Little Orchard Montessori Nursery Lee Mill

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive enthusiastically to this warm and friendly nursery. Welcoming messages in the front entrance begin the day on a positive note. Children benefit from an embedded and highly stimulating curriculum, where they all make excellent progress. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) also develop exceptionally well from their starting points. Babies enjoy nurturing interactions from staff. They reach their arms up to be held and relish in listening to songs sung by their key person. Toddlers and older children enjoy learning about the world around them, such as South America. They talk to visitors about the emerald boa snake and tree frogs that live in the rainforest.

Children behave exceptionally well and have a clear understanding of the nursery's expectations. They know to get themselves a carpet mat when building their own creations, such as using wooden bricks to create a 'fire station'. Their peers understand not to knock these down if on a designated mat. Others work exceptionally well as a team, deciding between them how they will use guttering and loose parts to create a unique design.

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

• Children have strong opportunities to be physically active indoors and outdoors. Inside, children go on a 'sound walk'. They use wooden sticks to make different noises around the nursery. Children make big movements as they stretch and bend to find new places that makes the most creative sound. Outside, children skilfully balance on 'slack lines'. Younger children carefully hold onto the upper rope and balance carefully along the bottom section. Older children demonstrate highly impressive gymnastics, by hanging upside down, wrapping their arms and legs around the 'lines'.
• Parents comment on how much their children have progressed since starting at the nursery and how the communication from staff is excellent. They talk about how much support the nursery offers, such as the new baby weigh-in sessions and support groups for children with SEND that the nursery has implemented. Parents enjoy attending various events in the nursery, including the school leavers' 'graduation' ceremony.
• Children demonstrate high levels of attention and concentration. They become so excited about activities that they take visitors by the hand and pull out a chair for them to sit down on. Children then quickly sit down on the carpet and squeal with delight and anticipation to find out 'what's in the bucket'. Staff use captivating techniques to hold children's interest and children relish in finding out about the items inside the bucket. For instance, children listen intently to a wooden instrument that sounds like a train horn. They become engrossed in watching a sound tube change shape and sound. Staff skilfully link this to characters in stories they have recently read, such as 'Super Worm'.
• All children are exceptionally independent. Young babies learn how to feed themselves, such as with florets of broccoli. Older babies use spoons and carefully pour water from a jug into a china cup. Toddlers and older children skilfully use a knife and a fork when eating and then cleverly scrape any leftover waste from their plate into the bin. Staff support children to always persevere until they succeed.
• Staff embrace children's interests and ideas. Following children's keen interest in patterns and exploring colours, staff enable children to create these using coloured ice attached to lolly sticks. Children talk excitedly about the marks they make and how blue and yellow make green. They always use their manners, such as 'excuse me, please can you pass me the red ice cube' and are highly respectful to each other.
• Children learn about how they and others change over the years. For each birthday, staff and children sing a special song and look at photographs of themselves from birth to the present day. Staff encourage children to talk about the similarities and differences between themselves and others. Babies enjoy looking at 'family books' that have been created in partnership with parents to help them feel emotionally secure.