Daisy Tree Montessori Nursery Ltd

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enter the nursery ready to play and learn. They show that they feel safe and happy in the care of the familiar adults who greet them. Children get fresh air and exercise in the interesting outdoor spaces. Younger children find out that fresh herbs, such as mint, have distinctive smells and textures. This is because staff understand how children learn. They plant the herbs where children can touch them. Older children confidently explore the garden. They find and observe small creatures, such as ants. Staff help children to extend what they know. For example, children discover that some ants develop wings and fly away. Children make good progress in their learning.

The nursery is well organised. Daily routines are clear and children know the expectations for their behaviour at different times. For example, children feel encouraged to run about and be noisy outdoors. When children are indoors, they know that they are sometimes required to sit still and listen. Parents and carers say that they develop positive relationships with the nursery team and children's key persons. They particularly praise the sensitive support that helped children to settle back into nursery, after the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.

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

• Children participate in varied activities. Staff are always on hand to support and extend children's learning during periods of self-chosen play. However, there are instances when staff do not know, precisely enough, what individual children are intended to learn as a result of participating in adult-led activities. This does not promote children's really swift progress.
• Leaders and managers are ambitious for everyone's achievement. They encourage staff to undertake accredited and other training. For example, staff in the baby room complete training that extends and refreshes their knowledge. This helps them to continuously improve the quality of play and interactions that babies enjoy and learn from.
• Children learn from books and stories every day. Toddlers are fascinated by pictures of sea creatures in a colourful book. They eagerly enquire what the creatures are called. Staff answer children's questions and this helps children to continuously extend their vocabulary. Pre-school children become deeply absorbed in looking at favourite books for extended periods. This is because staff show them that books are an endless source of information and pleasure.
• Children incorporate their existing knowledge about the world into their play. In the role-play area, children carefully iron clothes. This shows that they watch and learn from what adults do. Children playing outdoors say that they will 'look again (at the ants) at quarter past five'. This shows that they are beginning to understand that one purpose of numbers is to measure the passage of time.
• Managers and staff take account of advice from specialist professionals. This means that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, benefit from multi-agency assessment and individual learning programmes.
• Overall, children's learning is sequenced effectively. For example, children move from using lidded cups in the baby room, to pouring their own drinks into beakers in the pre-school room. However, some learning is not sequenced appropriately. Staff's knowledge about how children learn to read is not fully secure. They sometimes plan activities that do not take the children's age and stage of development into account.
• Staff know the children well. They talk with them about newborn siblings and family holidays. They take children into the wider community and to a variety of activities. This promotes meaningful conversations about varied topics. It helps children to learn that they are unique individuals, who are valued members of the group.
• Parents feel involved in children's care and education at the nursery. Staff tell parents the title of the book of the week, so that they can acquire the book, or find an online version. This helps parents to continue children's learning at home. Staff share information about children's care routines, such as sleep times. This helps everyone to work together to promote children's well-being.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• help staff to identify more clearly what children are intended to know, or be able to do, as a result of participating in adult-led activities
• train staff to understand how children learn to read, in order that the curriculum for literacy is more meaningful for children of all ages.