The Village Montessori

Inclusion: Strong standard

Staff's rigorous monitoring and ongoing observations and carefully sequenced curriculum enables them to quickly identify the emerging needs of all children in their care. Planning is expertly tailored to ensure specific targets are set from children's own individual starting points. Regular reviews ensure that all children achieve to their full potential within their own abilities and are offered challenge where appropriate.

Staff know children well and make evidence-led decisions when adapting the curriculum to meet the needs of individual children. They work closely with parents and carers to design health care plans and individual education plans and make effective use of external agencies to make timely referrals as needed.

Staff are given opportunities to engage in regular training to gain recognised inclusion qualifications, so they are fully up to date with the current strategies and practice. The setting regularly seeks advice from their local authority area special educational needs coordinator.

The setting is fully inclusive and uses heightened staff ratios to ensure all children are effectively supported. The setting is aware of funding that is available to them for eligible children and supports families to ensure children receive their full entitlements.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

Leaders have a clear understanding of the quality of the curriculum and are always striving for continuous improvement to enhance their already high-quality provision. Teaching is finely tuned to ensure it meets the needs of all children, including children who speak English as an additional language and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

The thorough assessment and monitoring in place ensures staff fully understand what children know and can do and can match their teaching precisely to children at their various ages and stages. Children show increasing confidence in tessellating shapes, counting using one-to-one correspondence and use the modelled language of 'more than' and 'less than' to add different segmented counting rods. Staff and children talk confidently about the progress they are making, their starting points, the journey they are on and their next steps in learning.

Staff instil a 'You can do it' attitude into children to support them to achieve in all areas of the curriculum. The problem-solving approach to learning allows children opportunities to successfully use a range of materials to create an obstacle course to practise their skills in climbing and balancing and to learn to manage their care needs themselves when they have a little tumble.

Achievement: Strong standard

Staff know children well and work as a team to ensure children receive personalised learning to meet their individual milestones and are ready for their next steps in learning, including starting school.

Staff consistently model language well through storytelling and role-play opportunities and through their high-quality, day-to-day interactions with children. Children enjoy the opportunities they have to act out the story of the nativity. They confidently recite and repeat lines and staff support them in understanding how to project their voices so they can be clearly heard by an audience

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities and children who face barriers to their learning are set high-quality, specific and measurable targets that are regularly reviewed. This ensures they achieve the best possible outcomes.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Children fully understand the high behaviour expectations set by the staff at the setting. Staff support older children as they model appropriate social behaviours to younger children. They act swiftly when children are struggling to know how best to channel their play and effectively guide and support them appropriately into more positive outcomes.

The setting is calm and harmonious, where children listen carefully to one another and attend to what adults say. Children effectively follow staff's instructions for tidying away books after reading and washing their plates and cups after snack time. Staff support children to play games together, agreeing on how the game will work, setting out rules and guidelines and supporting them to work as a team.

Children are highly engaged and staff offer them appropriate levels of support to help them sustain their attention and stay focused on their tasks. Staff promote independence by allowing children opportunities to firstly try tasks on their own, then offer gentle guidance and further challenge as needed. Children demonstrate enjoyment and talk confidently and excitedly about their learning.

The setting has built strong relationships with the families of the children who attend and, as a result, parents and carers fully understand the importance of their children attending regularly and being punctual.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Children demonstrate they have secure relationships with all adults at the setting and seek comfort from staff at times when they need further support. Children are explicitly taught how to keep themselves safe. For example, when threading needles during a sewing activity and when retrieving an object that has been caught in a tree.

The free-flow garden area provides children with all day opportunities for fresh air and exercise, and the planting opportunities teach children where their food comes from and how to care for nature.

There are well-thought-out tailored routines in place that support children with self-regulation. Children make independent choices, supported by key staff around their own sleeping and eating. Children fully understand the importance of healthy eating and enjoy the wide variety of vegetables and fruits at snack time. This is a sociable occasion, where children excitedly talk about the different textures and tastes of a variety of vegetables, some of which include butternut squash, parsnips and sprouts.

The setting fully understands children's welfare needs and has an incredibly positive relationships with their families. They ensure they keep up to date with ongoing changes to family dynamics and offer continued support for children's ever-changing needs.

Leadership and governance: Strong standard

Leadership is a great strength of the setting. Decisions are strategic and heavily based around Early Years Pedagogy. The highly skilled staff team are offered daily mentoring and given an abundance of training opportunities to achieve recognised qualifications. Leaders have clear plans in place for future training and development of staff to ensure teaching is raised to an even higher level.

The setting fully understands the importance of partnership working to ensure all children achieve the best possible outcomes. Parents are kept fully up to date with what their children are learning and are given a range of ideas to help at home. Parents describe how the setting fully supports their children to be confident, happy and independent learners.

Leaders ensure that the wellbeing of staff is a priority and staff describe how happy they are working at the setting and that they feel valued and supported by leaders.

The setting seeks advice and support from the local authority and welcomes all children regardless of needs or background. Leaders work widely with other early years settings, offering support and sharing their skills and experience.