Busy Bees at Colton Mill

Reviews

• MK

  Matthew King

  Aug 14, 2026
  1.0
  Our experience over recent months has left us with a real loss of confidence in this nursery. The two separate closures have caused significant disruption to our family, financial loss and a great deal of uncertainty. Both closures were communicated at around 4pm — one on a Monday and the other on a Friday — leaving very little time to arrange alternative childcare. Communication around billing has also generally been poor, with significant time spent chasing corrections and trying to resolve issues. Prior to the closures, pick-up arrangements had also felt disorganised, and we had concerns about the level of management oversight. The timing and handling of the closures, combined with the lack of meaningful communication and acknowledgement of the impact on families, has been extremely frustrating. Ultimately, it has left us with no confidence in the provider going forward, and we've opted to take our childcare elsewhere.
• EA

  Emma Adamson

  Aug 3, 2026
  2.0
  Caveat - Many of the team are amazing! Georgia (literal angel), Chu, Macey, Laura, Katie, Maddie (and likely more). So caring, and genuinely cared for the children. From mid-year 2025 the nursery went downhill. - From pre-school my child never had a key worker - Toilets were disgusting. Basic hygiene standards not met - Child was sent home for 'being sick' at lunch time, which was blatantly a case of choking on food - Preschool was choas. Too many rooms, too many room changes. I never knew where my child would be, or where his belongings would be. - The new management team were unapproachable and came across very corporate. The nursery has now closed twice, with zero notice. A real lack of respect for the parents/carers who trusted the nursery. What's heart-breaking, is children won't be able to say Goodbye to their nursery teachers due to leaving to go to Primary School, or being forced to leave as the nursery is incompetent.
• CD

  C D

  Jul 26, 2026
  1.0
  Very disappointing experience – unfortunately, the nursery has become a shambles. Our son attended from the age of 1 until he left at 4. Our experience over this time has been extremely disappointing: - *Children's needs*: Provision has been removed despite clear need, with staffing issues seemingly based around the nursery’s inability to keep staff or have contingency plans in place for sickness or otherwise. This has had a direct negative impact children's individual needs. The constant changes and lack of consistency have contributed to an increase in our son's anxiety, which has been incredibly upsetting to witness as parents. - *Management*: In our experience, senior management are dismissive and patronising, often speaking to parents as though we are children rather than people, and more importantly customers, raising legitimate concerns about our own children. We repeatedly heard "we're recruiting" and "we'll look into it", but little meaningfully changed. - *Communication*: There has been a lack of transparency around wider concerns, Ofsted updates and management changes, with information often shared late and vaguely. Despite promises that communication would improve, we feel it has actually become worse. - *Staffing*: There is a high reliance on agency staff and significant staff turnover, resulting in a lack of consistency. This is particularly concerning for young children and those with additional needs. - *Financial* priorities: Invoicing and charges have often been confusing, while it has felt as though financial priorities, such as additional charges for early drop-off, have received more attention than the serious issues affecting the children. The biggest frustration is that there are some genuinely exceptional staff. The new SENCO is great, and many permanent staff genuinely care about and advocate for the children. They are the reason we sent our son back after the nursery reopened. Sadly, in our experience, these staff are continually undermined by senior management and wider organisational decisions. As parents, it has been exhausting to constantly advocate for our son and fight for what we believe should be reasonable support. We are incredibly grateful to the staff who genuinely cared for our son, but based on our overall experience, we would not recommend this nursery. Our son deserved better, and so did the dedicated staff who worked so hard to support him.
• SH

  Shushu Hui

  Jul 8, 2026
  1.0
  I am very disappointed with our recent experience at this nursery. The nursery was temporarily closed following an Ofsted visit, which caused significant disruption to families. Although parents were told that a 30% discount would apply to privately paid elements for temporary spaces arranged during the closure period, the invoicing has not been clear and my queries about food and consumables charges have not been properly answered. Instead, I received payment chasing while the invoice dispute was still unresolved. Communication has been poor throughout. I have had to chase for clarification about invoices, closure arrangements, and termination of the nursery place, but responses have been slow or unclear. More concerningly, my son was bitten last week and was left with a noticeable bruise. I understand that incidents between young children can happen, but the extent of the bruise made me seriously question whether he had been properly supervised at the time. In my view, it should not have become so serious if adequate attention and intervention had been in place. Overall, I no longer feel confident in the nursery’s communication, billing transparency, or supervision. Because of these concerns, I have decided to terminate the nursery place.
• AA

  ale

  Jul 4, 2026
  1.0
  They have taken ‘rigorous’ training but the staff is still leaving children to eat unattended and still not changing dirty clothes and nappies. The safeguarding risks are way too high to the point our child would come home with bruises/cuts where you could tell he had really hurt himself and they didn’t know. Raised these issues and got ignored…

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