Forest Barn Nursery School

Two gardens, a field for walks and a rustic barn setting give Forest Barn Nursery School its character. Nature is a practical part of the offer here: children have a sensory garden, a fruit patch and local woodland to explore, alongside indoor spaces furnished with natural resources. For families who want outdoor experiences woven into nursery life, there is substance behind the rural setting.

At its December 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good and found safeguarding effective, while asking staff to tailor group activities more closely to what each child already understood and needed to learn next. That judgement belongs to that visit. The strongest current attractions are the grounds, hands-on cookery and community relationships.

Forest Barn takes children from 2 months to 5 years and has 66 places in total. Its Great Warley address places it in Brentwood, and attendance is organised around full-day sessions with a minimum booking of two sessions each week.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage provides the framework for children's learning, development and care. In everyday terms, learning encompasses communication, movement, relationships and exploration through play, rather than only preparation for formal lessons. Forest Barn adds cookery and outdoor experiences to that foundation.

Cookery gives children something concrete to investigate. They handle ingredients, practise skills and explore how food grows, connecting what they make with where it comes from. This links an activity at nursery with familiar experiences at home and at mealtimes.

Forest School, an approach centred on learning through outdoor exploration, also forms part of the additional activity offer. Yoga and community trips sit alongside it. These are additions to the everyday learning framework; families choosing funded attendance need to distinguish their charges from the funded hours themselves.

In December 2022, learning included an experiment in which older children watched snow change after warm water was added. Conversation about temperature gave them words for what they were observing. Books also reached across ages: babies explored board-book flaps with staff, while older children discussed stories and characters. These examples capture learning through shared attention and practical discovery at that time.

School preparation was similarly tangible in December 2022. Older children practised pencil control, number recognition and letter sounds, and circle-time activities encouraged listening and responding to others. The group-planning improvement point matters alongside those examples: an engaging activity still needs to give each child an appropriate next step.

Outdoor and Community Life

The grounds offer different kinds of outdoor experience. Two gardens provide play spaces, a large field supports walks, and the fruit patch connects naturally with interest in growing food. The sensory garden and Nissen hut add further settings for exploration. Local woodland walks extend that experience beyond the nursery's own grounds.

In December 2022, children used ride-on tractors, carried hay in buckets and climbed to a wooden playhouse inside the converted Nissen hut. That combination brought movement and imaginative play together. It is a useful illustration of how the farm setting was being used, rather than simply serving as a backdrop.

Community contact has a personal dimension: residents of a local care home often join the children for tea. Forest Barn also supports Great Ormond Street Hospital through fundraising planned across the year, including dressing-up activities, bake sales and sponsored challenges. Families can take part in a shared cause as well as their child's daily nursery life.

Relationships gave the December 2022 nursery day its continuity. Staff knew the children well, and children chose activities independently while maintaining close contact with familiar adults. Babies shared books on practitioners' laps; older children talked with staff and one another. Those observations give a more useful picture of care at that date than broad promises about happiness.

Communication with home was also practical in December 2022. Parents received progress updates and ideas for continuing learning outside nursery. For families, the value is the connection between what a child is practising during the day and what adults can support at home.

Meals are prepared by an on-site chef, with local ingredients used where possible, and menus accommodate different dietary requirements. Cookery sessions give children a separate opportunity to explore ingredients themselves.

Independence extended to mealtimes in December 2022: older children helped themselves to food and poured drinks, while younger children were encouraged to feed themselves and try different foods. Daily care therefore provided opportunities to practise manageable tasks, as well as meeting children's immediate needs.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is The Barn Tooks Farm, Great Warley Street, Brentwood, CM13 3JP. Full-day sessions run from 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Every child must attend at least two sessions weekly, and one of their days must be Monday or Friday. That requirement makes the arrangement more specific than simply choosing any two working days.

Attendance runs across the year, with Christmas-week and two annual training-day closures. Planned bank-holiday closures are taken into account when fees are set. Monthly billing stays level across the year, and fees remain payable when a child misses nursery through illness or another absence.

Funding and Paid Extras

Eligible children aged 9 months and above can access the Government's 15 Hours or 30 Hours funding offers. Forest Barn stretches these across 52 weeks, providing up to 10.96 or 21.92 funded hours weekly respectively. Funding can cover up to 10 hours within a day; the remaining 30 minutes of a full-day session is charged privately. A first funded summer term can use a different stretched arrangement.

Private fees include food and snacks, milk and infant formula, plus nappies, wipes, nappy cream and sun cream. Funded sessions have separate charges for food, health and hygiene consumables and additional activities; activity charges apply to children over 2, with no activity charge for under-2s. This distinction matters when comparing the cost of a funded booking with an entirely private one.

Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. A non-refundable registration charge applies, and the deposit is credited against the first invoice. Enquiries can be made through Forest Barn's own enquiry form or by telephone.

• A fixed weekly commitment. Two sessions are the minimum, and Monday or Friday must be included. At a visit, discuss how that pattern would work for your child's routine and your working week.
• Individual learning within groups. The December 2022 improvement point concerned matching group activities to children's next steps. Ask for a current example of how staff adapt one activity for children at different stages.
• Funded attendance still has costs. Private fees include food, consumables and additional activities. During funded sessions, food and consumables carry separate charges, as does the unfunded part of a full day; activity charges apply to over-2s only, with no activity charge for under-2s. Compare the whole written quotation with the hours your family needs.
• Dietary arrangements. Menus accommodate dietary requirements. Families managing allergies should confirm current preparation and serving arrangements with the nursery.

Forest Barn suits families seeking year-round full-day attendance, whether their booking starts with the two-session minimum or covers more of the working week. The gardens, field, fruit patch and woodland walks give outdoor learning several practical outlets, while cookery and care-home tea visits add experiences beyond the playroom.

The December 2022 Good judgement provides a dated quality reference, with a clear question about how group learning is adapted today. The decision is also practical: the Monday-or-Friday requirement and the complete cost of funded attendance need to fit family life. For parents drawn to a farm setting, there is plenty here to make a visit purposeful.