Ashbourne Montessori Stoneygate

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision requires improvement Children are greeted warmly by the friendly and caring staff.

Those children who are new or less confident are offered encouragement and reassurance to separate from their parents and carers. Staff provide a range of resources, indoors and outside, for children to use. They provide activities that reflect children's interests and experiences from home.

However, the curriculum is not consistently implemented to help children build on what they already know and need to learn next. Additionally, staff do not always offer good-quality interactions that help children to build on their knowledge and skills. Nevertheless, in the... main, children are settled and happy and enjoy their time at nursery.

Overall, children learn to behave appropriately. Staff help children to become familiar with the daily routines. Younger children willingly respond to staff's request to wash their hands before lunch.

Pre-school children know to go one by one down the stairs and to hold onto the handrail. Children benefit from frequent opportunities to be physically active in the nursery garden. They develop their physical skills as they climb large play equipment and ride wheeled toys.

Additionally, children develop an awareness of the world around them as staff talk to them about insects that they see in the garden. Children comment on the orange wings of a butterfly as it lands on a tree. During a bug hunt activity, staff explain to children how grasshoppers hop and encourage them to count the number of legs.

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

Although leaders understand the intended curriculum this is not consistently well delivered by all staff. Not all staff understand the intentions for children's learning. There are occasions when staff do not present clear information or adapt their interactions for children.

This means that children are not always offered an appropriate level of challenge to sustain their interest in activities and learning.The leader understands the strengths of the setting and recognises the areas for improvement. Through staff supervision, the leader offers some support and opportunities for staff's professional development.

However, this is not robust enough to help all staff develop the knowledge they need to further improve their teaching skills, and to ensure that all children make the progress they are capable of.Staff maintain a two-way exchange of information with parents to ensure that they are kept informed and involved in their children's care and learning. Parents comment positively about the nursery.

Staff speak with them as they drop off and collect their children and add regular updates on the online application. Parents are invited to attend parents' evenings and to join stay-and-play sessions with their children.Children play well together, overall, and often with others that are either younger or older than themselves.

Staff are aware of unwanted behaviour and do intervene. However, sometimes they are not consistent in their approach, nor do they explain the impact of children's behaviour on others. As a result, children do not always gain a clear understanding of the expectations for behaviour.

Staff are kind and attentive. They have a secure knowledge of children's individual needs, such as sleep routines and what they like to eat and play with. Young children build strong bonds with their key person, seeking them out for cuddles and reassurance when needed.

Older children show a familiarity and positive relationships with all staff as they come together in the garden. They ask staff for help confidently and invite them to join in with their play.Children enjoy exploring a range of different materials provided by staff.

They encourage young children to use their senses and smell dough infused with fresh herbs. Children develop their small-muscle strength as staff show them how they can poke and squeeze the dough with their hands. Older children explore water play.

They play with pretend sea creatures, naming the ones that they recognise and show their delight as they learn how to squeeze water out of spray bottles.Staff support children's communication and language skills well overall, including those children who speak English as an additional language. Staff talk to children as they play, they introduce and model the correct use of new vocabulary.

Children develop an interest in books and stories as staff read to them regularly. Books are readily accessible to children of all ages in cosy corners throughout the nursery.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

There is an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts children's interests first.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To meet the requirements of the early years foundation stage, the provider must: Due date ensure staff implement a curriculum that identifies what all children need to learn and offer appropriate challenge to sustain their interest in activities and learning 19/10/2024 target professional development plans on improving staff's knowledge and teaching skills to help them to further support all children's learning.19/10/2024 To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: nimprove staff's teaching of behaviour boundaries, so that children gain a clear understanding of the expectations for behaviour.