Chives Montessori School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff are warm and nurturing. This helps children and babies to form strong attachments and settle easily. Staff know the children well. They focus on the individual needs of the children and their families. This has a positive impact on children's personal, social and emotional development. Behaviour is very positive across the nursery school. Staff provide gentle reminders to children about using appropriate manners and are good role models themselves. Older children are polite in their interactions with visitors. Staff encourage children to celebrate their individual achievements with each other. This helps to boost their strong emotional well-being.

Staff implement a curriculum that supports children to become confident, independent and motivated learners. The learning environment is carefully planned to provide children with practical opportunities to experiment with resources for themselves. While exploring cups of rice, younger children decide to use a spoon to transfer the contents from one cup to another. Staff encourage children to use careful and precise movements to complete this task successfully. Supporting children's awareness of sustainability and caring for the planet are centrals in the curriculum. Staff involve children in activities including composting leftover fruit, remembering to turn off the tap and growing their own vegetables. This supports children's awareness of how they can reuse natural resources and reduce waste.

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

• Since the last inspection, the provider has established a more accurate overview of the nursery school. They have taken positive action to drive further improvement of the provision and secure good outcomes for children. The provider leads regular supervision meetings with staff and works with them to develop their professional practice. Staff say that they feel valued and have a clearer understanding of what they want children to learn.
• Staff review children's progress regularly. This helps them understand when children are ready for the next stage in their learning. Children of all ages come together daily for mealtimes, and they have regular opportunities to spend time in the other rooms. Parents are also involved in discussions about their children's readiness to move into the next room. As a result, babies and children experience a very smooth transition and settle with ease when the time comes.
• Staff foster children's confidence and nurture their sense of autonomy. Children are encouraged to take care of their own belongings, such as organising their coats and bags on their own pegs. Staff are calm and supportive when children practise new skills, such as pouring drinks or carrying a tray to the kitchen. This helps children to build resilience when things go wrong. For example, they know where to find a brush or a cloth to clean up spillages and do this with little need for support.
• Overall, staff support children's communication and language skills effectively. For example, they emphasise new words in stories and encourage children to revisit these in their play. Strong focus is placed on the importance of singing for the youngest children, to help widen babies and toddlers' vocabulary. However, occasionally, staff do not focus their interactions to encourage children to ask more questions, clarify their ideas and extend their critical thinking.
• Children are encouraged to explore and refine their movements through activities such as yoga, obstacle courses and balancing to walk across the wooden planks. Older children enjoy exploring the outdoor grassed area for more energetic team games. These activities help children become more physically competent and support their good health.
• Staff provide young children with frequent sensory opportunities. Babies babble and make sounds as they investigate experiences such as water play, catching bubbles and being creative with paint and glue. Staff join in enthusiastically with this play, helping babies to feel confident when they are trying these activities for the first time.
• Parents speak highly of the nursery school. They appreciate that their children are cared for by a consistent team of staff that knows their children's needs well. Staff share information about the planned learning activities for the week ahead, which helps parents feel informed about their children's education. There are regular opportunities for children to borrow books and equipment to share with their parents at home. This helps to extend children's learning experiences, including their interest in early reading.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to consistently build on opportunities for children to widen their ideas and extend their critical thinking skills.