Rectory Garden Montessori School

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are welcomed by staff as they arrive at the nursery and readily leave their parents. Once inside, they put their lunch boxes on the racks provided. Children learn to recognise their names as they self-register each morning. They show high levels of engagement and concentration. For example, children focus intently as they use pipettes to transport water from one container to another. This helps to develop children's hand muscles to aid their early writing abilities.

Children have the opportunity to develop their large muscles as they ride around the garden on a variety of wheeled toys. Other children balance on tyres and planks, which helps to build their core strength. They carefully balance as they practise throwing beanbags into containers. Staff praise children when they have tried hard, which develops children's self-esteem.

Children behave well. They benefit from staff's consistent reinforcement of good behaviour. Staff support children to develop good social skills, for example, sitting with the children for lunch and modelling good table manners. Children share resources well and are polite to their friends. Children follow instructions and make their own choices about what they would like to play with.

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

• Staff know the children well. They gather detailed information about what children already know and can do when they start at the nursery. They use this information to plan a curriculum that builds on children's starting points. Staff recap on previous learning to ensure that it has been remembered. For example, during an ocean-themed topic, children join in with a floating and sinking activity, and staff help children recall previous knowledge.
• Staff model good language and extend children's language effectively. For example, when babies use single words, staff repeat these back, adding extra words into the sentence. Older children competently recognise their names and are starting to recognise the sounds that letters make. For example, during an activity, they recognise that 'F' is a sound in some of the children's names. They then look at other letters and see how many children's names they can remember that begin with the same sound.
• Partnerships with parents are good. Parents know what their children are learning and appreciate the support they receive to help further this learning at home. Parents speak of the excellent progress their children have made and how well prepared they are for their future learning.
• Children have good opportunities to develop their thinking skills. For example, they look at different materials and share their ideas on whether they will float or sink. Children predict the changes that will happen to some materials if they become wet. They learn to record their findings on tally charts during these experiments. This helps children to understand that the marks have meaning.
• Older children are independent and successfully meet their own self-care needs, such as washing their hands independently. Older children help to prepare their fruit at snack time. They carefully cut soft fruit into slices and pour their drinks. Children are encouraged to wash their plates when they are finished. However, staff do not help and encourage the younger children to develop good personal hygiene practices and skills. For example, occasionally, they do not follow consistent hygiene routines to help children to build on their early awareness and skills.
• Children have daily opportunities to join in with songs and rhymes to help develop their early literacy skills. Babies watch staff intently as they model the actions. Older children enthusiastically join in with songs that build their excitement. They eagerly snap their hands together, pretending to be a crocodile.
• Staff work closely with families and other professionals to ensure children who need any extra support continue to make good progress. Additional funding is used appropriately to provide one-to-one support and resources that help the children's learning and development. Staff use training opportunities to deepen their knowledge on how to support children's learning.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• ensure that younger children are consistently supported to develop and understand good personal hygiene practices, such as handwashing.