Ladybird Montessori School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff at Ladybird Montessori Nursery create a warm and welcoming environment for children. They support children's learning and emotional well-being appropriately. The robust key-person system ensures strong relationships with children and families. New starters benefit from gentle support during settling in. Staff offer reassurance as children adjust to routines, helping them feel safe and secure. Children are confident and eager to engage with their peers and activities.

The curriculum is engaging and child centred, encouraging curiosity and skill development. For example, during forest school sessions, children safely observe campfires, watch popcorn pop and see marshmallows change colour. These experiences support early scientific understanding, and observational skills. Indoor, Montessori resources and practical life activities, such as role play in the home corner, support children to develop their imagination and creative skills. Staff model routines, guide activities and provide praise, fostering confidence, resilience and social skills.

Children's emotional development is well supported. Staff discuss feelings, support turn-taking, and use visual prompts to help children recognise and manage emotions. Behaviour is consistently promoted through the nursery's 'Golden Rules', encouraging kindness, respect and positive interactions. Children are caring, polite and demonstrate growing curiosity, and confidence in both indoor and outdoor environments.

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

• Leaders and staff are passionate about providing high-quality care in a nurturing, home-from-home environment. Staff state they feel valued, that their feedback is considered. They express that they benefit from accessing training. This enables them to support their key children's engagement and progress across all areas of learning.
• Staff support children's communication and language development effectively. They narrate children's play, introduce new words and sounds and engage them in stories and songs. Children join in enthusiastically, experimenting with vocabulary and developing confidence in expressing ideas and interacting with others. This helps children become confident communicators.
• Leaders support staff to plan a curriculum that build on children's interests and starting points. Children engage in collaborative tasks, such as building ramps with blocks and pipes. This helps strengthen spatial awareness, and teamwork. These experiences demonstrate the curriculum's effectiveness in promoting engagement, learning and confidence.
• Staff provide opportunities for children to develop gross motor skills through outdoor and forest school activities. Children negotiate rope swings and balance on tree stumps, building strength and risk awareness. Staff promote confidence and support children to develop their key physical skills, including core strength, agility and coordination.
• Staff plan activities, such as threading, to support children's fine motor development. However, staff sometimes step in with help too quickly, which reduces opportunities for children to practise manipulating resources and solving problems independently. With more time and freedom to explore for themselves, children can consolidate skills and build greater confidence.
• Children access a wide range of experiences that develop understanding of the community and wider world. Staff use discussions, books, role play and resources to foster respect, empathy and awareness of diversity. These experiences also support positive social skills and help children develop a sense of belonging.
• Partnerships with parents are a key strength of the nursery. Parents describe staff as nurturing and warm and value the enriching experiences provided that help their children thrive. Staff share daily updates verbally and via the online system, keeping parents fully informed about their children's care and learning. This strong partnership supports continuity between home and nursery.
• Staff support children in developing early literacy skills through planned, language-rich activities. For example, children explore the sounds and patterns in their own names, experiment with making marks, and handle a variety of books and resources. These experiences help children to develop listening, vocabulary and early mark-making skills, laying strong foundations for later reading and writing, while fostering confidence and enjoyment in literacy.
• Leaders and staff consider feedback from parents and children to evaluate the effectiveness of the provision on offer. They work collaboratively with external professionals to enhance learning opportunities. This ensures children benefit from targeted support, enriched experiences and improved progress across all areas of the curriculum.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide more opportunities for children to explore and manipulate resources independently, so they can strengthen their problem-solving and fine motor skills.