Hollybush Montessori

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff place children at the heart of everything they do. Bespoke settling-in sessions are successfully implemented to meet the individual needs of children and families. Staff gather a wealth of information from parents about children's care and learning needs. They use this to plan a meaningful curriculum. This proves highly effective in helping children to feel happy, safe and secure, ready to engage in their chosen play within the highly enabling environment. Children show a strong sense of belonging. They take great pride in completing their responsibilities for the day, such as handing out snacks and hoovering the floor afterwards.

Children express a strong love of books. Staff read to children with great enthusiasm, skilfully using the content to broaden their understanding of the wider world. For example, they explain the purpose of dustbin lorries and celebrate the achievements of Black people throughout history, acknowledging their contributions to British culture, history, and the economy as part of Black History Month. Staff are positive role models; they consistently use good manners when speaking to each other and children. This motivates children to do the same. Staff provide children with sensitive reminders to support their understanding of remaining safe and respecting others, such as using their walking feet indoors. Children develop good critical thinking skills. They work out how to transfer water from one jug to another by soaking up the water with a sponge and then squeezing it out. Children solve mathematical problems, such as sorting and simple addition.

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

• Staff place a high priority on promoting children's communication and language development. This supports children to be confident and articulate communicators. For example, their use of questions and providing children with time to respond, enables children to use complex sentences to recall experiences and express their thoughts. Staff introduce children to basic sign language to complement new songs they learn. Children demonstrate a positive attitude to learning and enthusiastically sing out loud and copy the correct signs to words. They benefit from weekly fun Spanish sessions that broadens their language skills.
• Staff support children to be independent individuals and lead a healthy lifestyle. They encourage children to have a go at putting on their coat and shoes in readiness for play in the stimulating outdoor environment. However, the organisation at these times means children who are dressed appropriately wait for too long. Therefore, children are not always engaged in meaningful learning. Despite this, when outdoors, children thoroughly enjoy the fresh air and are physically active. They choose to push themselves along or pedal on tricycles and develop good control and coordination as they blow large bubbles and jump to pop them.
• Staff know children well. They plan an ambitious and broad curriculum which follows children's interests and builds on what they already know and can do. Regular assessments and observations ensure that children's progress is stringently monitored and used to precisely identify what skills and knowledge children need to learn next. This ensures that all children make good progress. However, leaders do not consistently make sure that staff are informed of children's most recent learning intentions. As a result, while staff engage positively during children's play, they sometimes miss opportunities to tailor their teaching to support what children need to learn next effectively. Any additional funding the setting receives is used well to support children's individual needs.
• Children behave well. They demonstrate positive relationships with their peers. For example, they take turns to use a toy stethoscope to listen to each other's hearts. Children are beginning to regulate their behaviour when minor disagreements arise during their play.
• Experienced leaders work closely with staff to support their ongoing professional development. They encourage staff to reflect on their own practice. Staff have good opportunities to complete training. New knowledge and skills is shared with the whole team to ensure a consistent approach. Recent training has improved staff's ability to support children who speak English as an additional language or are multilingual, to help them to further develop their language skills.
• Strong partnerships with parents and other settings the children attend is a key strength. There is effective two-way communication in place to ensure continuity in children's learning. Parents regularly speak with staff during drop-off and pick-up times, and they can access written updates and photos of their child's development through an online platform. Parents have high regard for staff, they describe them as 'maternal' who provide their children with 'so much attention and love'.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• refine the organisation of routines during the day to minimise waiting time for children
• strengthen the communication to ensure staff know the skills and knowledge they want children to learn next.