Long Ditton Forest
School Nursery
OPENING PLANS FOR SEPTEMBER 2026!
We have plans to open a new Outdoor Owls forest school nursery minibus kiss & fly route with pick up/ drop off points in Long Ditton, Surbiton, & Kingston. Children and team will hop on our nursery minibus to spend the day at our nature site at Outdoor Owls Cobham. Your child will have an owlsome daily adventure outdoors, covering an ambitious delivered by amazing educators!
Ages: 18 months - 5 years
Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday (8am - 5:45pm)
51 weeks a year (Closed for Christmas, bank holidays and INSET days)
Bus Stop Times Morning: Kingston 8:00/ Surbiton 8:10/ Long Ditton 8:20
Bus Stop Times Evening: Kingston 17:40/ Surbiton 17:30/ Long Ditton 17:20
30hrs Funding Available. Fees reviewed annually in April.
Call us:+44(0)20 4537 8901 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm)
Kiss & Fly Bus Stops
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Morning Drop Off
Our children meet the team on the minibus (our classroom on wheels). We do circle time on the bus - singing, reading, and looking at the world around us!
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Arrival & Departure at Cobham
This is where our children arrive and depart at Outdoor Owls Cobham.
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Evening Pick Up
Families collect at either Long Ditton, Surbiton or Kingston.
Our ‘Real Deal’ Forest School Nursery
From our Long Ditton, Surbiton and Kingston drop off locations, your children will visit our Cobham forest school nursery, where we have our dedicated camp for children in these three areas. Our beautiful nature camp has a yurt (with wood-burning stove), mud kitchen, arts & crafts area, forest school equipment, campfire circle, obstacle course area, reading and role-play areas. This provides a rich, multi-sensory environment for children to learn via play, first-hand experiences, and through seeing, touching, hearing, and smelling. Our forest camp is the perfect location for early years children to immerse themselves in the outdoors, surrounded by beautiful woodland and landscapes!
Meet our Manager, Ellen
Our Setting
Meet Our Team
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Ellen
South West London Nursery Manager
Ellen is lvl 3 qualified with 8 years experience in Early Years managing a nursery and after-school club. She is passionate about creating fun, supportive spaces where children thrive outdoors.
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Marcelo
Camp Lead
Marcelo is a qualified lvl 3 educator. He has worked as a nursery room leader and as an English and guitar teach in Brazil. He’s also passionate about photography.
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Lauren
Camp Lead
Lauren wored in a Forest School in Bristol while undergoing her lvl 3 degree and has experience as a carer. She believes in a child-led approach and children learning via first-hand experiences.
Why Parents Choose Outdoor Owls?
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Healthier and Less Sick
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Passionate Teachers
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A Focus on Life Readiness
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A Natural Environment
What Our Parents Say
“I could not recommend Outdoor Owls more! They completely blew us away with their amazing ethos, commitment and love for the children. Your child will thrive and grow and become a loving, resilient human being from their care and attention.”
— Gina
“Our son’s favourite time is the singing time on the minibus and to sit together with their friends, talk about the day, the weather, and sing songs together - it’s not something to be scared of. We love Outdoor Owls and feel so lucky our little boy (and hopefully his sister one day) gets to play, learn, and just “be” in the forest in a safe, loving, and caring environment. ”
— Hollie
Curriculum
Our holistic curriculum covers three learning roots. We focus on developing: Resilience, creativity, empathy and independence.
Creativity & Problem Solving
Resilience & Risk-awareness
Language & Knowledge
Body
Fitness & Strength
Balance & Coordination~
Gross & Fine Motor Skills
Mind
Soul
Social skills & Values
Self-regulation & Self-care
Nature & Culture
Learning Approach
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Child led
Your child takes the limelight and our teachers faciliate. This way it’s intrinsically motivating and provides the best method to test and learn, whilst they are fully engaged.
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Play based
Play is natural and allows your child to have full autonomy, to be in control and test their ideas whilst being in flow in what they are doing.
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Risky play
We encourage risky play under safe supervision which promotes grit. These enhanced activities encourage learning by having a go and building long-term resilience.
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Real world
Children learn best through their senses: seeing, touching, hearing, and smelling. There is no better substitute for learning than by experiencing and doing.
Nutritious Food
We understand the importance of giving children well balanced, nutritious, and healthy meals. Our meals are cooked and prepared by TwoTeaspoons, who specialise in cooking children’s meals for each season.
We provide breakfast (cereal & fresh fruits), lunch, and tea daily. We also offer an afternoon snack too.
A Day at Outdoor Owls
Long Ditton Forest School Nursery
Tawny Owls Camp (18 months - 2 years)
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Children arrive at the bus stop ready to board our minibus, ‘Classroom on Wheels’. On the bus we sing songs, read books, talk with our bus buddy and look out the window!
Children have breakfast (cereal, milk & fruits) in the forest, ready and fueled for exciting adventures ahead. We then gather around our campfire for circle time to talk about the day ahead, and how we’re feeling, and for a song.
After settling in with our friends children begin to explore the camp with different provocations set up each day to stimulate their curiosity and enable rich play. This can be learning time in the mud kitchen, obstacle course, arts & crafts, books, and digging. This is child-led, free-play and where children can test the environment to learn.
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At 11:45am it’s time to gather around and eat our lovely freshly prepared meal at our al fresco dining area. Our chef bakes delicious homemade cookies.
At 12:30pm, children head into our cosy yurt for a comfortable nap where our educators help put them down to the tune of natural soundscapes.
After, children are offered a snack of fresh fruit and vegetables.
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Now it’s time for an adventure walk to explore and role-play. We go to visit our favourite trees, dens we’ve made, open spaces, dips, and also see robins. This is learning on the go, through first-hand experiences and it’s meaningful.
