Little Barn Owls Nursery and Farm School

Interested in Reggio Emilia and the Project Based Approach in early years education?

Attend our Professional Development Event on June 27th 2015 to tour our Reggio Emilia inspired Nursery & Farm School, attend a presentation of an 8 month project and receive a free copy of our newly published book 'Landscapes' which documents the project. 

Hear from the lead educators involved in facilitating the astonishing thinking, strategizing and co-constructed journey of learning by a group of 3 and 4 year old children as they researched depth of field and perspective within digital photography.

Email us here to enquire about booking your place or continue reading to find out more.

(Click on invitation to enlarge)

Founders of the Sightlines South East Network for Creative and Reflective Practice - Little Barn Owls Nursery & Farm School invite you to a professional development event for Nursery Managers/Owners, Headteachers, Teachers, Practitioners and Early Years Professionals.

Little Barn Owls opened in 2010 and since then we have been on a journey of professional development which has attracted interest from Early Years professionals all over the country. In response to the many requests we receive for visits to our nursery we are launching two new services: professional development events and bespoke small group visit days for those wishing to experience a UK Reggio inspired nursery in practise.

‘From Interest to Enquiry’ is designed to be a taster day into what our bespoke visitor days could hold for you, your staff or colleagues when you have the chance to see our educators at work with children.

Little Barn Owls is a 70 place Nursery & Farm School set on a working farm in rural West Sussex. We consider LBO to be a place of relationships, education and professional development. Most importantly we are a group of adults researching with children the important question of how to live well?

Our approach is a bit different. We have been influenced by the philosophies of the Reggio Emilia approach for several years, but also have a strong commitment to outdoor learning. Our nursery has a large free-flow garden with a farm school that homes twenty animals, a large growing area, an outdoor atelier and a dedicated lodge studio where our professional artists (Atelieristas) work every day with children. We also run a forest school programme and employ dedicated Farm School and Outdoor Learning Coordinators to enable children’s emerging interests, fascination and theories to develop – often into long term enquiries which become projects of collaboration between the children and educators. LBO is a place where chickens and pigs meet art, children and the natural inquisitiveness of the human condition.

As part of the events on the 27th June, we’d like to show you a recent project which involved the deep-thinking enquiries of 3 and 4 year old children, over 8 months, with a desire to research depth of field and perspective within digital photography. This project is documented as our second published book and will be available on the day.

Here’s what some recent visitors had to say about their visit day:

“I’m absolutely speechless.. I just can’t believe what I’ve seen today. I’m so inspired” (Nursery Owner and Education MA student from Greenwich University group visit)

“I feel like I’ve just seen what the future of Early Years should look like in the UK” (Lottie Child, Artist and Forest School Leader)

Little Barn Owls received an Ofsted Outstanding grading in all areas in 2013 and has achieved three consecutive outstanding gradings in Learning and Development over the past 5 years. Owner and Director, Hayley Peacock is the founder of the Sightlines South East Network for Creative and Reflective Practise and has written about and presented the work of the nursery for various other organisations and industry publications such as Greenwich University and Nursery World Magazine. Working in conjunction with Sightlines Initiative, the South- East network recently developed a cross setting action-research project with 5 settings and schools from across the South East of England called ‘The Secrets of Materials’.

As well as attending four consecutive international study tours to Reggio Emilia, Little Barn Owls took part in the ‘Developing Environments of Enquiry’ programme run by Sightlines during 2014. Information about joining the South East Network and Sightlines Initiative will also be available on the day.

Booking Information

Please provide the following details by cutting and pasting the following into an email to info@littlebarnowls.co.uk to book your place on this professional development event:

Name (of all participants):

Professional Title/s:

Name of Setting/School or Organisation:

Contact email:

Contact telephone number:

Any dietary requirements we need to know about for any members of your group:

Payment details

‘From Interest to Enquiry’ Development Event is £30 per person, to include lunch and a copy of our recently published project book. Please send bacs transfers to:

Little Barn Owls LTD

Account No’: 83290905 Sort Code: 20-42-58

Or please send a cheque made payable to Little Barn Owls LTD, Little Barn Owls Nursery & Farm School, Moat House Farm, Rusper Road, Horsham, RH12 3HE.