The Colourwheel Montessori

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children smile with delight as they enjoy their time at this nurturing nursery. They wave goodbye to their parents at the door and happily greet staff by name. They freely access the vast array of learning activities available throughout the day, both indoors and outdoors. An inviting and stimulating learning environment enables children to make independent choices in their play. Children have opportunities to develop their fine motor skills by doing up buttons and fastenings on clothing boards, a skill which supports children to learn how to dress themselves.

Children of all ages show curiosity and positive attitudes to learning. Staff excitedly engage in activities, which helps all children remain focussed in their play. Young babies immerse themselves in a rice-play activity and enjoy using different utensils to pick up the rice and pour it into their bowls. Supportive staff extend this to introduce colour names to children to widen their vocabulary. Staff capture older children's attention while building with small bricks. Children respond positively to one another and proudly identify whose turn it is to build next. Staff continually praise children for their efforts. This helps children to take pride in their achievements.

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

• Staff offer children new experiences to support their understanding of different occupations and how to contribute positively to society. For example, parents come into the nursery to talk about their job as a dentist, also helping to support good oral health. Children of all ages show confidence in social situations and interact well with visitors to the nursery.
• Children receive warm and responsive interactions from staff. Young children enjoy listening to stories snuggled up to their key person and staff give them time to identify what they can see in the pictures. Older children laugh with delight as they play number games in the garden with friends, and supportive staff encourage them to match numbers with quantity. This helps children to feel safe and build trusting relationships with staff.
• Children behave well in the nursery. They are kind and considerate towards one another and older children excitedly invite young children to join them in their play. Staff are wonderful role models. They consistently demonstrate politeness and respect towards children and remind them of their behaviour expectations. Children show awareness of the rules and support one another to follow them. Children remind each other to wait for their friends to finish self-serving their own food at mealtimes. However, during mealtimes staff are not deployed as effectively as possible, and this leads to long periods of waiting for children.
• Older children demonstrate high levels of independence. They develop a good understanding of how to manage their own risks during play. For example, when participating in an obstacle course outside, they identify which surfaces may be slippery due to the rain. They confidently attend to their own care needs and enjoy additional responsibilities of helping to prepare the tables for their friends at mealtimes. However, when carrying out hygiene routines with young children, staff do not consistently demonstrate effective health practices, such as handwashing, to prevent the spread of infections.
• Partnerships between parents and staff are good. Parents speak highly of the managers and staff and state that they are 'kind' and 'considerate'. Parents value the progress their children have made and comment on the effective communication they receive, sharing how this gives them ideas to support their child's learning. Parents show immense pride as they explain staff have supported children to learn simple sign language to aid communication.
• Managers are highly reflective on all aspects of the nursery. They have a clear vision for driving improvement and regularly seek feedback from parents and staff to make informed changes to the provision. Senior staff meet regularly to share what has been working well and discuss the effectiveness of any changes that have been made.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are well supported. The special needs and/or disabilities coordinator (SENCo) enthusiastically works collaboratively with other settings in the local area to lead on good practice and create a support network within the community. This helps to ensure a consistent approach for all children and promote their development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• review the organisation and deployment of staff during mealtime routines, so that the needs of all children are considered
• support staff to consistently demonstrate good hygiene procedures with younger children, to help them learn effective care practices.