Butterflies Montessori School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive in this exceptional pre-school setting. They arrive eager to explore and are quickly immersed in meaningful play experiences. New starters are comforted by nurturing, familiar practitioners, helping them to settle swiftly and engage confidently in learning. These strong, trusting relationships foster a deep sense of security and belonging. From the outset, practitioners gather detailed insights from parents, and ongoing two-way communication ensures families feel respected, involved and empowered to support their child's development at home.

Children show exceptional behaviour throughout the setting. Practitioners embed highly effective strategies that help even the youngest children understand and regulate their emotions. For example, children engage collaboratively during a floating and sinking activity, taking turns and listening carefully to each other's ideas. Consequently, children are confident, polite and able to manage their interactions with peers effectively. Practitioners demonstrate calm, respectful interactions and set clear, consistent expectations. Fundamental British values guide daily routines. Children are courteous and considerate, take turns and show kindness. They listen attentively to their friends, demonstrating respect and curiosity.

Leaders and practitioners provide an ambitious, child-led curriculum that inspires curiosity and exploration across the pre-school. Children choose activities from a range of Montessori materials and creative options, such as painting, role play and singing, allowing them to follow their interests at their own pace. For example, practitioners use children's fascination with the game 'the floor is lava' to introduce learning about volcanoes, incorporating scientific terms, such as 'ash' and 'eruption'. This approach ensures children develop knowledge in depth, extend their thinking and are exceptionally well prepared for their next stage of education.

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

• Practitioners know children extremely well and use this knowledge to build on what children already understand and can do. Children are challenged appropriately through their chosen play, enabling them to reach their full potential and make outstanding progress. For example, in the garden, children mix water, leaves and natural materials to create 'soups' and 'recipes', developing early mathematical language, sensory exploration, storytelling and collaborative skills.
• Leaders demonstrate highly effective monitoring and evaluation of practitioner's practice and children's development. This ensures consistently ambitious learning opportunities that enable children to flourish.
• Practitioners provide exceptional support for communication, language and literacy. Children confidently articulate ideas and explain their thinking. For example, during a dinosaur activity, they sort figures and picture cards into carnivores, herbivores and omnivores, using precise vocabulary, such as 'meat-eater' and 'plant-eater'.
• Interactions between practitioners and children are consistently outstanding. Practitioners model new skills patiently, give clear explanations and use skilful questioning, leaving time for children to respond. For example, children matched European and Asian animals to continents on a world map, confidently discussing similarities and differences.
• Practitioners provide excellent support for mathematical development through a carefully sequenced approach. Children count, match numerals to quantities and compare size while caring for plants, describing 'large, medium', and 'small' leaves. This promotes children's secure understanding of early mathematics, which is applied confidently in play and routines.
• Children demonstrate remarkable behaviour and self-regulation. Practitioners are excellent role models with high expectations. Children independently manage real-life tasks, such as sweeping leaves, washing dishes and caring for plants, developing independence, responsibility and self-efficacy.
• Practitioners strongly support children's emotional development. Children learn to advocate for themselves, understand feelings and develop resilience. Modelling respect, and teaching social skills, helps children form strong friendships and become emotionally secure.
• Leaders provide exceptional support for practitioners through observations, meetings and appraisals. Practitioners develop expertise through high-quality professional development, with additional funding used strategically to enhance communication and language support. As a result, practitioner's practice is consistently outstanding.