National award for Gorleston’s Busy Bees Nursery

CHILDREN and staff at a Gorleston pre-school are celebrating after it won a national Nursery of the Year award.

The Busy Bees Nursery, based at James Paget University Hospital, received the accolade at the group’s annual managers’ conference awards.

The nursery beat 128 other Busy Bees nurseries after receiving top marks for areas such as child safety, handling child allergies, maintaining a clean nursery, staff training and parent feedback.

The nursery received a good rating in all areas in their last Ofsted inspection, receiving positive comments on their care.

The outdoor garden play area is being re-developed with a �5,000 grant from Great Yarmouth Borough Council. The garden will help children’s play and development, with a vegetable patch, a sensory path with lavender plants, a Wendy house, large sunken sand pit and meadow.

Gorleston Busy Bees also received a Five Star environmental health certificate, the highest possible, for standards of cleanliness, tidiness and safety in the kitchen.

The nursery’s long-serving staff team are all fully qualified and more than 80pc hold a level three qualification in child care.

Nursery manager Rebecca Batley, was also nominated for manager of the year award after raising more than �1,000 to go to Ghana to help reconstruct an orphanage for some of the country’s most underprivileged children.

In Ghana, Rebecca worked closely with the children, teaching subjects such as English and maths, preparing meals, playing sports like football and athletics, and educating them on important areas such as hygiene and sexual health.

Rebecca also helped to pay for and build a canteen in the orphanage, and presented the children with lots of equipment and resources, including crayons, paints, paper and games.

Rebecca was delighted with the nursery award. She said: “It’s great that the team has been recognised for all our hard work over the last year. We take our jobs as child carers very seriously, so to have received this award from our employers is a great achievement for us.”