Little Owl Pre-School

A garden behind Woodhouse Eaves Baptist Church, traffic-counting on Main Street and a library book to take home each week give Little Owl Pre-School a recognisable village character. Its activities connect familiar surroundings with early learning: children investigate their neighbourhood, build stories through play and carry reading into family life.

At its 16 December 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the setting Good and found safeguarding effective. The practical scale is clear: there are 30 places in total, while the age offer runs from two and a quarter to five years. That capacity is a whole-setting figure, rather than the number of children attending together.

Little Owl is a charity, with fundraising used to purchase equipment and resources for children. Parents can contribute ideas and get involved. Opening hours are 9am to 2pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with attendance following broadly the local school terms.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage shapes the day through play, communication, physical activity and early mathematical understanding. Here, that means practising scissors and pencil control, experimenting with magnets, sharing stories and learning how to take turns. These are concrete ways of building skills rather than treating preparation for school as desk work.

Main Street supplies material for number work: children count passing vehicles and turn their observations into graphs. Exploring a village map brings another familiar place into learning. Both activities give abstract ideas a local reference point, helping children connect counting and representation with things they recognise.

Activities are revisited so children can develop a skill or discover something different on another attempt. Painting, model-making and drawing sit alongside dressing up and imaginative roles in the home corner. The curriculum overview sets out this mixture of practical investigation, language and creative play.

In December 2024, staff introduced vocabulary through activities, including explaining antlers during work about reindeer. A cooperative shape game encouraged children to distinguish shapes by counting their sides. These examples show how adult guidance can add a specific learning purpose to an enjoyable activity.

Outdoor and Community Life

The large, enclosed garden behind the church gives outdoor play a substantial place in the offer. Tricycles and space hoppers provide different ways to move, while families supply wellies that remain at the setting. Clothing needs to suit messy activity and outdoor play in different weather conditions.

During December 2024, children practised climbing, balancing and running, and staff helped them learn to catch and roll hoops. Play also included chasing hoops downhill. This was active learning with opportunities to practise coordination, rather than outdoor time serving only as a break between indoor activities.

Inside, the carpeted main play space measures approximately 900 square feet. Folding doors allow it to be divided for different activities, and side rooms are also used. Construction toys, puppets and sand play offer hands-on choices; soft chairs provide somewhere to share a story or relax. The layout allows different kinds of activity within the church premises.

Relationships and Communication

Starting is staged through two hour-long taster sessions, first with a parent or carer and then independently. Children beginning to settle can also leave at noon, before lunch. Together, these arrangements provide smaller steps into the routine before a child stays for the whole opening period.

In December 2024, each child had an allocated key member of staff. Conversations with parents about interests and individual needs informed introductory visits, and staff stayed close during settling sessions. This gives the transition a personal starting point: the child's preferences help shape the introduction.

Communication begins with information about medical conditions, allergies and favourite books, toys and activities. Staff discuss development and share achievements with parents. A Learning Journey brings observations together, supports planning for the next stage and can be viewed by parents throughout the year. Families receive it when their child leaves, and progress summaries are shared with the receiving school.

Reading has a simple home link. Each week, children select a library book to share with their family, while a book bag can be obtained for a donation. The routine gives parents something tangible to enjoy with their child alongside conversations about development.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The staff structure includes a SENCO, and the setting works with external agencies and receives local education authority advice on assessing special educational needs. At the December 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that partnership with parents and external services, together with incremental targets, supported children with SEND to make progress.

Physical access deserves a specific look: the premises are on the ground floor, with no steps inside and one at the entrance. Staff hold first-aid qualifications. These are concrete arrangements for families to weigh alongside their child's individual support needs.

Sessions and Attendance

Little Owl operates from Baptist Church Rooms, Main Street, Woodhouse Eaves, Leicestershire, LE12 8RZ. It opens from 9am until 2pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; Thursday and Friday are closed. Its calendar broadly follows local school term dates, making this an offer for families whose childcare needs fit those days and hours.

Contact is by telephone, email or an enquiry form. The telephone number is 01509 890 195. Enquiries by phone are welcomed Monday to Wednesday between 8.30am and 2.30pm; those contact hours are separate from children's opening hours.

Funding and Paid Extras

Free Early Education Entitlement is offered, and using funded hours carries no additional cost. Where government funding is not allocated to Little Owl, including when parents use it at another setting, private sessions are charged. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the funding and fees information explains the distinction between funded attendance and privately paid sessions.

Children may wear their own suitable clothes, and uniform can be purchased. Indoor footwear consists of slippers or plimsoles, with wellies kept for outdoor use. These practical preparations matter more to the everyday experience than having a uniform.

• Three-day opening week. The 9am to 2pm window runs only Monday to Wednesday, broadly during school terms. Families need a weekly routine that fits this particular timetable.
• Creative learning. The December 2024 improvement priority was to strengthen expressive arts and design so experiences matched the quality elsewhere in the curriculum. On a visit, ask how painting, making and imaginative expression have developed since then.
• Starting and individual needs. The two taster sessions move from accompanied to independent attendance, and there is one entrance step. Discuss how that introduction and access will work for your child, including any allergy arrangements and how lunch and personal-care arrangements work.

Little Owl suits families seeking village-based preschool care within a short, term-time opening week. Main Street investigations, weekly books for home and a garden equipped for active play give the offer clear substance. The Learning Journey also provides a useful thread between daily experiences, parent conversations and moving on to school.

The December 2024 Good judgement is a positive reference point, with creative learning the specific improvement area to explore. The decisive practical consideration is whether Monday-to-Wednesday attendance ending at 2pm works for family life.