Fountain Of Knowledge Montessori Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children leave their parents with ease and happily enter the nursery. Staff get to know children and their families well, developing secure and trusting relationships. They have created a calm and nurturing environment where children feel relaxed, safe and secure. Staff implement a curriculum that supports children to become confident, independent and motivated learners. They plan a learning environment and provide children with practical opportunities to carry out tasks themselves. For example, children recognise when the plants need watering and quickly gather watering cans to water them. Staff support children's personal, social and emotional development well. Children are placed in 'family groups', helping younger children learn from their older peers and teaching older children to show care towards their younger peers. For instance, older children help younger children understand the daily routine as they hold their hands and help them sit down for group time.

Staff encourage children's good behaviour. They teach children to listen to others, take turns and share resources. Children develop a positive attitude to learning and a clear understanding of what staff expect of them. For example, children learn to cooperate as they work with each other to create a 'building site', using trucks and diggers to move sand. This helps them to develop their friendships and social skills.

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

• Overall, staff engage well with children, following their lead and extending children's learning further. For example, children playing with number blocks are encouraged to arrange these in order and count aloud. However, staff do not always extend children's understanding beyond what they already know and can do. This potentially limits the speed at which some children make progress.
• Staff generally offer children the support they need to develop independence skills. However, on occasion, staff do things for children that they could do themselves, such as serving their snacks and pouring their drinks. This does not enable children to practise these skills for themselves.
• Staff gently nurture babies and successfully meet their care needs. They understand each baby and implement respectful care routines that positively contribute to their emotional well-being. Babies engage with staff and delight in exploring the resources available. However, staff do not always carefully plan a curriculum to promote babies' physical development.
• Staff support children to develop their communication and language skills. They sing with babies, who clap along and repeat key words from songs. Toddlers eagerly shout out key phrases from books as staff read aloud to them. During play, staff use a wide range of descriptive words to help challenge older children. For example, during an adult-led activity, staff introduce new words, such as
• 'archaeologist' and 'fossils'. They ask children appropriate questions, and children recall what they have previously learned about volcanoes, helping to embed learning.
• Staff provide good support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who speak English as an additional language. They understand the variety of ways in which children learn and identify when a different process needs to be adopted. Staff work closely with the children, the parents and other professionals to put in place personalised strategies and achievable targets for children to work towards.
• Staff use various ways to promote a healthy lifestyle. They use books, songs and mealtimes to help children understand how to make good food choices. Children learn to keep themselves safe. They know they need to put on sun cream and hats to protect themselves before spending time in the sunshine. Staff discuss with children the importance of drinking water to stay hydrated. As a result, children learn the importance of staying healthy.
• Partnerships with parents are strong. Staff keep parents well informed about their children's day and their next steps in learning. They share helpful tips with parents, such as potty training support. Parents say they value the communication and warmth of the staff members.
• The nursery has clear processes in place for recruitment, induction, supervision and appraisals. This helps to ensure that the staff team is qualified or working towards a qualification. Staff say that they feel well supported in their roles.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• support staff to further extend children's learning
• strengthen staff skills in supporting children's independence
• develop planning and the support offered to babies to help them further practise their physical skills.