Healthy Child speaks to Marg Randles about Busy Bees nurseries and the importance of an early focus on education
How did you get started in childcare?
Firstly, I need to confess, it was never our intention to create a global childcare business! To begin with, we were just families who couldn’t find what we wanted for our children.
We were looking for a place with a real focus on education and where our children could be happy, secure and treated with respect. We wanted our children to experience learning in a practical and fun way and to develop a real interest in learning new things.
When we couldn’t find exactly what we wanted, my husband Pete and I teamed up with fellow teachers Lynn and John Woodward and, with help from our friends David and Sally Thackray, we knew the only way we could realise our dream was to create it for ourselves.
Tell us about your first nursery.
Looking back, it was quite a gamble – we sold our houses and bought a property we could convert into a nursery, with both the Woodward and Randles families living ‘over the shop’.
That first centre, Rocklands in Lichfield, opened in 1983 and became our blueprint for the high-quality early years and education we wanted for every child.
Our priority was a build a safe and enriching environment staffed by skilled people who were as passionate about children’s futures and happiness as we were. Rocklands was a place that was loved by parents and children alike and, within a year, all 50 places had been filled.
How did that evolve into a global business?
John was the visionary within the business, and he believed more families should be able to experience the same quality of childcare, not just in the UK, but around the world.
Of course, we couldn’t have expanded beyond that first nursery on our own.
We have been blessed with amazing colleagues, past and present, who have been as committed as we were to giving children the best beginnings. In return, we have always invested in the training, resources and support teams they need to make every one of our nurseries exceptional.
We are also fortunate to have international shareholders who fully support our commitment to delivering the highest quality childcare for all our families.
Today, 40 years later, the Busy Bees group operates almost 1,000 centres across ten countries, caring for around 100,000 children and growing all the time.
What makes Busy Bees special?
From the beginning, our vision was to give children the best start in life, and that remains just as true today.
We have always understood that parents want the best for their children, and so do we.
That’s why from the outset, we created a child-centred approach that is entirely focused on helping children develop at their own pace, and in partnership with our parents.
We’ve established a reassuring home-from-home environment in each of our nurseries, with passionate educators and skilled support teams, top quality educational resources and wholesome healthy meals to ensure our children are nourished mentally, emotionally and physically.
Has childcare changed over the last 40 years?
In 1983, our approach to looking after children was innovative – this was not just childcare, but real early years education. As teachers we understood the importance of a child’s formative years, and the lifelong value of early learning.
Childcare has developed over the years, and we have continued to focus on what’s important to parents.
The result is independent, happy and confident children who are ready to start school, equipped for the exciting learning journey ahead of them.
Our 40 years of experience, caring for thousands of children, means we can provide exceptional early years care and education, drawing on best practice from across our global family.
What are your standout moments?
My standout moments are not only seeing my own children and now grandchildren thriving from the Busy Bees experience, but also hearing from parents about their children who have achieved their full potential at school and in their careers.
Being awarded the, OBE alongside my dear friend John Woodward, for our services to early education was an extraordinary honour.
As was taking our philosophy overseas – first to Singapore and Malaysia and now also in the USA and Canada, Italy and Ireland, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand. I am always excited to meet our overseas educators and find out how they are sharing our Busy Bees values in so many different languages and cultural settings.
What are you most proud of?
Our success is built on our people and the great work they do in our centres every day. We have always paid attention to supporting our people to develop their careers, with many starting as trainees or apprentices and working their way into management or even higher.
But overall, it is enormously rewarding to see how our teams influence the lives of thousands of children, supporting them as they grow from tiny babies into confident little people, transitioning into school.
Watching children develop a love of learning is always special, so I feel unbelievably privileged to have enjoyed a career in early years.
What’s next for you and Busy Bees?
From my roots as a teacher, my priority has always been that we provide our children with exceptional early years care and education. I’m less involved in the day-to-day running of the business now, but still very much a part of the global team influencing the direction of Busy Bees.
I am as committed as ever to ensuring our quality and safeguarding standards are maintained, and that we make the most of our 40 years of experience to help develop the next generation of global citizens.
Our ambitious plans will see us rolling out our own innovative global curriculum this year, developed by our expert team to combine the very best educational theory and childcare practice and deliver even better beginnings for all our children.
Busy Bees will continue to expand, opening new nurseries in existing territories and exploring new countries that are as committed as we are to the education of our children.
Our driving ambition is that Busy Bees can provide the best start in life for children wherever they are in the world – for another 40 years and beyond!
