Bournemouth Montessori Centre

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

The inspirational leaders and staff place children at the centre of everything they do.

They uphold a shared vision to help children to flourish into confident, independent, kind and helpful individuals. All staff share consistently high expectations for children's learning. There is a well-researched and challenging rationale for the curriculum provided, based on the nursery's well-established ethos.

Children love to come to the nursery and work hard because staff plan exciting activities that interest and inspire them. Staff organise an extensive range of high-quality natural and real-life resources made from ...wood, china or glass. This ignites children's curiosity, investigative and problem-solving skills as they develop firm foundations for learning.

Children are extremely motivated and keen to learn. Older children show high levels of concentration and strengthen the dexterity in their hands as they make bread. For example, they add flour, measure the water they need and stir the mixture to make bread daily.

Younger children learn to cut up fruit using cutters confidently, in preparation for the snack times. The curriculum is based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play. Children work in groups and individually as they develop an understanding of the world.

They use a wide range of interactive maps of the world, learn about continents and investigate different land and water formations.

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

Staff's assessment of children's progress is highly comprehensive and is used to identify precise and challenging next steps in children's learning. They instinctively know when to step back and let children explore and when to support their play to extend their learning.

For instance, younger children show extremely high levels of curiosity and perseverance, such as when they learn how to turn on and off a tap in the process of washing up their own plates and cups.Staff encourage children's speech by creating superb opportunities for them to share their thoughts and ideas, for example when they extend children's learning and vocabulary during group activities. Older children are absolutely intrigued to feel the texture of exotic fruits.

They learn that a pomegranate has a rough texture, a 'spikey' top and is full of 'vitamin C' which is good for fighting off colds and sneezes. Staff use these opportunities exceptionally well to help children to develop excellent sensory skills and hear new words.Staff establish very strong links with relevant agencies.

They identify where children need early help very quickly. Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, receive highly targeted support swiftly to help them to reach their full potential. Staff work very closely with professionals, including speech and language therapists.

They use precise interventions, such as visual prompts and sign language. This helps children, including those who speak English as an additional language, to communicate extremely effectively.Children show exemplary behaviour and high levels of respect towards each other.

They are praised by staff for their efforts and achievements actively and consistently. This results in superb levels of confidence and a determination to succeed.Children gain an excellent understanding of the importance of healthy lifestyles.

For instance, they discuss the impact of exercise on their bodies. They feel their pulses and heartbeats after exercise outdoors.Children from many different cultural backgrounds attend the nursery and have excellent opportunities to learn about each other's similarities and differences.

For example, they take part in stories from around the world, cooking and creative activities. Staff organise experiences that teach children about different festivals. For instance, to celebrate the 'year of the rat', children make individual rats using egg boxes, learn to write numbers using Chinese characters and listen to dual language stories about the Chinese New Year.

Partnerships with parents are exemplary. Staff use highly successful strategies to share information, including daily diaries and discussions, newsletters and purposeful meetings. Parents' feedback is extremely positive.

They praise the staff for their passion and commitment to providing the very best for every child in the nursery. They describe the nursery as a heart-warming place to be and feel their views and contributions to their children's learning are highly valued.The leadership team gives the highest priority to evaluating staff's teaching practice and places a strong emphasis on their continued professional development.

This means the highly qualified staff use all their expert skills and knowledge to the best of their ability. For example, recent training has enabled staff to be even more effective in their support of children's speech, language and communication development.The management team seeks the views of parents, children, staff and the local authority advisors continuously.

This helps to drive forward ongoing improvements, which maintains high-quality care and education for all children consistently.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.The manager and staff have extensive knowledge of safeguarding.

They understand the signs that may indicate a child is at risk of harm thoroughly. Staff know to act swiftly should they have concerns about a child's welfare. Safeguarding information is displayed clearly.

Staff know who to go to should they be concerned that a child, parent or colleague is at risk of radicalisation. Staff and children practise fire drills continuously. They carry out robust risk assessments daily of the indoors and outdoors play areas and make sure that children are always well supervised through the effective deployment of staff.