Published by: Jenny Shaw

Following our first two working days in Singapore spent at the Busy Bees Asia HQ, I had the chance to reflect this morning (while watching this beautiful sunrise!) on some of the differences and similarities between our operations in Singapore and the UK.

Yesterday we heard about the SPARKS (Singapore Preschool Accreditation Framework) accreditation, a government programme to recognise quality in early years. Busy Bees Singapore was consulted in the setting up of this framework; similarly I have been fortunate enough to visit the Department for Education in London as part of a consultation a few years ago when some changes were being proposed made to our framework.

Busy Bees Singapore has their own assessment procedure that supports settings in preparing for SPARKS; this meets the standards but goes above and exceeds them; very similar to our assessment process at home preparing our sites for their inspections.

Although there are several differences, I am finding that what is at the heart of both is the uncompromising strive for quality, only accepting the best for our children and always going that one step further. Much of our discussion last night among the participants was how incredibly lucky we feel to work for an organisation that has a global standard in wanting the best for children and their families. We are so excited to get into our placements today and see these standards in practice!