Apple Tree Montessori Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

This setting offers a welcoming environment where children feel secure and valued. Warm interactions with staff help children to settle quickly. There is effective communication between staff and parents and carers. This ensures consistent care and support for children. Staff build strong relationships with children, understanding their individual needs. They provide babies with care and reassurance, fostering their happiness and security. Staff teach children about the rules and boundaries in the setting. They model good manners. Children respond positively, saying, 'You are welcome,' when they receive thanks. They display kindness, share resources and take turns with their friends.

Staff encourage active listening and emotional expression to foster children's good behaviour. Staff offer a comprehensive curriculum, with a strong focus on literacy. Babies engage with books and are exposed to descriptive vocabulary. They respond positively to the familiar songs that staff sing. Toddlers acquire new words related to weekly themes and staff encourage them to incorporate them into their play. Pre-school children bring these themes to life through role playing activities. This enhances children's ability to recall information and make connections with new ideas and concepts. This approach helps children to develop essential skills and knowledge in preparation for school.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• The provider's curriculum is clear and ambitious. It is designed to promote children's communication, confidence, creativity and curiosity. Children experiment and freely explore their learning environment. They associate their prior knowledge with new learning opportunities.
• Leaders know how to adapt the curriculum to further support the most able children and those who need additional support. However, the implementation of the curriculum is less consistent for younger children than it is for older children. This means that, at times, staff do not fully extend younger children's skills, which impacts on their engagement and attitudes to learning.
• Staff are effective at supporting children's communication and language development. When reading books to children, staff sustain their concentration, read engagingly and discuss their predictions about the story with them. Children learn to spot patterns in rhyming vocabulary. They enjoy matching their props with the characters and objects from the story, and all join in with the chants in the story. Staff create activities that foster children's love of reading and language through the recounting and retelling of children's favourite stories. Pre-school children are confident and fluent communicators.
• Children learn life skills, such as by setting out labelled place mats and bowls at snack time. Staff encourage children to pour their own milk and to take turns in cutting fruit and passing it around. Children take on responsibilities, behave well and assist each other. Overall, staff teach children about some of the things that contribute to a healthy lifestyle. They discuss healthy foods and teach children about the impact of too much sugar on the body. Children have daily physical exercise and learn about good oral health.
• Staff promote children's physical development well. Younger children learn to balance and climb confidently in the outdoor area. Staff support children to learn how to ride scooters by pushing with one leg. Older children skilfully dig using small hand tools. They show resilience and determination as they carefully coordinate their arms to pick up and tip out leaves and twigs from the bucket to make their 'silly soup' in the garden. Children demonstrate good strength and physical skills.
• The procedures for identifying and supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well established. Staff use their observations and assessments to spot when children may fall behind in their learning. Parents appreciate the care and support their children receive at the setting. They note the attentiveness of staff and the timely feedback on their children's progress.
• Staff are happy and feel supported. New staff benefit from thorough inductions and regular checks on their well-being. They access professional development such as training. Leaders ensure that all staff receive coaching and mentoring. However, at times, the feedback and development points from leaders lack focus. This leads to inconsistent interactions between staff and children.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance staff's capabilities to address the learning needs of children in mixed-age groups, in particular the youngest children
• enhance feedback to staff, to help them to clearly understand the specific actions required to extend their practice and achieve better outcomes for all children.