The Montessori Place

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Leaders and staff work tirelessly to develop enduring relationships with the children in their care. Children are incredibly well settled, happy and thriving. This contributes towards helping children to feel safe and secure. Staff empower children to explore, develop a strong sense of curiosity and discover new experiences in their infant community. Staff know each individual child exceptionally well. For example, they conduct home visits to meet with families pre birth, post birth and right up to when children start. This helps staff to really understand the needs of every family to offer a bespoke approach to childcare. Staff demonstrate the utmost respect and courtesy and truly value what makes each child unique. All children thrive in this carefully considered environment.

The play spaces, experiences and teaching methods used are precisely aligned to meet each child's individual needs. This dovetails superbly to ensure each and every child receives well-sequenced opportunities for learning. Staff empower children to be masters of their own learning. They guide children through a range of experiences to build on what they already know and can do, to really embed and secure their knowledge and skills. As a result, children demonstrate they are learning well and flourish at this highly nurturing provision.

Children behave exceptionally well, fostered by caring and empathetic staff. Staff promote the children's sense of belonging individually as well as supporting purposeful relationships among peers and adults to aid social cohesion. Furthermore, staff are incredibly skilled in knowing when to introduce new ideas and concepts at the child's own pace. This equips children with the skills they need to prepare them very well for their next stages of learning and to become lifelong learners.

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

• The dynamic leadership team is highly reflective to accurately identify its significant strengths. Leaders are keen to ensure high-quality practice is fully embedded across the staff team. Children receive high-quality learning experiences from staff that are attuned to help them learn new skills. Leaders demonstrate exceptional dedication and care to every family they encounter. They are passionate about preparing a provision that enables children to fulfil their potential. This allows children to take the time they need to explore the world in their own way. Highly skilled staff utilise children's interests to sequentially plan and provide opportunities to model and support their growing knowledge.
• Leaders regularly self-evaluate the quality of the provision and identify ways they can have an even greater impact. They are highly ambitious and seek to provide classes to parents as well as training events to professionals outside of the provision. This is to share practice to help develop knowledge, enhance skills and offer advice to support people in the community, nationally and internationally. Leaders aim to inspire others around the world for the best interest of society for children to be at the forefront of their work.
• Children are highly respected and valued by staff. Staff provide encouragement and support to help children make decisions about their own learning, freely choosing from a wide range of materials and resources to explore their own ideas. Children are observed to be incredibly motivated to learn, engage deeply and persevere in their own self-chosen challenges. For example, children show significant confidence and high levels of concentration as they revisit experiences such as using tools to squeeze fruit for juice making, using scissors with excellent hand-eye coordination, and self-serving curry, rice and condiments at lunchtime.
• Staff skilfully expose children to a wide range of language-rich opportunities. Children are enraptured as staff sing to them, linking song words to pictures of animals children are learning about in the books they share. Furthermore, staff model very good-quality language, extensively weaving new words, ideas and concepts linked to children's play to help build on their range of vocabulary.
• Leaders' commitment to inclusion and diversity is commendable. Staff work extremely closely with parents and carers to ensure the dynamics of different families are positively represented and supported and they really feel part of the provision's community. For example, staff seek information from bilingual families to identify cultural references to weave into the work they do within the infant community. This includes using familiar key words from languages learned at home, and sharing music and types of food within the provision. Community events for families and children are provided to foster even stronger relationships. Families hold the provision and staff in very high regard. They appreciate the bespoke feedback from staff that reassures parents their child is welcomed, valued and respected as a unique individual, with support designed to meet their individual needs.
• Staff are particularly skilled in supporting children's emotional well-being to help them feel valued and safe. Children behave well and actively listen and respond to adults that care for them. Staff help children to learn about who they are, how they can contribute towards their own infant community, and develop skills of socialisation, independence and community cohesion.