Daisies Montessori Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter the setting with confidence. They are welcomed by a staff team, who are excited to see them. Children understand the routine and take off their outside shoes before entering the setting. Staff know the children well. They offer support to the youngest children to hang their coats up. Staff use the Montessori approach to create an environment that supports children to make good progress.

Children show a positive attitude to their learning. Staff encourage children to make independent choices. For example, children choose their own trays with activities to complete and find a table or flat mat to sit at. When they have completed the activity, children proudly show off their activity achievements. The curriculum is ambitious for all children. It has a clear focus on helping children learn the skills they require for their future.

There is a calm atmosphere within the setting. Staff are consistent in their expectations of children's behaviour. Children have a good understanding of this and, as a result, they behave well. In the garden, staff provide children with a large space to explore. Children enjoy taking risks as they build towers with the crates and climb up to jump off.

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

• Staff support children's communication and language development from a young age. Children enjoy listening to stories. Staff change their voice to suit the characters in the story, which attracts the attention of others. This helps develop a love of books. After listening to the story, staff challenge children to retell it. They use picture cards, predicting what the next card is before they see it.
• Children enjoy playing with and alongside their friends, developing their social skills. At the small world area, children work together to build using the wooden blocks. They laugh together as the tower falls. Outside, children wash the bicycles together at the car wash. Children have different jobs and clean different parts of the bicycles, working together until they are clean.
• Children have a wealth of opportunities to learn about the world around them. Outside, children search for minibeasts under logs. They use magnifying glasses to make the bugs 'bigger' and look at their minibeast charts to work out what they have found. In the main room, exploration boxes allow children to explore artefacts from different parts of the world. Using a postcard exchange, the setting shares information and drawings from their children with other settings. They send them to other pre-schools around the world and they receive things back. The children love waiting for the postcards to arrive, excited to find out which country they may be from. The setting takes time to explore the countries, encouraging children's curiosity and answering any questions they may have.
• In general, staff support children well, and all children make good progress. However, at times, high-quality interactions are not consistent. As a result, interactions across the staff team need to be strengthened to ensure a consistent approach for all children.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have good support. Through early intervention, the setting ensures that children have the right support in place in a prompt manner. This helps children to make the best possible progress they can from their starting points. Parents who have children with SEND comment on the positive impact the setting has had on their children.
• Parent partnerships are strong. Parents specifically choose this setting based on its Montessori approach. They are pleased with the progress their children make at the setting. Parents receive updates on their children's learning regularly and are aware of their children's next steps in their development. Parents comment on the ideas the staff give them to support their children at home.
• The manager and her team have a clear vision for the setting. Staff comment on the manager's support for their well-being and the progress they make in their own professional development. Staff cascade information to each other after training courses. They work together to develop ways to integrate the learning into practice. This ensures that the setting is always striving towards providing the best possible care and education.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen staff's knowledge and skills to deliver high-quality interactions effectively so that all children benefit from the learning. opportunities.