Caterpillars Montessori Nursery School

Inclusion: Strong standard

Provision for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), is extremely well orchestrated. Knowledgeable and capable leaders demonstrate that inclusion sits at the heart of everything they do. Their deep commitment and ongoing support for staff in this area is highly effective. Leaders and staff work tirelessly with parents, external professionals and other settings, to ensure children's needs are quickly and precisely identified. Together, they set clear targets for children, and systematically revisit these over time. Leaders ensure that any additional funding for children with specific needs, is used to benefit them and close any gaps. They purchase resources that they know will interest children and motivate these individuals to focus and engage.

Staff ensure they understand children's needs and provide the tailored support necessary to enable all children to fully engage in planned activities. They expertly deliver focused interventions for children who have been identified as needing to build up to more sustained periods of adult instruction. Staff are trained in various interventions for different needs and use their skills to support children with SEND to meet their targets. They successfully help deepen these children's social, language and attention skills through enjoyable and meaningful activities, such as fun musical sessions where all children participate at their own pace.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

Staff implement a child-centred approach to learning that prioritises children's health and happiness. They recognise that these type of qualities help support children's academic achievement. Leaders carefully and thoughtfully plan an ambitious curriculum. They draw on staff's extensive knowledge of each child to ensure learning builds consistently over time and reflects children's needs, abilities and interests.

Assessment is used well. All children are tracked on entry and at key points to ensure staff tailor their planning to address any emerging gaps. Targeted interventions help children catch up with their peers and staff maximise teaching opportunities to ensure the curriculum captures children's evolving interests. For instance, after researching the weather and knowing there is a forecast of snow, staff creatively plan related activities across the areas of learning. Staff plan exciting opportunities that inspire and motivate children. Their ideas and suggestions closely link to their key children's existing knowledge and skills and they work diligently with children to deepen and extend learning. Staff seize every moment during routines and play, to teach children something new.

Leaders and staff plan enriching extra-curricular activities that spark children's imaginations, creativity and natural curiosity, including weekly trips into the woods to learn about nature first-hand. Children develop a real love for books and readily learn and use new words they hear. During self-chosen activities, such as building with construction blocks, children confidently use rich vocabulary. For example, staff encourage children to apply words related to size when comparing their structures. This includes, stating whether they are 'taller' or 'shorter' than their friends' towers.

Achievement: Strong standard

All children excel in their learning, development, health and well-being. There is a clear emphasis on developing children's personal, social and emotional skills so that children reach their full potential. Alongside this, there are plenty of opportunities for children to learn in a meaningful way. For example, children learn that butter melts on their warm breakfast bagels and that snow melts, making all surfaces outside wet, including themselves.

Children show a keen sense of achievement and proudly share what they have learnt, such as Spanish vocabulary related to the cold weather from their weekly Spanish sessions. This demonstrates children's impressive memory skills and how they connect their knowledge. They develop knowledge and skills they need to become confident, successful lifelong learners. Children gain a strong foundation on which to build in order to continue to thrive when they move to school. This also applies to children who face barriers to their learning, who when they started had difficulties in independently dressing themselves. They now have the skills they need to put on their coats, wellington boots, scarves and gloves, often without adult help.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Children consistently demonstrate impeccable behaviour throughout the setting, reflecting the nurturing environment and dedicated guidance provided by staff. They share resources willingly, speak kindly to their friends and model positive actions, which creates a respectful and productive culture. On the rare occasions when individual children struggle to manage their behaviour, staff sensitively address any issues promptly and constructively. This helps children to recognise how their inappropriate actions affect others and work hard to put things right.

Children are highly motivated learners with a strong appetite for new knowledge. Staff emphasise key words to build on children's vocabulary and help them to learn new words and their meaning. During storytelling, staff skilfully ignite children's interest and love for books, which they also routinely borrow to take home. Well-established routines throughout the day consistently allow children to develop strong independence and self-help skills. Staff's commitment to providing children with the freedom to complete tasks on their own, means that children proudly show staff how competently, for example, they can use the 'coat trick' to put on their coats in readiness for outdoor play. Praise is plentiful at this setting, which effectively helps children demonstrate a 'can-do' attitude to everything they set their mind to, with impressive results.

Leaders fully recognise the importance of children attending the setting regularly and the positive impact this has on their learning. They work very closely with parents to ensure children arrive calmly at the setting, on time and demonstrate a keen willingness to start their day with confidence.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Leaders and staff ensure rigorous processes are firmly embedded to promote children's welfare, wellbeing and mental health. There is a robust and well-established key person system. From the beginning, staff get to know their key children and families incredibly quickly. They gain a comprehensive and detailed knowledge of children's unique personalities and learning styles.

Staff consistently model positive interactions and prioritise children's emotional wellbeing. They use their comprehensive understanding of the children to plan tailored programmes that ensure children feel safe and secure in their care. For instance, children tell staff they feel cold as they pick up the settled snow from the ground to make 'snow people'. Staff instantly devise enjoyable ways to make children feel warmer, leading to staff and children doing exaggerated physical movements around the garden, showing that the coldness does not hamper their excitement and fun.

Staff's frequent praise and reassurance significantly boosts children's self-esteem and confidence. In addition, they anticipate and identify children who face barriers to their learning and wellbeing. For example, staff work with these children systematically, building skills gradually to help them settle into morning routines. In this way, children arrive happily and calmly to the setting, follow their familiar settling in routines and then enjoy a comforting breakfast similar to what they have at home. This gradual and carefully implemented approach has proved very effective.

Leadership and governance: Strong standard

The inspirational and passionate leaders systematically evaluate the setting's practices and implement enhancements to drive continuous improvement. For instance, they strongly encourage staff to adapt their practice by responding to spontaneous teaching moments with children. This is evident when routine times of the day are made flexible to create rich sensory learning experiences, such as sharing a story about snow and then having the opportunity to experience snowfall in real-life.

Effective leadership and support for the staff team are notable strengths. Personalised goals and expectations are set for individual staff to enhance their professional development, which in turn, inspires excellence for children. Through consistent and proactive supervision, leaders cultivate strong collaboration among staff, parents and external professionals, which enables staff and children to thrive. For example, they have played a pivotal role in coordinating targeted interventions for children who need additional support, resulting in extremely positive outcomes.

Leaders regularly seek parents' input, ensuring that their observations and feedback directly frame their children's tailored learning plans. This has dramatically enhanced the already trusted parent partnerships between the setting and home. Parents are kept well informed and are effectively supported by leaders and staff to continue their children's successful learning and development at home.