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Outdoor Owls Guildford

Ofsted: Strong standard·
5.0(23 parent reviews) ·Guildford Road, Shamley Green, GU5 0SQ · Surrey
Number of places
55 places
Age range
1–4 yrs
Last inspected
Apr 2026
Local authority
Surrey

About this day nursery

Outdoor Owls Guildford, located in Shamley Green, GU5 0SQ, is a childcare on non-domestic premises setting that was registered with Ofsted on 16/01/2024. The nursery provides an exceptional forest school experience where children aged 1 to 4 thrive in a positive and harmonious outdoor environment.

The dedicated team focuses on children's all-round development, with a strong emphasis on communication, language, and personal, social, and emotional skills. The unique outdoor setting allows for engaging activities like tree climbing, fire circle discussions about safety, and problem-solving tasks such as filling a wheelbarrow with water to tend plants.

Leaders are highly committed to providing unique experiences, continuously evaluating and driving the quality of care and education forward. The staff's commitment to children's well-being ensures a nurturing atmosphere where every child can flourish, build confidence, and develop a love for learning.

The strong culture of safeguarding in place ensures that all concerns are actively identified, acted upon, and managed, making children feel safe and secure.

Our ethos

Outdoor Owls Guildford embraces an outdoor-centric approach to early years education, fostering exploration and adventure through a forest school experience. The nursery encourages children to connect with nature and develop holistically within a natural setting.

What it's like

All children thrive in this unique forest school setting, arriving full of energy and excitement for a fun-packed day of play and learning within the forest. They learn an abundance of skills through a wide range of outdoor activities. Children flourish in the positive environment and culture of the setting, experiencing the curriculum and teaching with joy and delight that ignites their learning.

Forest school settingExceptional achievementStrong safeguardingSupport for SENDOutdoor learning focus

Pricing & funding

Charges are based on daily bookings with a minimum attendance requirement of two days per week. Childcare is not provided on an hourly basis. Fees are reviewed annually in April, and various childcare funding and benefit schemes are accepted.

Funding accepted

15 hours — universal (3–4 yrs)Tax-Free Childcare30 hours — working parents (3–4 yrs)15 hours — working parents (9 months–2 yrs)

Good to know

  • Minimum booking of 2 days per week is required.
  • Childcare is not provided by the hour.
  • Fees are reviewed annually in April.
  • Tax-Free Childcare and Workplace Nursery Benefit Schemes are accepted.
  • Ad hoc day bookings with less than 2 weeks notice incur an additional surcharge.

Key facts

Opening hours

Monday - Thursday (8am - 5:45pm) 51 weeks a year (Closed for Christmas, bank holidays and INSET days)

Age range

12 months - 5 years

Established

2024

Ofsted Inspection — new report card

Strong standard

Last inspected Apr 2026

Headline: Strong standard

Grade summary

Exceptional
—
Strong standard
Expected standard
—
Needs attention
—
Urgent improvement
—

Each dot represents one of the six inspection categories. Headline is the average of the six grades, rounded up.

Category grades

AchievementStrong standard
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routinesStrong standard
Children's welfare and wellbeingStrong standard
Curriculum and teachingStrong standard
InclusionStrong standard
Leadership and governanceStrong standard
Age range
1 to 4
Registers
Early Years Register, Compulsory Childcare Register
Ofsted Inspection

Ofsted rating for Outdoor Owls Guildford

Last inspected 13 April 2026

What it's like to attend

All children thrive in this unique forest school setting, arriving full of energy and excitement for a fun-packed day of play and learning within the forest. They learn an abundance of skills through a wide range of outdoor activities. Children flourish in the positive environment and culture of the setting, experiencing the curriculum and teaching with joy and delight that ignites their learning.

