The Beehive Montessori

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children arrive happily at this inviting and homely setting, eager to begin their busy day ahead. They confidently wave goodbye to their parents at the door and are greeted by enthusiastic and friendly staff. Several children peer over the garden fence and show their sheer excitement when they see the interesting outdoor activities already prepared for them. They quickly seek out their friends and choose an activity to engage in. To get to know new children and their families, leaders successfully arrange bespoke settling-in sessions and home visits. Parents speak highly of this personalised approach and note the positive impact it has on children's confidence to form secure relationships.

Any gaps in children's learning are identified at the earliest opportunity, through regular and detailed assessments. Knowledgeable and capable leaders are instrumental in securing appropriate additional support, such as from external agencies. They work closely with dedicated staff and parents to ensure a consistent and shared understanding. This collaborative approach is highly effective for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. All children make consistently good progress from their individual starting points.

Children fully understand the well-established routines and high expectations for their behaviour. Staff diligently offer age-appropriate explanations to gently guide children, for example, to share and take turns. This is beautifully illustrated at snack time, when children thoughtfully discuss the importance of sharing out the variety of snacks fairly. They display empathy, thinking about others who have not had their snack yet, hoping there is enough. This helps create a respectful and cooperative atmosphere where children thrive socially and emotionally.

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

• The setting places a strong emphasis on supporting children's communication and language skills. Staff skilfully model rich vocabulary in everyday activities. For instance, at mealtimes, children hear and apply new words related to the importance of eating a balanced diet and drinking water, such as 'energy' and 'hydration'. Group times are thoughtfully planned and engaging. For example, staff share a story where they encourage children to tap out the syllables of words with wooden spoons. This supports children's understanding of how words are made up. Children become confident and articulate communicators.
• Mathematical learning is effectively woven in daily routines and play. For instance, children build mud roadways with ramps for large toy trucks in the digging area. They carefully consider the size and space of the roads to ensure the trucks fit. Furthermore, plates filled with healthy food at snack time have numbers next to them. As children self-serve, they recognise the numerals and count out the correct amount of food from each plate. These playful, practical experiences help children see how mathematics forms part of everyday life.
• Outdoor learning is a key strength. Children have regular opportunities to direct their own play in the well-resourced garden. Staff set up activities inspired by children's own suggestions, such as a pirate ship and appropriate costumes. Children's physical development is promoted very well, such as obstacle courses, where children practise manoeuvring in tight spaces with tricycles, bicycles and scooters. They show impressive balance, coordination and spatial awareness. In addition, children eagerly squash, stretch and flatten play dough, which helps to strengthen the small hand muscles, in readiness for early writing. These types of activities impact positively on children.
• The setting plays a valuable role in the local community. For instance, leaders organise events where children participate in new opportunities that they may not have experienced before, such as planting trees, and petting and feeding sheep. Staff regularly plan walks in the community, for instance, to the garden centre. Real-life activities such as these, spark children's natural curiosity and deepen their understanding of the natural world.
• Experienced leaders have a detailed understanding of the setting's strengths. They passionately share their vision by liaising with parents, local schools and the community, to help provide high quality care and education. Leaders ensure staff access ongoing professional development to improve their knowledge. While this is in place, more robust systems which evaluate individual staff's delivery and impact of the curriculum, is not yet fully embedded.
• Parent partnership is strong, effective and trusted. Staff keep parents fully informed of their children's development. Parents know that their children make good strides in their learning, especially in their independence, social skills and language development. They receive a wealth of other helpful information, to continue to support their children's learning at home, such as effective strategies to support children who speak English as an additional language.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• enhance systems for monitoring the delivery and impact of the curriculum, so that opportunities to further develop staff's practice are consistently identified, to ensure best possible outcomes for all children.