Apple Tree Montessori Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happy and confident. They are keen to seek out their friends to explore the resources and equipment available. Children have positive attitudes towards their learning. They demonstrate high levels of concentration when participating in self-chosen activities. Children persist until they achieve the result they desire. For example, children practise using needles and yarn to thread beads or pasta quills to make their own jewellery. They show good physical skills and precision when they achieve this activity. Children wear their necklaces or bracelets with pride throughout the nursery session.

Children have positive relationships with friends and the adults who care for them. They discuss their current learning about what being 'kind' means and give examples of this. As a result, children start to understand the impact of their behaviour on others.

Children enjoy listening to books. They show great excitement to share their knowledge with others about the plot and outcome of a favourite story. They demonstrate that they can use recall and talk about the characters that interest them. This contributes towards building their language skills.

Children show high levels of independence and care for their own play environment. For instance, they wash their own hands and serve themselves snacks. When they notice they have spilled water, they seek a mop to clear up any puddles.

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

• Leaders have effective oversight of the nursery and offer support to the manager, who is relatively new to the role. They have a clear vision about what children need to learn and work closely with staff to achieve this. The manager shares her knowledge and expertise in the Montessori approach with the staff team. As a result, children receive a rich and engaging curriculum that meets their individual needs.
• Staff support children's health and well-being well. Children enjoy a wide variety of practical play experiences. For instance, staff challenge children to think about what they need to do when they comment, 'I'm boiling,' when playing in the outside area. Children take time to think and say that they need to take off their coat and hat and get a drink of water. Consequently, children start to learn how they can contribute towards their own good health.
• The manager and her team take the time to get to know children well. This helps them make effective use of any funding that is allocated to support children. Staff plan precisely to meet all children's needs. Consequently, children are making good progress in their learning and development.
• Overall, staff work closely with children and families to identify how they can support them to settle into the nursery with ease. However, staff do not make full use of strategies and available resources to support children learning English as an additional language when they first start.
• Parents speak highly of the nursery and comment on how well the nursery staff support their children's learning and development. Overall, parents comment that the communication from the nursery is good. This gives them information about their children's progress and suggestions to further extend children's learning at home. However, occasionally, communication is not as clear as it could be. There are times when parents are not always clear about the two-way information-sharing between staff and outside professionals.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance the arrangements for the smooth transition into nursery for children learning English as an additional language
• review the processes in place to ensure parents are clear about information-sharing between the nursery and outside professionals to meet the needs of children with special educational needs and or/disabilities.