Acorn Montessori School

Acorn Montessori School Gerrards Cross Youth Centre, East Common, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, SL9 7AD

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Inspection date

Previous inspection date 2 June 2015 19 October 2011

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This inspection: Outstanding 1

Previous inspection: Good 2 How well the early years provision meets the needs of the range of children who attend Outstanding 1

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This inspection: Outstanding 1

The contribution of the early years provision to the well-being of children Outstanding 1

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This inspection: Outstanding 1

The effectiveness of the leadership and management of the early years provision Outstanding 1

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This inspection: Outstanding 1

The setting meets legal requirements for early years settings

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This provision is outstanding

 Management is highly skilled in monitoring children's progress and oversees the excellent teaching strategies. This ensures all children make rapid progress in their development from their starting points, with any gaps in learning closing quickly.  Overall, staff provide an exciting, stimulating and well-resourced learning environment both indoors and outdoors. As a result, children make rapid progress in the key skills of communication and language, physical and social development.  Staff promote children's safety and well-being through comprehensive and consistently applied risk assessments. Staffing ratios and good deployment ensures children are cared for in a safe and secure environment.  Management dedicates time to supporting the professional development of staff and provides individual supervision meetings each term. Together, they identify training needs, which helps to improve their already excellent practice and outcomes for

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This provision is outstanding

children.  Partnerships with parents and other professionals are exceptional in meeting all children's needs, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. As a result, children achieve their full potential.

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What the setting needs to do to improve further

To further improve the quality of the early years provision the provider should:

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What the setting needs to do to improve further

 strengthen further the opportunities already available for children to explore the natural environment to fully extend their understanding of the world around them.

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Inspection activities

 The inspector observed the quality of teaching in all playrooms and the outdoor learning environment.  The inspector toured the premises and checked risk assessment procedures.  The inspector looked at a range of documentation, including children's records, planning documentation, policies and procedures.  The inspector completed a joint observation with the deputy manager.  The inspector spoke with some children, staff and parents, and took account of their views.

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who attend. This is outstanding

Staff interaction with children is of a consistently high standard. There is a strong emphasis on developing children's communication and language skills and, as a result, the quality of teaching and learning is exceptional. For example, staff asked children to select a book of their choice to look at for a few minutes and to then tell the rest of the group what it was about. Children began sentences with, 'My book is about?' which demonstrated their excellent levels of confidence in talking in front of the group. Following their interests in books, staff model what children say to reinforce their understanding of spoken language. Younger children proceeded to turn the pages to practise their hand and finger control. Staff encourage parents to support children's learning at home extremely well. Parents say that they feel staff listen to them and they express a deep appreciation of how their children are developing skills for their transition to school.

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outstanding

Parents are extremely well informed and involved in all aspects of their children's care and development. The strong staff team ethos ensures all staff have an excellent knowledge of every child's needs and interests. Consequently, they meet all children's emotional and physical needs exceptionally well. Children are very well behaved. They remain completely engaged in their play and know what staff expect of them. This is because staff apply boundaries consistently and sensitively across the nursery. Children develop excellent self- help skills. For example, they find their own coats before playing outside. Outdoor learning and activities are available every day so that children can enjoy physical play with the excellent range of resources and activities available. However, there are slightly fewer opportunities for young children to explore features of the natural environment around them to further extend their understanding of the world.

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provision is outstanding

The safeguarding of children is a high priority. Management and the highly skilled staff team demonstrate their full understanding of the safeguarding and welfare requirements. Management has effective safe recruitment procedures to ensure the suitability of staff working with the children. Since the last inspection, management has addressed previous recommendations well, which has had a highly positive impact on children's learning and development. Management gathers the views of staff, parents and children to inform self- evaluation. This means that all those involved in the setting contribute to the process to identify strengths and areas to strengthen practice further. Staff have recently attended early speech and language training which has already improved outcomes for children extremely well.

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Setting details

Unique reference number 107974 Local authority Buckinghamshire Inspection number 839512 Type of provision Sessional provision Registration category Childcare - Non-Domestic Age range of children 0 - 8 Total number of places 26 Number of children on roll 59 Name of provider Juliet Maria Dowman Date of previous inspection 19 October 2011 Telephone number 01753 885 448

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Setting details

Acorn Montessori School registered in 1994. It operates from the Gerrards Cross Youth Centre, in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. The group opens five days a week during school term times. Sessions run from 9.15am until 3.15pm. Morning, afternoon and all day sessions are on offer to parents. There are currently nine staff who work directly with the children and the principal who is supernumerary. Staff follow the Montessori ethos and all nine staff hold early years qualifications at level 4. The provider is in receipt of funding for the provision of free early education to children aged two, three and four years.

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Setting details

This inspection was carried out by Ofsted under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for children’s learning, development and care, known as the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Setting details

procedures set out in the guidance ‘Complaints procedure: raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Setting details

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Setting details

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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