Nursery World - Busy Bees founder and childcare pioneer John Woodward dies

John Woodward, one of the leading figures in the early years sector and a co-founder of the UK’s largest nursery group has died.

John Woodward pictured after accepting his OBE at Buckingham Palace

The co-founder and president of Busy Bees Childcare, who was in his mid-sixties, trained as a special needs teacher and founded Busy Bees Nurseries with five other teachers, including Marg Randles, who remains with Busy Bees today.

Frustrated with the lack of high-quality childcare available for their own children, they opened the first Busy Bees nursery in Lichfield, Staffordshire in 1984, starting what was to become one of the first nursery groups in the UK.

Since then, Busy Bees has grown to become one of the largest international nursery groups in the world, with a network of settings, including in Singapore, Malaysia, Canada and Australia.

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