Mace Montessori Putney Branch

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

When children arrive at nursery, they are warmly greeted by staff as they join their friends to play. This helps children to feel safe and happy. The effective key-person system ensures that staff communicate with parents so that children's individual needs are understood and met. Children feel secure and ready to learn. Children independently make choices as they explore the environment confidently. They take risks and build their resilience. Staff have high expectations for every child. There is mutual respect between children and staff. Children behave well and have a positive attitude to learning.

Communication is a strong focus in each of the rooms. Staff use lots of vocabulary to build children's language skills. For example, young children wash dolls in soapy water and hear words such as 'squeeze', 'clean' and 'rub'. Older children build the three little pigs a home. They use mathematical language, such as 'bigger', 'small' and 'tall'.

Leaders have made improvements to ensure that a high-quality and ambitious curriculum is delivered. All children, including children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and children who speak English as an additional language, are planned for individually. Engagement and children's interests form a basis for teaching each day. Children make good progress in their learning.

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

• The provider has met all the necessary steps to improve since the last inspection. Staff have undertaken relevant training to improve their knowledge of safeguarding. The manager ensures that staff work collaboratively to create a vision for each room. This ensures that learning intentions are understood, and practice is embedded to provide a curriculum that ensures that every child makes progress. The manager and staff have high expectations for every child. Children behave well in this nursery and have a positive attitude to learning.
• The manager ensures that staff well-being is valued. Through ongoing training and regular supervision, practice is evaluated. Areas of improvement are identified and supported through role modelling and training. As a result, teaching is sequenced and well thought out.
• Leaders work with a range of outside professionals to ensure that children with SEND receive intervention support. This helps children to progress well in their development, to reach their full potential.
• Children develop their physical skills well. Older children practise their balance skills on outdoor boards and use trikes to build their gross motor skills. Toddlers climb the ladder and whoop in delight as they slither down the slide. Babies pull themselves up against furniture as they begin the first stage of walking.
• Children learn how to be independent in a variety of ways. Babies learn to use a spoon to feed themselves, and older children learn to pour a drink into a cup at mealtimes. Children learn the skills to dress themselves. They build their confidence to make choices of their own. For example, when choosing a 'safety hero' of the week, older children vote who in their group should lead the task. The winner wears a cape and learns how to support the group in keeping their environment safe. This gives children a sense of responsibility and prepares them for starting school.
• Children learn how to stay healthy. Meals are thoughtfully prepared on site to take into account dietary needs and allergies. Water is always available to keep children hydrated and teach children how to help themselves when they are thirsty. Children are taught how to keep their teeth clean and healthy. They learn to wash their hands before mealtimes. This helps children to understand good hygiene practice.
• Literacy is promoted within the nursery through storytelling and independent access to books that children can explore. Babies listen to stories and show their enjoyment by excitedly holding props to support their understanding. However, there are fewer opportunities for children to read and access books outdoors.
• Children learn about the world around them through the celebration of festivals and learning about other cultures. However, staff do not always plan and organise the environment to allow children to access sufficient resources to learn about what makes them unique.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide more opportunities for children to expand their enjoyment of reading in all areas of the setting
• support staff to make better use of the whole environment available in order to be able to focus more clearly on supporting individual children to have a greater sense of belonging and inclusion.