Right Start Montessori Pre School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children are happy and confident attending this well-managed and well-organised pre-school.

They form close attachments with the staff who are attentive, kind and caring. Children benefit from the skills of a well-established staff team. Between them, staff have a wealth of experience of working with young children.

They know the interests and needs of their key children and plan for these, incorporating current themes and seasonal events. For instance, children who enjoy playing with water have opportunities to use a range of resources, such as spray bottles, containers and play syringes. Children delight in mixing co...loured water, soap and talcum powder.

Children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), develop good social skills and learn to be kind and helpful to each other. Planned activities are interesting, varied and interactive. However, at times, during adult-led activities, it is not made clear to the children what they are supposed to be learning, and younger children occasionally lose interest.

Despite this, children become confident communicators as staff enthusiastically interact with them in a range of ways. For example, staff use sign language in group play, ask open-ended questions and introduce new words during storytelling. This develops children's communication and language skills effectively.

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

The manager is experienced and well qualified. She offers an open-door policy for her staff and parents. This helps to build on staff morale and a good team spirit.

The manager invests in developing her staff's skills and provides regular supervision and opportunities for training. For example, recent training on children's behaviour management has helped staff to understand how to manage two-year-old children's behaviour during their play.Children are well behaved and develop good independence skills.

They delight in taking responsibility for watering the plants and help to clear away. Children eagerly manage many of their own needs and learn good hygiene routines with confidence and a sense of personal achievement.Parents are full of praise for how staff regularly share information about their children's learning and development with them.

Staff provide parents with helpful tips to support their children at home. For example, parents collect natural resources with their children, such as conkers and leaves, for planned activities at the pre-school.Older children, in particular, enjoy and benefit from group circle time activities.

Staff encourage children to join in with singing, learning days of the week and phonics. Staff listen to children's responses and ideas attentively. However, younger children do not get the best out of these sessions as sometimes they have to wait for longer for their voices to be heard, so they become bored and distracted.

Overall, teaching is of a good standard. Children enjoy learning about the cultures of other people and their families through activities such as dressing up, stories and displays. Children learn about healthy eating as they use simple tools to peel and grate real vegetables and talk about making soup.

Children develop good early writing skills as they turn spontaneously to mark making and drawing. This is set up appealingly in many areas of the pre-school, including outside. Staff develop children's understanding of mathematics as children count pegs, identify quantity and sort shapes.

Staff work closely with other professionals to support good outcomes for children. Children, including those with SEND and those in receipt of additional funding, make good progress from their starting points. They learn key skills for their future learning, in readiness for the move on to school.

The manager and staff effectively evaluate all aspects of their practice. They identify key strengths and areas for improvement. Children have recently benefited from an improved outdoor environment.

Staff provide many outdoor opportunities for children to develop their physical well-being. Children use their balance and coordination skills to walk across a cleverly designed obstacle course made from planks, tyres and crates. Younger children learn how to keep themselves safe as they learn to ride small bikes and cars in a marked area.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Staff understand their responsibility to keep children safe. They fully understand the procedures to follow if there are any concerns about a child.

Thorough recruitment procedures include robust checks to ensure staff are suitable to work with children. All staff complete regular training updates regarding current safeguarding procedures and first aid. The manager's deployment of staff is effective.

Staff supervise all children at all times, which minimises the risk of accidents, to help keep children safe. The manager ensures the premises are safe and secure, including by risk assessing the indoor and outdoor learning areas.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: raise the quality of teaching even further by giving children opportunities to understand and talk about what it is that they are learning from planned activities review large group activities to minimise waiting times for younger children to maximise their engagement and learning.