Apple Tree Montessori Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive happy and confident. They are keen to seek out their friends to explore the resources and equipment available. Children have positive attitudes towards their learning.

They demonstrate high levels of concentration when participating in self-chosen activities. Children persist until they achieve the result they desire. For example, children practise using needles and yarn to thread beads or pasta quills to make their own jewellery.

They show good physical skills and precision when they achieve this activity. Children wear their necklaces or bracelets with pride throughout the nursery session.Children hav...e positive relationships with friends and the adults who care for them.

They discuss their current learning about what being 'kind' means and give examples of this. As a result, children start to understand the impact of their behaviour on others.Children enjoy listening to books.

They show great excitement to share their knowledge with others about the plot and outcome of a favourite story. They demonstrate that they can use recall and talk about the characters that interest them. This contributes towards building their language skills.

Children show high levels of independence and care for their own play environment. For instance, they wash their own hands and serve themselves snacks. When they notice they have spilled water, they seek a mop to clear up any puddles.

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

Leaders have effective oversight of the nursery and offer support to the manager, who is relatively new to the role. They have a clear vision about what children need to learn and work closely with staff to achieve this. The manager shares her knowledge and expertise in the Montessori approach with the staff team.

As a result, children receive a rich and engaging curriculum that meets their individual needs.Staff support children's health and well-being well. Children enjoy a wide variety of practical play experiences.

For instance, staff challenge children to think about what they need to do when they comment, 'I'm boiling,' when playing in the outside area. Children take time to think and say that they need to take off their coat and hat and get a drink of water. Consequently, children start to learn how they can contribute towards their own good health.

Staff support children with regular opportunities to learn about their local community and the wider world. Children take trips to a duck pond, local gardens and to the beach. This enables children to notice and talk about different features of the places they visit.

Staff use these opportunities to support children to learn about how to keep themselves safe when attending local places of interest. Children delight in spending time at a local garden and enjoy participating in group games with their friends, playing 'What's the time, Mr Wolf?'. This helps children to develop their social skills and learn to play together well.

The manager and her team take the time to get to know children well. This helps them make effective use of any funding that is allocated to support children. Staff plan precisely to meet all children's needs.

Consequently, children are making good progress in their learning and development.Overall, staff work closely with children and families to identify how they can support them to settle into the nursery with ease. However, staff do not make full use of strategies and available resources to support children learning English as an additional language when they first start.

Parents speak highly of the nursery and comment on how well the nursery staff support their children's learning and development. Overall, parents comment that the communication from the nursery is good. This gives them information about their children's progress and suggestions to further extend children's learning at home.

However, occasionally, communication is not as clear as it could be. There are times when parents are not always clear about the two-way information-sharing between staff and outside professionals.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The manager and staff know how to identify signs that children may be at risk of abuse and neglect. Furthermore, they have a sound knowledge of wider safeguarding issues including county lines, domestic abuse, radicalisation and extremism. The manager has a secure understanding of her role and responsibility to refer any concerns, including how to manage any allegations.

The manager and staff are clear about the process to follow in line with local procedures. This includes accessing support from agencies with statutory responsibilities to ensure children who may be at risk receive intervention in a timely manner.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nenhance the arrangements for the smooth transition into nursery for children learning English as an additional language review the processes in place to ensure parents are clear about information-sharing between the nursery and outside professionals to meet the needs of children with special educational needs and or/disabilities.