Newpark Montessori Nursery School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Staff build strong and trusting relationships with children to support their emotional well-being. In the younger room, staff create a calming and nurturing space where babies can relax and explore a range of sensory resources, keeping them engaged. For older children, staff help them to understand their emotions and why they may feel a certain way. This fosters children's sense of security and safety in the nursery. Key persons observe their children's interests and integrate these into their play. Young children enjoy singing nursery rhymes, joining in with actions modelled by staff and developing their early language skills. Staff provide consistent praise and encouragement. This helps children to feel motivated to participate in activities and demonstrate positive attitudes.

Children who speak English as an additional language receive strong support. Staff learn key words in children's first languages to help them to feel familiar and comfortable. They assess each child's communication and language development and focus on areas that need further support. As a result, children make good progress in their understanding, listening and speaking. Staff also identify children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and provide tailored support. This ensures that all children can achieve positive outcomes. Through offering a wide range of experiences, staff help all children to make strong progress in their learning and development.

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

• Managers and staff incorporate information gathered from parents to plan a sequentially progressive curriculum. They collaborate with key persons to regularly review each child's progress, identify any gaps in learning and adjust the curriculum to tailor it to meet each child's needs.
• Staff support children's physical skills development well. Indoors, they encourage babies to climb stairs and navigate the slide. Outdoors, older children, with support from the sports coach, develop their skills in playing games such as football. This helps children to improve their agility and coordination while strengthening their core muscles.
• Staff use effective strategies to support children's personal, social and emotional development. For younger children, they incorporate pictorial representations of emotions to help them to understand different feelings. Older children care for the nursery's pet fish and learn about their needs. This helps children to develop a strong sense of belonging and understand the importance of caring for and considering others.
• Overall, staff help children build their independence skills. Younger children receive excellent guidance from staff. Babies practise using and controlling spoons while toddlers learn to serve their own food at mealtimes. However, in the pre-school room, there are times when staff do not give older children the chance to do things on their own, as staff intervene and take over tasks such as setting up for mealtimes. This limits older children's continued development of their independence.
• Staff provide a safe environment for children to learn and play in. However, on occasion, some staff do not take immediate action when the resources get broken. This can impact on the intended purpose of the use of these resources.
• Staff work closely with external professionals, such as professional gardeners. They use these visits to help children to enhance and deepen their understanding of planting. Children learn how leaves change colour and discover which plants grow during different seasons of the year. This fosters children's early knowledge of nature and promotes a greater appreciation for the environment.
• Staff are dedicated to helping children develop positive identities and an understanding of diversity. They plan trips related to various festivals, such as visits to the church to deepen children's understanding of Christianity. Additionally, staff incorporate books from different cultures. This approach helps foster an appreciation for diversity and encourages children to embrace different cultures and traditions.
• Staff express their satisfaction with working alongside a supportive management team. They appreciate being included in the self-evaluation process aimed at improving outcomes for children. Staff also highly value the extensive opportunities for professional development to enhance their practice.
• The nursery has established strong partnerships with parents, who consistently speak highly of the care provided and the significant progress their children make in language and communication development. Parents also appreciate the extensive support available, including assistance provided when their children are unwell.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• provide older children with more opportunities to develop their independence skills further
• review the condition of resources on an ongoing basis to take prompt action when any resources are broken.