Inspector highlights

  • All children make rapid progress through all areas of the curriculum, excelling in communication and language, learning new vocabulary quickly and consistently.
  • Children are incredibly well prepared for their next steps in learning and starting school, developing a wealth of personal, social, and emotional skills daily.
  • The setting has an extremely positive culture, fostering a positive environment where children flourish, supported by extra safety precautions and risk assessments for the fully outdoors setting.
  • All staff know the children incredibly well, are attuned to their individual needs, and respond to them throughout the day.
  • The comprehensive curriculum meets all learning and development areas of the early years statutory framework.
  • Staff expertly teach children purposefully and meaningfully, using every moment as a teachable one and promoting children's language skills.
  • Leaders are dedicated to providing unique experiences for all children, rigorously evaluating the setting and continuously driving the quality of care and education forward.
  • Leaders actively promote the wellbeing of all staff, offering a variety of schemes and prioritising staff wellbeing over undue workload.

Areas to develop

  • 1Leaders should sustain the setting's successful work to keep high standards. They should focus on creating a transformational impact on the outcomes and experiences of disadvantaged children, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, those who are known (or previously known) to children's social care, and those who may face other barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing.

Inclusion & environment

How they support every child

SEND provision

All staff are skilled at adapting their teaching to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities or any other barriers to learning, ensuring that any barriers to learning are removed or minimised. Leaders work in partnership with the local authority early years team and other external professionals to seek support and strategies for each child. They use specialist speech and language resources and assessments to adapt and tailor support, swiftly identifying and assessing children's individual needs through a plan, do and review process. Families are actively involved in support plans.

Outdoor space

Children thrive in this unique forest school setting, arriving full of energy and excitement for a fun-packed day of play and learning within the forest. They learn an abundance of skills through a wide range of outdoor activities, including understanding how fire is made, tree climbing, and navigating uneven ground. The setting's outdoor nature promotes physical development, self-regulation, perseverance, resilience, and problem-solving.

Parent Reviews of Outdoor Owls Guildford

5.0
(23)
Vanessa
2 months ago

My son loves this Forest school, doesn't matter what weather he still has the best time, the only thing preventing the 5th star is the 9am start if it could be 8.30 it would make a huge difference.

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Amanda Edwards
a year ago

This is our son's second experience of a forest nursery and we honestly think it's amazing! We came from a forest nursery in the city and in terms of setting, outdoor owls is certainly an upgrade! The space the kids have to run free and play is vast. The fun they have with outdoor activities, combined with the friends they make and freedom is second to none. Our son has always been so happy and comfortable being outside in all weathers and thoroughly enjoys being outside. It has such a positive impact on their happiness too and the weather doesn't bother our son one bit! The site is well set up, the staff are great and so invested in the children's well-being and development. I would highly recommend to anyone considering a move to a forest nursery. Our son hardly ever gets ill too. Huge bonus!

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Madalina Eriksson
2 years ago

Outdoor Owls is a gem in the heart of London, offering an exceptional outdoor learning experience for children. As a Scandinavian, I deeply appreciate the emphasis on nature-based education, which aligns with my cultural values. The educators here are outstanding, fostering a love for learning amidst nature’s beauty. The child-led, play-based approach is refreshing, and the focus on creativity, empathy, and real-world skills is remarkable. It's heartening to see such a wholesome, holistic approach to early education in London. Truly a top-notch nursery that provides kids with the healthiest and most engaging start in life!

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Olga T (OT)
a year ago

Incredible forest school with a great ethos that we used for October Half term camps. Phil was so good with our little one and he came back so happy every day despite being entirely new to it all! Would highly recommend!

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na
2 years ago

Learning the way it should be! in nature! We came from Singapore with our children and were a little apprehensive of the concept at first but once we did a tour were impressed and very happy to signup. We have a lot of respect for what they are doing.

Read on Google

Reviews from Google for Outdoor Owls Guildford. See all on Google Maps

Inspection history

Most recent inspection

13 April 2026

Strong standard

Only one graded inspection on record — a trend chart will appear here once a second graded report is published.

View full Ofsted report

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This listing has been compiled from official Ofsted records, the nursery's own website, details provided directly by the nursery where available, and other trusted public sources. We regularly review and update listings to keep the information as accurate as possible. Learn more