Farnham Montessori School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are friendly and happy in this nursery. They develop early friendships as they talk to their friends while waiting to come into the nursery. Staff warmly greet children as they quickly settle into their chosen activities, exploring the well-planned Montessori curriculum. The nurturing attitude of the staff helps children to feel safe and secure.

Staff have high expectations of children's abilities. From the outset, children show increasing independence in their self-care skills from the start of their day. They leave their parents with confidence, placing their belongings on their pegs. Children take their shoes off and get their slippers on for their time indoors. They confidently wash their hands before mealtimes and after playing outside. Children know the routines well and are confident to manage their own personal care needs. This supports children's good health.

Children behave well. Staff support children's behaviour with a consistent approach. They are good role models, with expectations for children's behaviour. Staff are sensitive and praise children when they make good choices. This supports their positive attitude to learning. Children quickly learn what is expected of them, supporting their self-esteem and well-being. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), make good progress in their learning.

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

• The manager and staff have a clear understanding of the Montessori approach and how this is used to support children's learning. The manager has worked together with staff to create and implement a wide, meaningful curriculum, which is aligned with specific themes, to help ensure that children get the best experiences while at the nursery. The curriculum is sequenced to allow children to repeat activities, allowing them to master the skills they need for later learning. Furthermore, the manager recognises the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's learning and places a high focus on personal, social and emotional development, which prepares children for their transition to school.
• Staff develop children's communication skills and vocabulary. They introduce new language, such as 'double decker bus', and talk about different vehicles. Children who speak English as an additional language are well supported. Staff use simple sentences and gestures to support children's understanding. This helps all children to achieve a good understanding of English and develops their vocabulary over time.
• Staff recognise the importance of children having daily access to the garden, to support their physical development. Children develop their small- and large- muscle skills very well. For instance, young children concentrate as they use their fingers to sprinkle cress seeds on cotton wool. Older children carry wooden blocks to make ramps for their cars. This supports children to develop their muscle groups in preparation for later learning.
• Children enjoy listening to stories. Staff are animated and allow time for children to recall their previous learning. For instance, children recall the life cycle of a butterfly, using factual books. Staff follow this learning and continue their interest in searching for bugs. However, occasionally, quieter children do not always receive these quality interactions within their spontaneous play. Younger children sometimes wander around and appear to be unsure of what to play with.
• Children behave well. Staff support children to understand different emotions. They talk to the children about how they might feel and have introduced detailed plans to support children's individual behaviour, to manage their emotions. This broadens children's knowledge of emotions.
• Children with SEND are well supported. Staff communicate frequently with parents and work closely with other provisions, such as schools. This ensures that children get the best possible start for their next steps in learning and development.
• Partnership with parents is strong. They comment on how independent their children are, saying that their children's broad vocabulary, which they have learned at nursery, supports their children's speech and language development.
• The manager regularly arranges in-house training to support staff to improve their knowledge and skills. However, supervisions with staff do not focus effectively on providing clear feedback so that staff can use this to further develop their quality of teaching and learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure staff gain a good understanding of how to implement effective teaching and interactions, particularly with quieter children, to help them gain the skills and knowledge they need for their future learning
• strengthen how supervisions are used to target training that builds on the quality of teaching, to support children's learning to the highest level.