstanding learning experiences for children, encouraging exploration, communication, and interaction. They believe the early years are crucial for development and aim to nurture children to reach their full potential.

Our ethos

Busy Bears Nursery is committed to fostering children's development by supporting child-initiated play and offering focused activities that encourage inquisitiveness. They believe the early years are crucial and aim to nurture children to reach their full potential in a homely, caring, and stimulating environment that encourages exploration, communication, and interaction through indoor and outdoor facilities. They also encourage active parental involvement.

What it's like

Children thrive in this high-quality nursery. Leaders plan and create a bespoke curriculum for children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff have a secure understanding of children's development from the baby room through to the older pre-school room, which helps them support each child to learn key skills to be ready for school.

High standard of care and educationHomely and caring environmentExtensive indoor and outdoor facilitiesExperienced and dedicated staff teamChild-initiated and focused play

Pricing & funding

Pricing on request

This nursery doesn't publish its fees online. Contact them directly for an up-to-date price list and availability.

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Key facts

Opening hours

Monday to Friday for 51 weeks of the year. Sessions are from 7.30am until 6pm.

Ofsted Inspection

Ofsted rating for Busy Bears (Durham)

Last inspected 25 July 2024 · Jan Harvey

Safeguarding effective
Overall effectiveness
Good
Quality of education
Good
Behaviour and attitudes
Good
Personal development
Good
Leadership and management
Good

What it's like to attend

Children thrive in this high-quality nursery. Leaders plan and create a bespoke curriculum for children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff have a secure understanding of children's development from the baby room through to the older pre-school room, which helps them support each child to learn key skills to be ready for school.

Inspector highlights

  • Staff support children's communication and language skills well through stimulating storytelling, songs and rhymes.
  • Caring staff use very effective settling-in procedures to help children and babies feel safe and secure.
  • Partnerships with parents and other professionals are very effective; staff quickly identify when children may need additional support.
  • Leaders are committed to ensuring children receive the best care and learning, maintaining documentation highly effectively and proactively making adjustments to risk assessments.
  • Staff are vigilant in ensuring high levels of cleanliness and hygiene are maintained in the nursery, with robust policies for individual health needs.

Areas to develop

  • 1Maximise learning opportunities throughout routines, to provide children with consistent messages about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, including how to have a healthy diet.
  • 2Improve staff skills to consider the individual needs and development of each child to bring more challenging and enjoyable experiences to extend the learning of each child, in particular for problem-solving and mathematical development.
Inspection #10358483 · Source: OfstedView full Ofsted report

What parents say

Verbatim quotes recorded in the Ofsted inspection

Parents confirm they can see their child's development progressing very well through an app, where they exchange photos and updates on how children have been.

Parents appreciate the 'home bags' and ideas for supporting their children's learning at home.

They comment they feel the management and staff are friendly, caring and very sensitive to the whole family's needs.

Inclusion & environment

How they support every child

SEND provision

Leaders plan and create a bespoke curriculum for children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Staff quickly identify when children may need additional support and work closely with parents and other agencies to put in place interventions to help them.

Outdoor space

When younger children fight over bean bags in an outdoor target game, older children collect the bean bags for staff as they talk to the children. Leaders recognise the need to extend the outdoor play opportunities they provide for children.

Parent Reviews of Busy Bears (Durham)

4.6
(9)
Will Best
8 years ago

Busy Bears is an absolutely fantastic place to leave your little ones. Our little boy has been going to Busy Bears since he was very small, he's now 3 and I can safely say he has gained a huge advantage from the activities and development on offer in the setting. All the staff are extremely friendly and good at their jobs, the new technology being implemented to make it easier and more convenient to see how your child has spent their day is brilliant. I would not hesitate to recomend Busy Bears Nursery to anyone looking for somewhere to look after their little ones while they are at work or even for them to just gain some great experiences that are maybe not possible at home. Keep up the great work Bears, you make our lives as parents a lot easier!

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footie stack
7 years ago

My daughter started in the baby room last month and the staff have been fantastic! She is really enjoying her time at nursery. The nursery nurses and Head of Room are very approachable. I ring afew times during the day and my daughters special carer always talks me through what she has been up to. I would recommend Busy Bears!

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Nick W
10 years ago

Amazing staff, wonderful atmosphere, and simply brilliant interaction with parents. Busy bears matches what you want out of your nursery experience for your child; the staff will adapt to you. And your kid won't want to come home at night, they'll have so much fun. Oh, and most days, our little bear eats better than we do! The kitchen staff are simply amazing in what they conjure up! It can be a little expensive, but worth every penny. 6 stars.

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Laura Griffiths
9 years ago

I can't praise this nursery enough! I was so anxious about leaving my baby to return to work but the staff at Busy Bears have gone above and beyond to relieve my fears. My little one is extremely well cared for, I've never had grounds for any concerns whatsoever. Most of all she loves going to nursery, she's so happy to see her worker and when I collect her I can see her playing and having fun. If I could've given it 6 stars I would.

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Luke Shepherd
7 years ago

My daughter goes to this nursery and I couldn't be happier. The staff are excellent and it is obvious that they really know the children in their charge and care for their development.

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Reviews from Google for Busy Bears (Durham). See all on Google Maps

Inspection history

Date: September 2019

  • July 2024Good
  • September 2019Good

Frequently asked about Busy Bears (Durham)

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