Chrysalis Montessori Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are developing a love of reading. They gather around staff and listen intently to stories being told. Older children remember familiar characters and phrases from favourite stories. Younger children enjoy talking about what they can see in the pictures of the books. Children choose and swap books to take home to read, which enhances their early reading skills.

Children enjoy their time outdoors, and most of them engage in group activities. They copy the actions of staff and learn how to warm up before physical activities. This includes stretching up very tall, touching their toes, high jumps and running on the spot. Children pretend to be pirates and run, negotiate the space around them and use their coordination skills to find and pick up 'treasure' before they get tagged by staff. They learn about the impact of physical activity on their bodies and know that their heart beats faster as they become more active.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, most handovers with parents are still occurring at the main entrance gate, although the manager invites parents into the nursery for reading sessions. This extends the range of experiences on offer.

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

• The manager is clear about their ambitions for children's learning. She has created a curriculum that identifies clearly what they want children to know by the time they leave the nursery. The broad curriculum uses themes, such as sports, animals, dance, and upcoming yearly events, to capture children's interest. Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make good progress from their starting points. They are eager to learn and persevere in activities that they enjoy.
• Staff generally interact with children well. They clearly emphasise new words throughout the day, such as 'abstaining' and 'lanterns'. Staff speak to children, narrate what is going on and read stories that encourage the children to interact. However, on occasion, they do not use their interactions with all children to extend their knowledge and learning further. In addition, staff do not always notice quieter and less confident children.
• Staff work closely with other professionals to support children with SEND and their families. They provide children with SEND one-to-one support in their play. Staff focus on children's language development and use sign language, simple sentences and visual prompts. This helps to build children's understanding of daily routines, including what is happening in the present and what will happen next.
• Children are generally content at the nursery. All staff get to know the children, and each child has a key person. The key-person system works effectively for most children to support them in making close bonds and promoting independence. However, this is slightly less effective for some children. Key persons occasionally do not help children to settle successfully when they arrive. When this happens, children do not fully benefit from the learning opportunities available.
• Staff encourage children to be independent. Opportunities for learning are available, both indoors and outdoors, allowing children to make their own choices. Older children spend long periods of time painting and experimenting with mixing colours. Younger children build sandcastles and decorate them using twigs they find around them. In preparation for snack, children enjoy the responsibility of cutting up grapes for their friends.
• Parents comment that staff are 'positive thinking' and an 'amazing team'. They appreciate the feedback that staff provide on their children's learning and development and comment that staff embrace the different cultural backgrounds of children attending the setting. Parents say that their children have developed strong friendships within the nursery and learned skills such as being independent.
• Staff know that they can talk to the manager at any time. They feel happy and valued by the manager, who is passionate about developing staff practice. For example, recent training has improved the staff's understanding of how to promote children's listening and attention skills. The manager holds regular meetings with staff that help to identify their strengths and where training or further support may be beneficial.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's teaching skills to enable them to build on their interactions with all children, including those who are quieter and less confident, to extend their knowledge and learning
• improve the effectiveness of the key-person arrangements, to ensure that all children can build secure bonds to support their emotional well-being, particularly around arrival times.