Blossoms Montessori Children's House

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive at this exceptional nursery. They arrive excited and eager to learn. Staff have high expectations for all children. They plan challenging activities across all areas of learning. They use Montessori teaching methods extremely successfully, so that children make excellent progress from their starting points. Children display particularly high levels of confidence and self-assurance. They independently select activities and equipment from the shelves and return them when finished. Children are very sociable. They seek out their friends to play with and cooperate well together to achieve tasks. Children's awareness of numbers develops rapidly. They work together to gather a set of numbered cans and help each other to stack them in order. Children's fine motor skills are exceptional. They manipulate scissors accurately to snip strips of paper. They use pens and pencils with confidence to form recognisable letters.

Children benefit from plenty of exercise in the nursery garden. They run, climb and steer two wheeled bikes with considerable skill. Children show tremendous curiosity about the world around them as they use magnifying glasses to hunt for bugs in the garden. Children become very skilled communicators. They enjoy immensely helping to programme electronic toys. They describe accurately the steps needed to move the toys from one point to another. Children who speak English as an additional language progress incredibly rapidly. They are incredibly proud to teach their friends words in their home languages

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

• The provider is highly ambitious for the achievements of all children. She has considered carefully the content and structure of the educational programme. The provider utilises the strengths of her team extremely well. She targets their training very successfully to bring about developments in teaching. This enables staff to offer children the best possible support, so that they make exceptional progress.
• Staff foster children's passion for books and stories. Children choose from a huge range of high-quality children's books displayed throughout the nursery. They re-tell their favourite stories with great enthusiasm, using props which are carefully selected and provided by staff. This builds a strong foundation to support children's future reading skills.
• Children's creativity is incredibly well supported. Staff read the story of Yayoi Kusama. Children concentrate deeply as they attempt to paint pictures in her style. Children choose freely from a wide range of resources to make their own amazing creations. For example, children collect paper, pens, glue and collage materials and make their own model rockets.
• Staff have a deep understanding of children's fascinations and structure their teaching around these. For example, staff have planned a number of activities around children's interest in space. Staff skilfully embed children's learning as they re-visit books and charts about the solar system. Children remember that Mars is covered in red dust and Mercury is the smallest planet. The impact of teaching on what children can do and remember is highly effective.
• Staff are expert at supporting children's communication skills. They use highly effective questioning techniques, which encourage children to speak in sentences and express their knowledge and ideas. Children's language is exceptionally well developed and they express themselves with growing confidence. They participate enthusiastically in group discussions and listen to each other respectfully.
• Children's behaviour is exemplary. Staff are consistent in their management of children's behaviour. They provide excellent role models for children as they are kind and supportive towards each other. Children are extremely kind and thoughtful. Older children put their arms around their younger friends when they are feeling tired and escort them to the lunch table.
• Parents express extremely high levels of satisfaction with the nursery. They feel very well informed about their children's progress and say that their children are extremely well prepared for the move to school. Parents praise the many rich and exciting opportunities for children to learn about families and communities beyond their own.
• Staff are very well prepared to meet the needs of all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff work extremely closely with families. They utilise highly effective observations and assessments to rapidly get to know children and understand their needs. This means that they identify very quickly and accurately where children may need extra support.
• Children's health and well-being are a high priority. Staff use highly innovative strategies to introduce children to healthy eating. They provide place mats at lunchtimes depicting the different food groups. Children match their lunches to the food groups and engage in discussions about what is healthy. Children gain an excellent understanding of how to stay healthy.