Star Child Montessori Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children make good progress in this well-organised, stimulating nursery. From the start, staff take care to ensure that children settle well and build strong relationships with them. They value each child highly and ensure that the settling-in process reflects the needs of each child. Children feel secure and happy in the nursery. Staff create a book of photos of each child's family, and this helps children to feel a strong sense of belonging to the nursery. They manage children's behaviour effectively. Staff have high expectations of children, who behave well.

The curriculum is broad and balanced and links well to children's interests and skills. Staff help children to understand feelings. For instance, they have daily discussions with children and use visual resources to teach them the names of different emotions. Children have a good awareness of feelings. Staff teach children good mathematical skills. They teach children how to grade objects according to size and children sort objects into colour groups. Staff incorporate counting into play activities. For instance, they teach children to count bricks as they make towers. Staff support children's physical development well. They support children to climb onto low tree branches in the garden and children balance skilfully across tyres and planks. Younger children crawl through tunnels and practise their walking skills by pushing wheeled toys.

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

• Staff support children's creative skills effectively. Younger children enjoy exploring a variety of different textures and materials, such as flour, cereal, oats and leaves. Older children enjoy making pretend pizza from play dough and use real vegetables as toppings. They make collages by cutting and sticking paper onto card.
• Children gain good communication, language and literacy skills. Staff read stories to children in lively tones and encourage them to join in with repetitive phrases. They teach them new words from stories and sing action songs and rhymes to support their language skills further.
• Children learn to do things for themselves, such as putting on their coats and shoes. Children serve themselves from communal bowls at lunchtime, and younger children learn to feed themselves. Staff teach children to share and take turns, for instance by playing organised group games.
• Staff have good links with parents and provide daily updates on children's progress. They use a variety of communication methods to share this progress, including secure electronic messaging and regular verbal feedback. Staff encourage parents to cook at home with their children as a way to support children's learning.
• Leaders support and monitor staff well. They meet with staff individually to review work and offer assistance, where needed. Leaders identify training needs and offer opportunities for staff to attend courses. For instance, staff attended a course on how to handle children's challenging behaviour, which led to improved outcomes in this area.
• Leaders review all aspects of the nursery and set goals for improvement. For example, they plan to continue to enhance support for children who are behind in their communication skills.
• Staff promote children's awareness of good oral hygiene successfully. They read stories and carry out creative activities to help children's understanding in this area. Staff assist children to brush their teeth after eating, and a dentist visits the nursery regularly. This approach helps children to develop good awareness in this area.
• Children develop a good understanding of the world. Staff and children observe spiders in the garden. Staff then take the children on a walk to identify further insects. They plant seeds with children and teach them how things grow. Staff discuss concepts such as the days of the week, the weather and the seasons with children to extend their skills further.
• Staff interact warmly with children and engage in their activities. However, at times, staff do not plan sufficient opportunities to enhance children's thinking skills, such as during imaginative play.
• Leaders ensure that children have freshly prepared, nutritious and appetising meals and snacks. However, staff do not consistently plan well enough to develop children's understanding of the value of eating well.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• plan more effectively to enhance children's thinking skills, such as by using effective questioning
• support and extend children's understanding of the value of eating well.