Kids Go Wild Forest School Limited

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children become deeply involved in purposeful, self-initiated play in this exciting open-air environment. The well-qualified, experienced staff observe and listen to children. Their skilful interventions help all children to develop their own ideas. Pre-school children decide to make a shelter for some tiny slugs. They find a space in the 'bug hotel', then want to add more protection for the slugs. Staff work with them to try out pieces of wood, to see which ones fit the space to children's satisfaction. The exercise demonstrates children's ability to form a plan and complete a project. They learn to adapt their ideas to the resources that they find.

Children show that they feel safe and happy at the forest school. New children rapidly gain confidence. They eagerly tell staff about the adventures that they are having. Staff make the site safety rules a priority. Children know that they must never walk inside the fire circle, even when the fire is not burning. However, children learn that fire can be managed safely and is useful. They fix apples onto long sticks and roast them. In winter, children find out the benefits of fire for keeping them warm and for cooking the food that they make.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• The provider's vision is for children to gain hands-on experience, tailored to their individual needs and interests, in a natural setting. Older children describe how being outdoors relaxes them and benefits their mental, social and physical health. Children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make good progress in their learning and development.
• Leaders make observations of staff's teaching and provide regular feedback and coaching. Staff say that they feel supported to develop their skills and are really happy in their roles. They bring rich and varied professional experience to the forest school. However, the team is relatively new and there are occasions when the detail of how they apply principles to practice is inconsistent. This means that, sometimes, children are not precisely sure what is expected of them.
• Children make particularly good progress in their language development. Much of the lively conversation is rooted in first-hand experience. Children learn that water makes a slide fast and fun, while a slide with dried mud on it is much slower. Children extend their vocabulary in meaningful contexts. Staff teach children the meaning of words, such as 'respectful' when they seek and find small creatures. Children look at the worms, then gently replace the log that covered them.
• Staff understand how children learn. This helps them to support children's own lines of enquiry. Children want to make leads for soft-toy pets. This requires them to tie knots and cut string. Staff encourage children to help each other. This promotes children's kind behaviour and self-esteem. Children at an early stage of using scissors show a sense of achievement when the string suddenly divides. They want to repeat their success and keep practising.
• Staff plan adult-led activities that children enjoy. However, sometimes, the learning intentions for activities are not shared clearly enough with children. This does not help children to recognise and celebrate precisely what they know and can do as a result of participating.
• Strong partnerships help to make the forest school truly child-centred. When new children with SEND communicate non verbally, leaders seek advice and training from specialist practitioners in partner settings. This leads to staff building the use of signs, symbols and objects of reference into children's daily routines. It helps to accelerate every child's progress towards confident communication and early literacy.
• Leaders routinely communicate information about children's individual needs with staff. This includes details of children's allergies to particular substances and means that children are catered for safely. Parents and carers feel well informed about the provision, its ethos and their children's progress. They say that looking at digital photos on the app helps them to initiate purposeful conversations with children about events at forest school. Parents are deeply appreciative of the acceptance and support that staff extend to every child and family.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• make even better use of supervision and coaching so that staff demonstrate highly consistent practice across the team
• sharpen planning so that adult-led activities promote children's deepest engagement in their learning.