The Mulberry Bush Montessori Nursery Ltd

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is outstanding

Confident children enter the nursery foyer and part from their parents and carers with ease.

They are greeted by smiling staff who chat calmly to them and ask them how they are. Children respond enthusiastically and enter into lively discussions with staff. Children are happy, safe, content and extremely engaged during their nursery day.

They form friendship groups and play together, sharing exciting ideas for their game. Children skilfully choose and access the Montessori activities situated on low-level shelving around the main playroom. They focus and concentrate on their chosen task, such as transporting wat...er from one container to another with a range of tools.

Children's behaviour is exemplary. They demonstrate a secure understanding of the nursery's routines. Children are extremely articulate speakers.

They express their thoughts and feelings in small- and large-group activities. Children thoroughly enjoy cuddling up to a favourite adult and listening to a story. They take turns to choose their favourite songs for the group to sing.

All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make secure and sustained progress in their learning. They are extremely independent, confident and ready for their next stage of learning. Staff have high expectations of the children based on their expert knowledge of their stage of development, interests and learning styles.

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

Children are extremely keen and eager learners. They enjoy exploring in the exciting indoor and outdoor areas. They alert staff to the fact that they wish to play in the garden or return from their play by knocking at the nursery door using a child-height door knocker.

The recently improved outdoor undercover area enables children to freely access the outdoor learning environment in all weathers. Children have excellent opportunities to participate in small, calm activities in the recently installed sensory room. For example, they participate in a yoga session.

Other children have use of the room as a quiet space to take a few minutes to relax away from the busy nursery activities.Parents speak extremely highly of the staff and manager. They comment how well their children are learning and how involved they feel in their child's early development.

Some parents comment on the expert knowledge of the manager and staff in identifying children who need extra support or interventions. Others say how the staff team helps to support and nurture the whole family, not just the children.Children enjoy exploring literacy in their play.

For example, they quickly become knowledgeable about sounds and use their knowledge to spell simple words, such as 'dog' and 'pen'. Some children read using the early reading schemes.Children write their own names and have fun bringing in items that begin with the sound of the week.

Children are excited by mathematical concepts and use numbers and counting in their everyday activities. For example, they use simple calculation to work out how many children are left when others leave the circle to wash their hands. Children use the Montessori resources to identify different shapes, including three-dimensional ones.

Children form very close and caring relationships with the staff and each other. They often give a friend a hug or ask an adult if they can hug them. Children are extremely secure and comfortable in the nursery environment.

Children have excellent opportunities to guide their own play as they move freely between the role-play, art and main nursery rooms. Staff are effectively deployed across the rooms and undercover outdoor area to enable them to support children's learning superbly.The manager and some of the staff have worked together for many years.

They are a strong and highly successful team. Newer staff quickly settle in to their role. They develop an in-depth understanding of the Montessori method of teaching and the manager's ambitious curriculum and ethos.

The team work extremely well together and support each other. The manager is highly skilled at imparting her expert knowledge of the Montessori curriculum to others.Children understand how to keep themselves safe and healthy.

They demonstrate safe practice as they negotiate the huge wooden fort in the garden. Children carefully mount the stairs to reach the higher level and the big slide. They demonstrate their expert physical skills as they slide down using various methods, such as facing head first and laying on their back and tummy.

Children use the 'snuffle station' resources, such as tissues, mirror and anti-bacterial gel, to attend to their own personal needs.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.Managers and staff demonstrate extensive knowledge of the types of abuse and the indicators that might alert them to a child's safety being compromised.

Staff are knowledgeable about the dangers of families being drawn into terrorism and the dangers associated with the internet. All staff and managers know how to report any concerns to the appropriate authority for investigation. Managers and staff update their safeguarding knowledge frequently.

They complete face-to-face training, online training and use in-house meetings to refresh their knowledge. The manager has robust procedures for carrying out suitability checks on all new staff and volunteers before they begin working at the nursery. New staff complete a thorough and comprehensive induction, which includes developing in-depth knowledge of the nursery's safeguarding policies.