Maria Montessori Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children and parents are warmly welcomed by staff on arrival. Children leave their parents with ease and find their peg. They hang up their personal belongings and take off their jackets before starting their busy day, knowing the routine well. Staff support children who have recently joined the nursery by providing lots of reassurance and helping them to form close bonds. As a result, children feel safe and secure. Children demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning. They are calm, relaxed and show high levels of curiosity and concentration in this nurturing environment.

Staff have high expectations of children's behaviour. Children follow the classroom rules and show respect for each other. Staff use praise and encouragement to promote children's behaviour. Children listen and respond to instructions. Staff put children at the heart of everything they do. They carefully tune in to children's voices to plan a wide range of activities based on their interests and needs. Staff make sure that enough resources are available and organised for children to make choices, indoors and outdoors. For example, children have continuous opportunities to practise pouring with different resources to make it more challenging. The curriculum is ambitious, sequenced and builds on children's past experiences. All children make good progress in their learning.

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

• Staff ensure that children have a range of activities to support them to be physically active. They teach children the importance of a healthy diet as part of a healthy lifestyle. Children enjoy negotiating space when riding on cars and they use large construction blocks to make towers. They enjoy a range of fruits at snack time and engage in conversations about healthy choices.
• Parents have high praise for the staff and the positive impact they have on children's learning and development. They feel supported, listened to and closely involved in their child's journey. They are regularly kept up to date and offered ideas to continue extending their child's learning at home.
• The experienced provider makes excellent use of external agencies to further support children who speak English as an additional language and children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The provider works alongside staff to develop targeted plans for all children.
• Staff report that they engage in regular supervision meetings with leaders. These meetings are informative and help support their professional development. Staff comment that they are happy at the nursery and feel well supported in their well-being.
• Children who stay for lunch have opportunities to learn about oral hygiene. For instance, they use toothbrushes and toothpaste after lunch to build on and extend their abilities in brushing their own teeth.
• The Montessori setting embraces diversity and individuality by teaching children about a range of religious festivals, including Diwali, Christmas and Ramadan. Parents are invited to organise cultural mornings, featuring stations with traditional food and resources. Children participate by wearing cultural attire, enhancing their understanding and appreciation of different cultures.
• Children's communication and language are supported well. Children make good progress and are confident communicators. Staff use high-quality language when engaging with children. They repeat and model new vocabulary and encourage children to speak as much as possible. This helps children to share conversations with their peers and ask adults questions confidently.
• Staff provide resources to help children engage in mark making and develop their fine motor skills. This supports children with their pre-literacy skills. However, staff do not yet fully support children's early mathematical development. Mathematical language or concepts are not yet consistently woven into children's play and experiences to build on what they already know.
• Children gain some independence and self-care skills. They find their own place mats at lunchtime and are familiar with routines, such as tidying away after play. However, occasionally, in their eagerness to help, staff complete tasks for children rather than encouraging them to have a go first. For example, staff pour drinks for older children. This means that children are not always able to build on their existing independence and extend their self-help skills further.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• incorporate more mathematical vocabulary and concepts into everyday routines and activities to help widen children's understanding further
• support staff to understand the importance of children using their self-help skills consistently at every opportunity to develop their independence.