Little Barn Owls Forest School Nursery

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.