Busy Bees Nurseries is a nursery group with 390 nurseries worldwide. [1]
Busy Bees was founded by Marg Randles in 1983 in Lichfield in England. [1] It has subsequently acquired nursery chains such as Bush Babies, [2] Leapfrog, [3] Kids 1st, [4] Just Learning, [5] Kindercare, [6] Tibbitots, [7] and Caring Day Care. [8]
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan [9] acquired Busy Bees Nursery Group in October 2013, with Busy Bees management maintaining a significant minority share in the company. Busy Bees completed its first international acquisition [10] in Southeast Asia with the purchase of 48 nurseries and Asia International College in Singapore along with a further 12 nurseries in Malaysia, the number of nurseries has now increased further to 52 in Singapore. Busy Bees also founded a childcare voucher company in 1998, which they later sold in 2008.[ citation needed ]
In 2017, Busy Bees acquired BrightPath Early Learning Inc. a Canadian early child care and educational facility provider. [11]
In 2022 Boots partnered with Busy Bees, to offer its team members access to discounted childcare fees. [12] In 2023, Sky partnered with Busy Bees to offer a workplace childcare solution to its working parents. [13]
In 2023 Busy Bees expanded internationally with the acquisition of New Zealand-based Provincial Education Group and completed the acquisition of Australian childcare provider Think Childcare Group. [14] It also acquired the Malvern Group in the United States, a network of 27 childcare centres in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. [15]
Busy Bees nurseries in the United Kingdom are supported by learning programmes in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework.[ citation needed ]
In 2015 two of the founders of Busy Bees Nurseries were awarded an OBE for their longstanding service to the childcare sector. [16] Margaret Randles is both the co-founder and chief academic officer. [17]
In 2023, Gill Jones MBE [18] — former deputy director for early years education at Ofsted — joined the group as group chief quality officer.