Busy Bees @ Chawton Park
OutstandingTakes funded hoursBirth to 5Open for decades
A pre-school in Alton for children from birth to 5, open 08:00 to 16:00, 5 days a week. £8.00 an hour, and they take the funded hours. Rated Outstanding by Ofsted in March 2024. Open since 2006, with 42 places.
What it costs
Prices change without notice. Treat these as what to ask about, not a quote.
Our current hourly rate is £8.00 and apply to our Early Morning Drop Off, Extended Afternoon Session and any hours beyond those covered by funding.
One published rate. What you pay depends on the days you need and the funded hours you can claim.
Where this came from
The outlined line is the one the price was taken from.
Funded hours
15 hours a week of free care and education for two year olds; 30 hours of funded childcare for working parents (2, 3 and 4 year olds); 15 hours a week of funded care and education for 3 & 4 year olds.
Worth knowing. Funding can be used for our Morning and Afternoon Sessions only. Any additional hours will be charged at our usual rates.
What childcare usually costs in Hampshire
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Hampshire from the Department for Education's 2025 provider survey. No national data holds what an individual nursery charges, so ring and ask.
Places, hours and the day
Who they take, when they are open, and what a day there includes.
Where it is
GU34 1RQWhat the inspector found
One grade is one visit. A run of them tells you whether it has been good for years or has only just got there.
Ofsted inspector, 7 March 2024 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Staff plan a highly ambitious curriculum, which runs through the whole setting with seamless fluency. Children receive consistent encouragement to test out their ideas. This builds on their resilience highly effectively. For example, children show remarkable levels of determination and persevere until they successfully roll balls to the end of a ball launcher. They squeal with delight as they watch them fly into the air. Children show outstanding relationships with their peers and collaboratively measure the distance their balls have travelled. Staff foster children's interests and incorporate a diverse array of objects. This helps to enrich children's understanding of size, weight and measure even further.
Exceptional first-hand experiences support children in discovering their local community. For instance, children participate in local art and sunflower competitions and take exciting bus trips to the town. They delight in walks to the local care home, where they thoroughly enjoy taking part in activities with the residents. This provides children with boundless opportunities to make meaningful connections with others.
Staff are nurturing and caring and reinforce their expectations of children's behaviour extremely well. They sensitively help children to express their thoughts and feelings through props and visual aids, for example. Children use sand timers independently and share resources willingly. They beam with pride when they receive rewards for their achievements, such as 'wow' certificates. This contributes to creating an environment where children flourish.
- 7 March 2024Outstanding
- 11 May 2018Good
- 7 December 2015Good
Rated Good or Outstanding at 3 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Busy Bees @ Chawton Park
- Youngest age taken
- Meals
- Nappies
- Waiting list
No dataset holds any of this. Two parents telling us the same thing puts it on the page for whoever looks next.
What to ask them
Some of this is above, from the setting or from parents, and it can go out of date. The rest is in no dataset anywhere. Either way it is worth ten minutes on the phone.
- Is £8.00 an hour still the rate? What is on top: meals, nappies, late pick-up, and what happens if you are late.
- How do you apply my funded hours? Whether they stretch them over the year, and the minimum days you have to book.
- Is there a place for my child's age? Baby rooms fill first and waiting lists are common.
- Who would my child's key person be? And how long have the staff been there. No dataset holds this and it matters more than anything above.
- Can I visit at a busy time? Mid-morning on a weekday tells you far more than an empty room after hours.
Pre-schools within a couple of miles
This one is first. Tick it and one or two others to see them side by side.