Little Barn Owls Forest School Nursery

Little Barn Owls Forest School Nursery

Unique reference number (URN): 2545390 Address: Easteds Barn, Easteds Lane, Southwater, West Sussex, RH13 9DP Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 22/07/2019 Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR Registered person: Little Barn Owls Ltd

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Achievement Exceptional

Children take tremendous pride in their achievements. They proudly share their creations, for example showing parents a window that they had put in the tree house they created. All children, including those with barriers to learning or wellbeing, make rapid, sustained and remarkable progress from their individual starting points. Children express themselves with growing confidence and clarity. They gain an impressive ability to think, explain and engage in meaningful dialogue.

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Achievement Exceptional

Children demonstrate highly sophisticated understanding and curiosity, which means they continuously strive to learn. They apply their ever-growing knowledge confidently and effectively and show extreme resilience when faced with a challenge, often working together to fix the problem. For example, children embarked on a 9-month-long bridge project. They glued wood together to create 2 cities, which they wanted to join together. They researched the best types of bridges for connection. The community voted on the design and elected to build a suspension bridge. Children tested out twisting metal, how to ensure that the bridge was stable and how much weight it could bear. They cut the bridge to size using accurate measurements and real tools. Children are articulate, curious and self-assured, equipped with a rich set of skills that go far beyond expectations. The rapid progress they make is deeply embedded and lays the foundations for continued success.

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Curriculum and teaching Exceptional

Leaders have drawn on their extensive global research to meticulously design the bespoke and ambitious curriculum. This reflects the fully engrained ethos that every child is 'competent and capable' and is based largely on real-life, practical experiences.

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Curriculum and teaching Exceptional

The delivery of the curriculum by every staff member is exemplary. They ensure that it is carefully sequenced for every child through repetition, exploration and discovery to fully embed children's learning over time. Staff teach children a range of practical skills, such as how to use a range of tools and equipment. This enables children to explore, create and test their ideas, leading them to be inventive and resourceful. With the caring, nurturing support of staff, children develop the confidence to experiment without fear of failure. For example, children expressed that they would like a tree house. Supported by staff, children wrote to the landowner to request permission to build a tree house. They used various methods to create different designs, and the entire community was involved in a voting process for which tree house to build. Children tested different materials' stability and durability. They

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Curriculum and teaching Exceptional

practised putting parts together before constructing the full tree house in their forest space.

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Curriculum and teaching Exceptional

All staff have rich, purposeful interactions that are seamlessly woven throughout all areas of learning. The strong focus on giving each child a broad vocabulary and excellent skills for learning significantly enhances outcomes for children. For example, on discovering an egg, children research which animal could have laid it. They discuss the properties of the egg and, working together, identify it to be a stork's egg.

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Strong standard

Practitioners know children exceptionally well and adapt teaching dynamically and instinctively to meet the needs of all children, particularly those who face disadvantage or other barriers to learning or wellbeing. Assessment is highly effective, sharply focused and used expertly to tailor teaching to each child's unique starting point.

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Leadership and governance Exceptional

Visionary and inspirational leaders have embedded a highly effective, research-informed curriculum. This is firmly rooted in securing the very best outcomes for all children, particularly those who may face disadvantage or barriers to learning or wellbeing. Their ambitious approach ensures that decisions are consistently made in the best interests of all children, resulting in extremely inspirational practice throughout the setting, which is showcased to the early years sector.

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Leadership and governance Exceptional

Leaders prioritise staff development and wellbeing, ensuring that continuous professional development is meaningful and manageable. Thoughtful consideration is given to leaders' and staff's workload, enabling them to sustain high-quality interactions, while continually refining their knowledge and skills. Expert trainers rigorously monitor, evaluate and enhance the implementation of the training programmes created by leaders, ensuring sustained excellence and innovation. All staff take every opportunity to deliver consistently exceptional, highly effective, adaptive and dynamic teaching.

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Leadership and governance Exceptional

Leaders demonstrate an inspiring commitment to sector-wide improvement, hosting at international conferences to share their values and pedagogy. They support professional learning globally, including Saudi Arabia, Poland, Dubai and China. Leaders believe and invest in global best practice, supporting staff to access specialised training in Italy and Scandinavia, significantly enriching the quality of curriculum and teaching throughout the setting.

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Leadership and governance Exceptional

