Little Fingers Montessori Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are warmly greeted by their key person on arrival at the nursery. Staff encourage parents and carers to share important information during handover sessions. This ensures a smooth transition for children. The effective key-person system nurtures children's emotional development, helping them to settle quickly and feel secure. Children respond positively to the friendly staff, eagerly entering the room with confidence.

Leaders work closely with staff to plan a broad and balanced curriculum that meets the individual needs of children. Staff create a calm and welcoming environment that supports children's learning. They are attentive to children's needs and preferences, building strong and trusting relationships. Staff give children regular praise for their efforts and achievements. This helps to boost children's self-esteem. For example, babies beam with pride when staff praise them for climbing steps and sliding down, encouraging them to develop their physical skills and confidence.

Overall, leaders and staff have high expectations for children's behaviour. Older children independently follow routines, take pride in tidying up and confidently share their efforts with staff. Staff support children to express their feelings, using tools, such as an interactive worry tree, to seek help when needed. This fosters children's independence and emotional awareness. Staff provide a supportive environment that builds children's confidence and resilience.

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

• Leaders and staff regularly review the curriculum and children's progress. This enables them to identify and address any gaps in children's learning promptly. Staff ensure that all children receive targeted support to reach their full potential and help them to become confident and well-rounded individuals.
• Staff support children effectively to develop their physical skills. They encourage babies to use equipment, such as climbing frames, stairs and tunnels, that promote their core strength, coordination and gross motor development. Older children use tools such as scissors to cut herbs in the garden. This helps to build their fine motor control and hand-eye coordination. These opportunities support children's physical confidence and independence.
• Staff provide rich opportunities to enhance children's early understanding of healthy habits. They engage children in using safety knives to cut fruit for snack time and actively encourage them to practise brushing their teeth. These experiences help children to develop their independence and embed positive routines.
• Children benefit from sequentially building their skills through practical life activities that strengthen the small muscles in their hands and prepare them for everyday tasks, such as pouring water from jugs. Staff also assign children roles, such as 'mealtime monitors', to support responsibility and routine. These experiences promote fine motor development, independence and a strong sense of capability and belonging within the setting.
• Staff thoughtfully weave mathematical learning into daily routines. For example, they encourage children to count how many knives and forks are needed at mealtimes, explore shapes in the environment and encourage children to identify and describe their properties during play. This practical approach helps children develop a strong early understanding of mathematical concepts and builds their confidence in everyday problem-solving.
• Staff support children's understanding of the natural world through real-life experiences, such as observing the life cycle of butterflies. Staff link activities to children's individual stages of development, promoting their cognitive and language development. These hands-on opportunities spark children's curiosity and deepens their scientific knowledge in meaningful ways.
• Staff support children's early literacy and language development by joining in their play, commenting on what they are doing and introducing a wide range of vocabulary. They read with children regularly, take them on library visits and send home books matched to each child's developmental stage. These approaches foster children's love of reading and expands their vocabulary.
• Children aged under two years develop positive social skills during mealtimes and group activities. Staff are beginning to support emerging behaviours, such as handing back toys or picking up dropped items. However, they do not reinforce their expectations consistently or provide more regular and age-appropriate guidance. This does not help the youngest children to begin to understand what is expected of them.
• Leaders and staff work closely with parents and external professionals to support children's learning and development. They share key strategies to help parents to extend their children's learning at home. Parents express high levels of satisfaction with the progress their children make. This strong partnership approach ensures consistency in children's learning between home and nursery.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide guidance for staff to ensure that they consistently support children to fully understand acceptable and unacceptable behaviours.