Jane's House Montessori

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children enjoy attending this warm, inclusive and welcoming pre-school. They show they are happy, settle well and develop strong relationships with nurturing staff. Children form firm friendships and learn to share, cooperate and resolve conflicts calmly. They listen and respond to instructions well and take turns during group activities, gaining increasing confidence in their abilities. Children develop effective language and communication skills. They listen attentively to staff as they read stories and enjoy singing familiar nursery rhymes. Older children make patterns in sand, identifying letter shapes and sounds. Staff skilfully use spontaneous activities to support children to extend their mathematical knowledge and develop social skills. For example, children are supported to predict how many more scoops of soil they will need to fill their buckets. They respond quickly to the challenge and test their estimations, until their buckets are full.

The well-organised environment promotes children's natural curiosity and eagerness to learn. Staff teach children how to carefully manage risk, and children successfully learn how to do things safely for themselves. For example, they use real tools, such as hammers, with skill and precision. They imaginatively create patterns in a pumpkin with small pegs, showing high levels of resilience and great determination to complete the set task. Children who prefer to learn outdoors enthusiastically access a wide range of resources and activities that capture their interests. Children race their bicycles and scooters around a track, negotiating the space well. They share these popular resources with their friends, using a sand timer to make sure everyone gets a turn.

Despite the restrictions of COVID-19, staff have used innovative ways to keep parents fully informed about what their children are doing at pre-school. For example, the provider posts 'Focus Friday' instructional video clips and shares activity ideas with parents on how to support children's learning at home.

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

• Staff have a clear vision of what they want children to achieve. Overall, children benefit from an interesting and well-balanced curriculum. All staff hold high expectations for every child and understand well what children should learn next and how this can be achieved. Staff deliver a clear and intuitive programme of learning that progressively builds on children's interests effectively. Children develop a wide range of skills in readiness for their move to the next stage in their education.
• Overall, children have good opportunities to play freely and lead their own play. This is particularly evident outdoors, where children become deeply engaged in exploration and investigation. However, indoors, children sometimes wait for staff to initiate support at activities or to give them ideas on what to do next. Nevertheless, children become excited by opportunities to care for the stick insect. They work cooperatively with their peers to copy complex patterns, showing good attention to matching coloured bricks in ascending patterns, making a tall tower.
• The provider is a strong role model to staff. She uses her experience and deep understanding of how children learn to help all children achieve well. She liaises with other professionals, including speech and language therapists, to ensure children receive timely support and that no child is left behind. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children in receipt of additional funding, make good progress.
• Staff promote children's positive and respectful behaviour through example. Children are actively encouraged to express their thoughts and feelings, and staff listen and show that they value what children say. Children show high levels of self-esteem and good independence skills. They behave well and are respectful of their environment. Children contribute strongly to the smooth running of the pre-school. They put away resources without prompting and attend to simple tasks, such as washing up their plates and cups after snack time.
• Children are cared for by a well-qualified and experienced team that is committed to doing the best for the children and families who attend. The provider diligently helps staff manage their workload and prioritises their health and well-being. She ensures good opportunities for staff to develop their teaching skills, through role modelling and 'in the moment' support and guidance. Staff are keen to extend their qualifications further and proactive in accessing online training to develop their wide range of existing skills.
• Partnerships with parents and carers are strong. They speak very highly about the friendly staff team and value the regular information and the ideas for them to help with their children's learning at home. The provider gathers and acts on parents' and carers' views well, to improve the service she offers. For example, she has introduced a wider range of healthy fruit options at snack time, which supports children's understanding of healthy lifestyles well. However, while partnerships overall support good information-sharing, relationships with local schools and other childcare providers are less developed.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review staff's intent for the indoor curriculum so that children are able to explore and to investigate resources in a way that supports them to develop their thinking skills and own ideas during these times
• strengthen partnership working with other early years providers and local schools to promote consistency in learning between settings.