Little Barn Owls - Horsham

Little Barn Owls Forest School Nursery was inspected on 28 January 2022 under the legacy EYFS framework (4 areas: Quality of Education, Behaviour and Attitudes, Personal Development, Leadership and Management), achieving Outstanding across all areas. This analysis maps those findings to the November 2025 7-area framework. The nursery demonstrates exceptional practice across all evaluation areas, with particular strengths in outdoor learning, child independence, emotional development, and inspirational leadership. The setting follows the Reggio Emilia approach and operates a forest school model with 22 staff (16 working directly with children, 10 holding relevant qualifications including one qualified teacher). The nursery serves 98 children aged 0-5 across 52 places. Given the Outstanding rating across all legacy areas and the comprehensive safeguarding arrangements noted, this analysis identifies strategic investments to maintain and enhance the already exceptional provision, focusing on sustaining excellence and exploring opportunities to reach Exceptional grades in the new framework areas.