Children’s House Montessori

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

The dedicated staff strive to provide children with the best start in life. Staff support children to become independent, confident and able to regulate their emotions.

The provider supports the whole family, offering a wealth of knowledge and guidance. Staff are good at supporting children's emotional well-being. They offer quiet spaces, time to reflect and think and a sensory room.

Staff model and encourage children to use manners. Children ask their friends if they can play with them and share their resources. They build trusting friendships with their peers and enjoy playing together.

Staff are keen to sup...port each child at their own individual level. The resources provided are well thought out to address the needs of all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Children independently select the resources they would like and show great focus and concentration.

Staff are skilled at supporting them to increase their knowledge and understanding. The provider is good at working with external agencies to provide extra support for children where needed. Staff ensure that children leave here with the skills, confidence and self-worth to thrive in the next stage of their journey.

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

The provider is proactive in supporting staff to engage in continuing professional development. Staff are empowered to use their individual skills to give the children a wide range of experiences, such as cooking and art therapy. The experienced team of staff work well together to provide an inclusive curriculum.

Staff offer targeted interventions to support children with SEND to make good progress. Staff are passionate about the children and enjoy coming to work.Staff are good at demonstrating and explaining to children how to use resources.

They then give children plenty of time to explore for themselves and have their own ideas. Staff use open-ended questions well to extend children's thinking skills.Staff are thoughtfully deployed to ensure children are supported in all areas of the nursery.

They are always close to children and are quick to respond to their needs. Children are happy to go to any member of staff and enjoy spending time with them all. However, the key-person system is used less effectively.

Staff have a good overview of all children, but lack an in-depth understanding of their key child's needs. This means that, sometimes, support for children is not consistently targeted at their specific next steps in learning.Staff create a calm atmosphere for children to learn in.

They play music, use soft voices and are very patient with the children. Children play calmly, focus well and have good perseverance skills. For example, they like to finish an activity before carefully putting it away for the next child to use.

However, group circle times are not planned as well and can be too long for the children to remain focused. At these times, children become distracted and do not benefit from the intended learning.Children understand and follow the routines of the day.

Staff have embedded routines well and use different ways to alert children to transition times, such as playing familiar music. Children respond well and calmly get themselves ready for each part of the day. This helps them to feel safe and settled.

Staff are good at promoting children's independence. They often ask children to help them with tasks, such as snack time or being a lunch monitor. Children take pride in these activities and show good levels of self-confidence.

Staff highly praise children and celebrate their achievements.Children's rights, wishes and feelings are prioritised. Staff place an importance on teaching children about being respectful to one another.

They use songs and resources to help children understand about what their rights are and ways to keep themselves safe.The provider works closely with all parents and families. Parents are kept up to date with their child's development and offered ideas to extend learning at home.

The provider's commitment to families is evident in the extra support and guidance they are offered. Parents are invited into the nursery to share in the children's learning, such as taking part in forest school sessions. In addition, parents are offered support sessions, such as school transitions.

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 further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: strengthen staff understanding of their key children's needs to precisely target their next steps in learning review and improve the organisation of group times to more effectively engage all children who are taking part.