All children thrive, make exceptional progress and are tremendously well prepared for their next stage of learning and beyond. The impact of leadership is truly transformational for the outcomes of children attending this setting and many children in the wider community.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Children are supported to feel secure and develop positive attitudes to learning. Leaders have created a calm, positive and purposeful environment where consistently high expectations are understood and embedded by every practitioner.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Children have a strong, secure and sustained sense of belonging. The relationships between them and practitioners are warm, respectful and responsive. Staff know children extremely well and support them sensitively. Having such a supportive environment allows children to understand expectations and regulate their own behaviour and emotions with increasing independence. Routines have been well established and provide structure and predictability, helping children to feel safe and confident. Children look forward to parts of the day, such as 'proposal time' and 'reflection time'. Practitioners manage transitions smoothly, supporting continued engagement in learning. They model positive behaviour and support children to collaborate, take turns and build meaningful relationships with their peers.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Leaders promote the importance of good attendance and punctuality, ensuring every child fully benefits from the curriculum and builds and maintains strong, reliable relationships within the setting. As a result, children demonstrate extremely positive attitudes to learning, showing motivation, cooperation and resilience.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders and practitioners create a safe, nurturing and inclusive environment where children feel secure and valued. Effective care practices consistently meet children's individual needs. Practitioners know children extraordinarily well and provide attentive, responsive care and interactions, ensuring that every routine is tailored to each child. This supports children to feel secure, comfortable and ready to engage in learning.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Secure, trusting relationships are consistently embedded across the entire nursery. Practitioners form warm, responsive attachments with children, offering reassurance, redirection or comfort when needed. Children develop confidence, feel safe and build a secure sense of belonging within the setting.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Children are very well supported to understand their own health, physical development and personal safety. Daily routines and experiences are used as effective opportunities to skilfully promote independence, such as serving their own lunch. Practitioners model and reinforce good hygiene practices.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Practitioners support children to recognise, express and manage their emotions effectively. This may be through bucket time, the 'cool down box' or social stories. Through sensitive interactions, clear guidance and targeted support, all children learn to understand their feelings and develop and learn strategies to regulate their behaviour, strengthening their emotional wellbeing.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders and practitioners demonstrate a clear, focused commitment to ensuring all children are valued, respected and supported to achieve and succeed. Children's individual needs are identified early through accurate, robust assessment procedures and ongoing observations. This ensures that any additional needs are clearly understood and responded to effectively. Leaders diligently monitor children's progress and consistently review support plans, ensuring strategies are adapted and the impact of interventions is clearly measured.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Staff's training is impressive. They are extremely well trained to confidently implement a process to assess children regularly, plan for them and their next steps from this and after implementing these strategies, review the impact this is having on each individual child. This results in meaningful support that helps children make secure, consistent and sustained progress. The setting promotes an inclusive ethos where diversity is celebrated and individual differences are recognised as strengths. Leaders and practitioners work closely with children and their families, professionals and external partners to shape the provision, ensuring that children receive the most appropriate support at the best possible time. These strong and secure partnerships enhance children's experiences and promote consistency between home and the nursery.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Children with barriers to learning or wellbeing achieve exceptionally well. Children flourish and succeed alongside their peers. For example, children are supported gently and gradually to integrate with group times when they may struggle. Children who have had individual plans have completed the programme so successfully, they attend mainstream school with no additional support needed.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Funding is thoughtfully used to improve outcomes for children in receipt of it. For example, funding has been used to provide speech and language resources and focused adult support. Parent packs have been created so children can access these resources at home. This means that children's communication, confidence and emotional development improve noticeably over short periods of time. Leaders and practitioners provide effective, meaningful support for children known to children's social care, ensuring they are fully included, feel secure and make positive progress alongside their peers.

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Compulsory Childcare Register requirements

This setting has met the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register.

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Register

When we check if settings meet the Compulsory Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes:

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Voluntary Childcare Register requirements

This setting has met the requirements of the voluntary part of Childcare Register.

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Register

When we check if settings meet the Voluntary Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes:

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Leaders and staff have created a nurturing environment, full of opportunity and wonder. They work diligently to successfully reduce barriers to children's learning and wellbeing. All staff consistently deliver the expertly tailored curriculum that supports every child to reach their full potential.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

The highly skilled interactions of staff enthuse children in their learning. For example, recognising the potential to build on children's fascination in a story, staff provided support and encouragement that resulted in a month-long 'anti-deforestation' project. After visiting their forest space and conducting research on deforestation, children decided to campaign at their local woodlands. They worked collaboratively to create 'stop deforestation' signs, which they took into the local community. This experience significantly enhanced children's understanding of the world, helping them to believe they can make a difference. Activities and experiences of this calibre are commonplace across the setting. Children become independent learners who share their ideas, confident that their voices will be listened to, respected and advocated for.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

The environment is alive with the sound of children engaged in purposeful and interesting conversations as they explore and share their ideas. Babies use their rapidly developing vocabulary to engage with staff, for example, they accurately point at birds and name a robin. The positive response that children receive, along with the caring interactions and consistent modelling by staff, helps them to gain extremely positive and mature social skills.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

The levels of resilience and motivation that children develop are spectacular. They persevere, solve problems and take pride in their achievements. For example, when working together to fix a broken table, children pass each other tools. They watch each other work and make helpful suggestions to enable their friends to succeed, such as trying to use a screwdriver to twist the screws rather than hitting them with a hammer. The excellent

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Address:

Easteds Barn Easteds Lane Southwater West Sussex RH13 9DP

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Register(s): EYR, CCR, VCR progress that children make across all areas of learning prepares them remarkably well for moving on in their education.

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Next steps

Leaders should ensure continued improvement in the setting's successful work to remove barriers for children who need extra help to realise a transformational impact on all children's achievement and wellbeing.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders, practitioners, the special educational needs coordinator, mentors, designated safeguarding leads, the head of learning, parents and children during the inspection.

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About this inspection

We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children's learning, development and care, known as the early years foundation stage

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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