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Busy Bees Day Nursery at Oxford Littlemore

Ofsted: Expected standard·
4.4(18 parent reviews) ·2 Armstrong Road, Littlemore Park, Oxford, OX4 4XT · Oxfordshire
Number of places
108 places
Age range
0–4 yrs
Last inspected
Jan 2026
Local authority
Oxfordshire

About this day nursery

Busy Bees Day Nursery at Oxford Littlemore is a well-established childcare setting that opened its doors in 2015, operating five days a week from 7:30 am to 6:00 pm. Catering to children aged 0-4 years, the nursery provides a warm and welcoming environment where children are encouraged to explore and learn.

The dedicated staff, who are skilled in the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, focus on building strong relationships with both children and parents, ensuring that each child's individual needs, interests, and routines are met. The nursery places a strong emphasis on inclusive practice, offering comprehensive support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those with English as an additional language.

Children benefit from a rich learning experience, both indoors and outdoors, where they develop independence, self-care skills, and an understanding of physical development and personal safety. The nursery has a total capacity of 108 places and maintains effective partnerships with parents and external agencies to ensure children and families receive the support they need.

What it's like

Children are happy and settled at this nursery, warmly welcomed by leaders and staff. The key-person approach helps children feel confident and secure, enabling easy separation from parents. Staff provide regular feedback to parents on children's progress and support children in managing their feelings and resolving minor disagreements.

Confident choicesEffective progressStrong relationshipsOutdoor playInclusive practice

Key facts

Opening hours

Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:30 - 18:00

Term time / All Year

All_year

Established

2015

Ofsted Inspection — new report card

Expected standard

Last inspected Jan 2026

Headline: Expected standard

Grade summary

Exceptional
—
Strong standard
—
Expected standard
Needs attention
—
Urgent improvement
—

Each dot represents one of the six inspection categories. Headline is the average of the six grades, rounded up.

Category grades

AchievementExpected standard
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routinesExpected standard
Children's welfare and wellbeingExpected standard
Curriculum and teachingExpected standard
InclusionExpected standard
Leadership and governanceExpected standard
Age range
0 to 4
Registers
Early Years Register, Compulsory Childcare Register
Ofsted Inspection

Ofsted rating for Busy Bees Day Nursery at Oxford Littlemore

Last inspected 13 January 2026

Safeguarding effective

What it's like to attend

Children are happy and settled at this nursery, warmly welcomed by leaders and staff. The key-person approach helps children feel confident and secure, enabling easy separation from parents. Staff provide regular feedback to parents on children's progress and support children in managing their feelings and resolving minor disagreements.

Inspector highlights

  • Children make steady and effective progress, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
  • Children are confident in making choices about their play and develop speech and language effectively.
  • Children develop important skills for the future, including independence and self-care.
  • Staff encourage children to develop an understanding of their physical development, personal safety and health.
  • The setting provides a welcoming environment that encourages children to explore and learn.

Areas to develop

  • 1Leaders should take steps to provide additional support to staff to maintain the leader's high expectations for staff's practice in relation to policies and procedures to help raise the quality of the provision further.
  • 2Leaders should provide targeted support to staff in the pre-school room to strengthen practice that helps children consistently develop and manage their feelings and behaviour effectively.
  • 3Leaders should enhance staff's teaching practice so that they can respond flexibly and effectively in the moment, adapting their approach to maximise opportunities for children's learning and development.
Inspection #10210055 · Source: OfstedView full Ofsted report

Inclusion & environment

How they support every child

SEND provision

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those with gaps in their learning, make steady and some effective progress. Staff understand their role to plan effectively for children with additional needs and special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders ensure that staff receive regular training and updates so they can support children with additional learning needs or potential special educational needs and/or disabilities effectively.

Outdoor space

All children enjoy outdoor play. Staff support toddlers to develop their large physical skills by completing obstacle courses and negotiating balancing bars and steps. Pre-school children extend their learning outdoors, such as when they create dinosaur footprints and chase their friends around the garden.

EAL / language support

Staff help children who speak English as an additional language by learning key words from parents and using their home languages alongside English within their daily routines, and by using resources that enable children to listen to songs in their home languages, fostering a sense of belonging.

Parent Reviews of Busy Bees Day Nursery at Oxford Littlemore

4.4
(18)
Jim Ross
2 years ago

Our daughter went here for 6 months before we moved out of town. That staff turnover seemed pretty high, which concerned us at first, but there was a core continuing group and everyone seemed great with her. It was her first experience of nursery and everyone seemed great with her and she really enjoyed it. They also do really well with app updates etc.

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Ciara Fuller
3 years ago

Excellent nursery, staff are incredibly positive, happy and warm without fail every day. Every member of the team clearly work so hard to provide exemplary, child centred care. The nursery is always kept incredibly clean, the food is of excellent quality and there are so many activities catered to each stage of development within the different age group rooms. The app for parents to log in to to get daily updates is brilliant, along with detailed daily handovers in person. Well done all of the team for doing such a great job everyday!

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Mikko Mindanao
2 years ago

Busy Bees Littlemore was 2nd home to our daughter for over 2 years. She loved it there and we saw huge developments in her communication and social skills. The staff are all friendly and like family. The nursery manager Kirran has set a very good culture. Highly recommended.

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Qian Yao
6 years ago

My son has been here since he was 1.5 years old and is now about to graduate. He's loved his time at Busy bees and the teachers have been lovely, warm and encouraging. The facilities are clean and new and someone's always disinfecting whenever I pop over. The building is large and spacious and the children always have the option of being outside. It's also very helpful that they're open from 7.30am to 6pm. Thank you all for taking such great care of my son!

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Daisy Steel
4 years ago

We are thrilled with the care our daughter receives at Busy Bees. She settled in so quickly (surprisingly as it was during covid and she was previously quite shy) and always comes out smiling and like she's had a good day. The staff are professional, understanding and communicative. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the nursery to others.

Read on Google

Reviews from Google for Busy Bees Day Nursery at Oxford Littlemore. See all on Google Maps

Inspection history

Date: August 2017

The most recent inspection point has been hidden because the parsed entry didn't match the headline Ofsted rating (Good). We're re-checking it against the original report.

  • December 2021Good
  • August 2017Outstanding

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