Great Beginnings Montessori Nursery School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children arrive excited to attend nursery. They are greeted by caring staff who welcome them into a safe, nurturing and calm environment. Children form strong bonds with their key person and develop friendships with their peers.

Younger children who are settling in are supported well and offered reassurance to build on their emotional well-being. Children demonstrate their independence by removing their coats, and take responsibility for their belongings. Older children find their own named pegs and sound out the letters, which builds on their early literacy skills.

Children flourish in the well-organised environment. ...They independently select resources and show a positive attitude to their learning. Younger children increase their fine motor skills as they paint at the easel and build with bricks.

Older children pour water from jugs, persevere with shape puzzles and accurately paint flags from different countries. Staff engage in children's learning and provide challenge, which increases their thinking skills. For example, children keenly respond to a request to change the calendar.

They work together to sequence the days of the week and find the correct number to represent the date. Children count and add number tiles to the board from one to 100. They enjoy receiving praise and are proud of their achievements and behave well.

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

The manager and staff plan a well-sequenced curriculum and follow the Montessori philosophy. They get to know children well from the start and build on their individual needs. Staff demonstrate a good understanding of what children need to know and learn next.

They use observations to inform their planning, and provide activities to help children achieve their next steps in their learning. Regular assessments ensure that any gaps are addressed quickly, and that all children make good progress from their starting points.Staff have high expectations for all children and actively promote their language and communication skills.

Staff engage children in meaningful conversations, enthusiastically share stories and introduce new vocabulary. Children benefit from extra-curricular music sessions, where they learn new songs and repetition. Staff challenge older children to learn tricky poetry and introduce props.

Children confidently demonstrate what they learned and eagerly continue to learn new verses.Parents speak very highly of the nursery manager and staff, who they describe as caring, consistent and passionate. They acknowledge that their children are very settled and enjoy attending.

Parents share that partnership working is effective and that communication is good. Daily updates are received at collection time, and staff regularly share next steps and ideas to continue learning at home. Parents state their children have become more confident, independent and have extended their communication skills since attending the nursery.

Staff plan daily activities to support children's physical development. They use the indoor space to extend children's balance and coordination using obstacle courses and organised games. Staff take children on trips to the local park, where they have space to run and develop their spatial awareness.

Children bring packed lunches to nursery and learn about the importance of healthy eating. Staff engage children in conversations about oral health and follow good hygiene practices.The nursery promotes a culture of respect, diversity and inclusion through the staff team, resources, books and activities.

Children behave well. Staff celebrate different festivals and welcome parents' participation in sharing their cultural traditions. Many children who attend the nursery speak English as an additional language.

However, children are not consistently supported to use their home languages alongside learning English.The manager is passionate about her role in providing good-quality care and education. She has robust recruitment procedures in place to ensure that all staff are suitable.

All staff receive regular supervision, which ensures that they understand their role and responsibilities. Staff state the manager is supportive to their well-being and manages their workload. The manager evaluates practice and provides opportunities for all staff to build on their continued professional development.

However, views are not sought from parents to help identify further improvements.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff understand their role and responsibility in keeping children safe.

They carry out risk assessments and daily checks to ensure that the environment is free of hazards and safe for children to play. Staff are deployed effectively around the nursery and ensure that children are well supervised. All staff have completed safeguarding training including wider issues, such as radicalisation.

They recognise the signs and symptoms of potential abuse and know the procedures to follow if they have any concerns regarding a child's welfare. The manager follows safer recruitment procedures and ensures that all staff are suitable to work with children.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support children to use their home languages alongside learning English to understand what makes them unique strengthen ways to include parents' views in the evaluation of the nursery to make further improvements.