Their first nursery opened in September 2017 in Harbin (see picture), in the northerly province of Heilongjiang, China. Some Harbin history: Gordon Marks, executive director of True Source Honey, said its certification programme was designed to “help prevent illegal trade in honey that circumvents US law and that has the potential to harm the reputation of all honey sold in North America”. He added: “True Source Honey is committed to ensuring that honey is sourced in a transparent and traceable manner and is authentic.”

Being able to respond to local needs and be international has led to the group helping children to talk in English with native English speakers as well as with teachers from other countries outside China. Chinese teachers speak in Mandarin, while an international teacher, typically from England or Singapore, speaks in English to the children. Flights to Harbin if not living within the city when employment commences and return flight home at the end of contractI’ve always quite liked a challenge.The reason to be in Asia is because it’s a great opportunity. China will have 220 cities with over one million people. In comparison, Europe will have 35 cities with one million. Our Queens are British Hybrids and are extremely balanced, user friendly bees. They are all mated but not clipped or marked.

Beekeepers warn that if they go out of business there will be a shortage not just of genuine honey, but of honeybees to pollinate the 75% of crops that depend to some extent on pollination to increase yield and quality. Knowledge Universe owned Busy Bees from 2009 until it was sold in late 2013 to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. There were three potential bidders for the business. Milken gave Teachers' preferred bidder status in September but Woodward said he and Randles had a say too. The acquisition is said to leave Randles, Woodward and finance director Simon Irons with significant minority stakes in the company. About 15 members of staff are equity holders. Between 2007 and 2019, there was a 128% increase in Asian honey exports worldwide even though the number of hives has only risen slightly and honey yields have fallen due to threats to bees from pesticides, poor nutrition and parasitic mites.While children may see and paint Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’, their work is less about art, more about imitation, with all children creating identical pictures. ABC and Milken funded an acquisition spree that allowed Busy Bees to swallow bigger but less efficient nursery chains to expand across the country. Nursery chains in the group now include Just Learning, bought last year, Brighton and Hove-based Early Years Childcare, and Leapfrog. Honey fraud can take many forms, from harvesting honey from beehives before it has matured and drying it artificially, to adding cheap sugars and syrups. Various tests can detect the presence of some added sugars, but those from rice, wheat, sugar beet, cassava and potatoes can evade traditional testing methods.

Teaching styles in the two countries differ - with rote learning popular in China. Far from the child-led education in the UK, learning in China can mean all children will either eat, read, sleep or play at the same time. Woodward, a former teacher, founded Busy Bees in 1983 with some friends after bemoaning the state of British childcare over a pub lunch in Staffordshire. The group now has 237 nurseries looking after about 30,000 children in the UK. children's dinning rooms with cooking space, staff lounge, staff canteen, staff study room, 2 foyers for break off learning spaces,1 parents room. Mike’s behind it [the deal],” Woodward said. “You probably know Mike’s recent history, but I’m a big Mike Milken fan.”

Some Harbin history:

Mr Woodward says before setting up a Chinese nursery, he got together with Oriental Cambridge Education Group (OCEG). Busy Bees could not operate in China without a local business partner and Mr Woodward confesses: “In my opinion, you need a local management team wherever you go in the world.” NSF International said: “We are confident our team has performed its services to True Source Honey in full accordance with the law and with the True Source certified standards.” HS1, the UK's only high-speed rail link, linking London and the Channel Tunnel (owned jointly with fellow Canadian pension fund OMERS) And although China’s employers had well-qualified staff on paper, they were not creative thinkers. Busy Bees’ business partner OCEG knew that in relation to education in China - the creativity just wasn’t there.

John Woodward, Busy Bees’ co-founder and managing director, oversaw the Singapore and Malaysia nurseries for Knowledge Universe in 2013.

Now the group has 213 nurseries, 7,000 employees and looks after 20,000 children aged from three months up to five years. international teacher for each classroom to work alongside a Mandarin speaking teacher, teaching assistant and nanny