Linnet Montessori

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive at this friendly and welcoming nursery ready to play and learn. Children enjoy listening to stories, such as 'Roar Roar Dinosaur'. They learn names and basic features of a dinosaur, and are able to move parts of the dinosaur in the book. Children develop their fine motor skills and become confident handling books and sharing the fun with their friends. Children gain communication skills and develop new vocabulary talking about the pictures and the story.

Children who speak more than one language learn English quickly. Staff support children by using picture cards to help develop critical thinking skills, language skills and speech. Children are well behaved, they understand rules and why those are important. Children share, take turns and are kind and respectful towards each other and staff. Older children are caring and friendly towards younger children and encourage them to join in play with them. Children develop their movement well, as they ride bikes and move freely in the well-resourced outdoor space. They gather water from water trays and pour it down funnels. This helps to enhance their creativity and imagination and supports them to investigate and make scientific discoveries.

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

• Staff support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities well. They create daily routines, use picture cards to help children express their feelings and understand words. Staff provide small-group work and individual care to help children communicate and learn.
• Leaders use additional funding well; for example, they purchase new resources to support all children's learning and development. Staff work effectively with parents and external agencies to develop individualised learning plans to support children to make good progress in their leaning.
• Staff sequence their curriculum well; for instance, children are learning about patterns, which is reinforced during circle time. Staff talk about patterns in staff's clothing, and patterns of different coloured bricks. Children clap different patterns such as one, two and three claps. They listen to the change in the pattern of claps, all of which supports their mathematical development.
• Staff work well with parents, who speak highly of staff. Parents are updated termly about their child's development and learning. However, not all parents are clear about their children's next steps in learning and how they can support their children further at home. Staff offer parents more daily information through the a messaging app to send messages, images or videos of their children's learning.
• Staff support children to become independent. For example, children put on their own coats, feed themselves and use the toilet by themselves. Staff attend to any nappy changing and care needs children may have effectively. Children are encouraged to help tidy away resources and help each other.
• Leaders support staff to develop their professional practice as they undertake further training, such as higher level childcare qualifications to become trained at level 3.
• Staff interact well with children and support them to progress further in their learning, however, at times more able children miss out on consistent interactions with staff.
• Children enjoy role play. They join in small groups together, making decisions, elaborating ideas and acting out what they know. All of this helps to support their personal, social and emotional development. Staff enrich children's play and follow their interests, for example by providing a 'doctor's surgery '.
• Children learn about healthy lifestyles and take part in topics about maintaining healthy teeth. Staff display children's work which show how to keep teeth clean.
• Leaders carry out regular supervision meetings with staff, to support them in their practice, discuss any issues or concerns and make plans for further training. The staff team are a long standing team who work well together and their morale is good.
• Staff plan a well-resourced learning environment indoors and outdoors, which offers children many opportunities to learn across the areas of learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure that all parents are aware of their children's next steps in learning and are given ideas for further ways to support their children's development at home
• ensure that staff provide consistent meaningful interactions with more able children to support their continued learning.