We then sit down for our tea at 3:30pm. After we say goodbye to the forest and board our classroom on wheels and we return to Thames Ditton.
Sooty Owls Camp (3 - 5 years)
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Children arrive at the bus stop ready to board our minibus, ‘Classroom on Wheels’. On the bus we sing songs, read books, talk with our bus buddy and look out the window!
Children arrive for breakfast (cereal, milk & fruits) in the forest, ready and fueled for exciting adventures ahead. We then gather around our campfire for circle time to talk about the day ahead, and how we’re feeling, and for a song. After settling in with our friends children begin to explore the camp with different provocations set up each day to stimulate their curiosity and enable rich play. This can be learning time in the mud kitchen, obstacle course, arts & crafts, books, and digging.
After some time in camp, children are invited for an adventure walk to other favourite trees to swing and climb, places we are growing flowers and to see other friendly creepy crawlies, as well as soaking up the sights and smells of the seasons. This is learning on the go, through first-hand experiences and it’s meaningful.
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At 12pm it’s time to gather around and eat our lovely freshly prepared meal at our al fresco dining area. Our chef bakes delicious homemade cookies.
For any children who fancy a short rest they can lie down in our yurt.
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For children approaching school we run small group preschool sessions in our mimicked classroom environment to develop their skills in listening, raising their hands, answering questions, and building confidence to speak in front of others. Our teachers will guide them through topics on phonics, mark-making, science experiments, and practical mathematics.
In other parts of the afternoon our teachers are running games and projects, including also forest school activities e.g. sawing, drilling, whittling.
We then sit down for our tea at 3:30pm. After we say goodbye to the forest and board our classroom on wheels and we return to Thames Ditton.
Drop Off & Pick Up Locations
Families drop off/ pick up at a chosen bus stop at either Long Ditton, Kingston or Surbiton. Our team are aboard our minibus ‘classroom on wheels’ with the children for songs, reading and looking out at the world around us to head to the forest in Cobham. Ideal location for families around Kingston, Norbiton, New Malden, Surbiton, Seething Wells, Berrylands, Oakhill, Tolworth, Thames Ditton, Long Ditton, Ditton Hill, Hinchley Wood and more! For families nearer to Richmond we also have a bus stop located at Richmond & Putney Unitarian Church - see Outdoor Owls Richmond here.
Outdoor Forest Site
Walton Firs Activity Centre
Convent Lane, Cobham, KT11 1HB
Our outdoor classroom is situated in a magical green space and woodland. Here we have our own natural space to explore and learn with yurts. We have breakfast, lunch and snacks here.
How to Sign Up?
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Complete Enquiry Form
Fill out our enquiry form here and we’ll be right back in touch
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Showaround & Confirming Place
Come and see our forest camp and what we’re owl about. Meet the team and see where your child will be learning. Following this you’ll receive an email to book your child’s place.
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Settling In Sessions & First Day
Attend our X2, 2 hour settling in sessions with your child at the forest in preparation for their first full day.
Long Ditton Forest School Nursery FAQs
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As the Danish saying goes, “there’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes”. We’ve teamed up with Didriksons and all our Outdoor Owls are equipped with proper clothing for the outdoors, come rain or shine. When there are high winds and it is stormy we will adapt our plans and have some indoor shelters we can use at our Cobham nursery. For anything more severe we will need to close for safety for children and team (this is in extreme weather circumstances).
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We understand that for most children when they leave us they will be entering a different environment after amazing times in the forest. In the 9 months before school your child we partake in preschool sessions in our separate classroom style environment with outdoor blackboard and wood log stools. Children are exposed to this mimicked classroom environment, in small group sessions learn to focus on topics for periods of time, use their listening ears and raise their hands. Children build great confidence to speak in front of a group. Before they head to school you will receive a report of where they are at with their early years learning goals.
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The children love our minibus, classroom on wheels. Our teachers site amongst our children and the journey takes around 35mins, where we do 10mins each of singing, reading and looking out at the world around us. All driver’s are DBS checked and professionally trained.
Parents must be at the bus stop on time.
If you miss the bus in the morning you are welcome to arrive to Cobham to drop off your child.
As there isn’t time for lengthy handovers our team will be updating you on your child’s day on our nursery app. And from time to time you can schedule a call with our manager to discuss your child’s progress and development in more detail and also on family events we host throughout the year. -
We have cosy yurts for children to sleep in camp beds. Children nap after lunch time. For toilets we have a designated nappy changing unit, along with another potty/ toilet gazebo area for privacy (including handwashing station). We provide all nappies. Our chef brings our delicious meals which our team prep and children eat in camp at our al fresco eating area.
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For every new child starting as part of your enrolment fee you will receive a set of Didriksons, outerwear waterproofs with fleeced lining. These keep our children warm and dry all year round. Your little one will also receive their own hi-vis vest too.
Once you’re signed up we will share with you a kit list of how best to dress your child with others layers for the different seasons. -
Yes, we have weekday showaround slots available for you to come to visit us at our forest in Cobham. Complete our enquiry form here and we’ll share how you can do this.
Call us: +44(0)20 4537 8901
Forest School Rules
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“Stop, Orange Rope Return”
Our basecamp is marked with orange ropes so the children know where the boundary is of our forest. They learn to not go beyond them.
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“Yes to the Vest!”
All our children wear hi-vis vests so they are visible and all times. We give every child their own vest and our Educators wear them too!
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“No Picking and Licking”
This is to remind the children that objects on the floor may be covered in dirt and germs which might make them poorly.
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“Sharing and Caring”
To help look after nature, our resources and most important each other, we use sharing and caring hands to interact in our play.
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“Stop, Drop and Cross!”
Should a doggy come into our forest, children learn to drop what they are holding and cross their arms which helps keep their interest elsewhere.
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