Caterpillars Montessori Nursery

School

Unique reference number (URN): 110247 Address: APPLETON HALL, WEST GREEN ROAD,HARTLEY WINTNEY, HOOK, HAMPSHIRE, RG27 8RE Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises Registered with Ofsted: 08/01/1996 Registers: EYR, CCR Registered person: Caterpillars Montessori Limited

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Achievement Strong standard

All children excel in their learning, development, health and well-being. There is a clear emphasis on developing children's personal, social and emotional skills so that children reach their full potential. Alongside this, there are plenty of opportunities for children to learn in a meaningful way. For example, children learn that butter melts on their warm breakfast bagels and that snow melts, making all surfaces outside wet, including themselves.

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Achievement Strong standard

Children show a keen sense of achievement and proudly share what they have learnt, such as Spanish vocabulary related to the cold weather from their weekly Spanish sessions. This demonstrates children's impressive memory skills and how they connect their knowledge. They develop knowledge and skills they need to become confident, successful lifelong learners. Children gain a strong foundation on which to build in order to continue to thrive when they move to school. This also applies to children who face barriers to their learning, who when they started had difficulties in independently dressing themselves. They now have the skills they need to put on their coats, wellington boots, scarves and gloves, often without adult help.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Children consistently demonstrate impeccable behaviour throughout the setting, reflecting the nurturing environment and dedicated guidance provided by staff. They share resources willingly, speak kindly to their friends and model positive actions, which creates a respectful and productive culture. On the rare occasions when individual children struggle to manage their behaviour, staff sensitively address any issues promptly and constructively. This helps children to recognise how their inappropriate actions affect others and work hard to put things right.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Children are highly motivated learners with a strong appetite for new knowledge. Staff emphasise key words to build on children's vocabulary and help them to learn new words and their meaning. During storytelling, staff skilfully ignite children's interest and love for books, which they also routinely borrow to take home. Well-established routines throughout the day consistently allow children to develop strong independence and self-help skills. Staff's commitment to providing children with the freedom to complete tasks on their own, means that children proudly show staff how competently, for example, they can use the 'coat trick' to put on their coats in readiness for outdoor play. Praise is plentiful at this setting, which effectively helps children demonstrate a 'can-do' attitude to everything they set their mind to, with impressive results.

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Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard

Leaders fully recognise the importance of children attending the setting regularly and the positive impact this has on their learning. They work very closely with parents to ensure children arrive calmly at the setting, on time and demonstrate a keen willingness to start their day with confidence.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Leaders and staff ensure rigorous processes are firmly embedded to promote children's welfare, wellbeing and mental health. There is a robust and well-established key person system. From the beginning, staff get to know their key children and families incredibly quickly. They gain a comprehensive and detailed knowledge of children's unique personalities and learning styles.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Staff consistently model positive interactions and prioritise children's emotional wellbeing. They use their comprehensive understanding of the children to plan tailored programmes that ensure children feel safe and secure in their care. For instance, children tell staff they feel cold as they pick up the settled snow from the ground to make 'snow people'. Staff instantly devise enjoyable ways to make children feel warmer, leading to staff and children doing exaggerated physical movements around the garden, showing that the coldness does not hamper their excitement and fun.

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Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard

Staff's frequent praise and reassurance significantly boosts children's self-esteem and confidence. In addition, they anticipate and identify children who face barriers to their learning and wellbeing. For example, staff work with these children systematically, building skills gradually to help them settle into morning routines. In this way, children arrive happily and calmly to the setting, follow their familiar settling in routines and then enjoy a comforting breakfast similar to what they have at home. This gradual and carefully implemented approach has proved very effective.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Staff implement a child-centred approach to learning that prioritises children's health and happiness. They recognise that these type of qualities help support children's academic achievement. Leaders carefully and thoughtfully plan an ambitious curriculum. They draw on staff's extensive knowledge of each child to ensure learning builds consistently over time and reflects children's needs, abilities and interests.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Assessment is used well. All children are tracked on entry and at key points to ensure staff tailor their planning to address any emerging gaps. Targeted interventions help children catch up with their peers and staff maximise teaching opportunities to ensure the curriculum captures children's evolving interests. For instance, after researching the weather and knowing there is a forecast of snow, staff creatively plan related activities across the areas of learning. Staff plan exciting opportunities that inspire and motivate children. Their ideas and suggestions closely link to their key children's existing knowledge and skills and they work diligently with children to deepen and extend learning. Staff seize every moment during routines and play, to teach children something new.

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Curriculum and teaching Strong standard

Leaders and staff plan enriching extra-curricular activities that spark children's imaginations, creativity and natural curiosity, including weekly trips into the woods to learn about nature first-hand. Children develop a real love for books and readily learn and use new words they hear. During self-chosen activities, such as building with construction blocks, children confidently use rich vocabulary. For example, staff encourage children to apply words related to size when comparing their structures. This includes, stating whether they are 'taller' or 'shorter' than their friends' towers.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Provision for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), is extremely well orchestrated. Knowledgeable and capable leaders demonstrate that inclusion sits at the heart of everything they do. Their deep commitment and ongoing support for staff in this area is highly effective. Leaders and staff work tirelessly with parents, external professionals and other settings, to ensure children's needs are quickly and precisely identified. Together, they set clear targets for children, and systematically revisit these over time. Leaders ensure that any additional funding for children with specific needs, is used to benefit them and close any gaps. They purchase resources that they know will interest children and motivate these individuals to focus and engage.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Staff ensure they understand children's needs and provide the tailored support necessary to enable all children to fully engage in planned activities. They expertly deliver focused interventions for children who have been identified as needing to build up to more sustained periods of adult instruction. Staff are trained in various interventions for different needs and use their skills to support children with SEND to meet their targets. They successfully help deepen these children's social, language and attention skills through enjoyable and meaningful activities, such as fun musical sessions where all children participate at their own pace.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

The inspirational and passionate leaders systematically evaluate the setting's practices and implement enhancements to drive continuous improvement. For instance, they strongly encourage staff to adapt their practice by responding to spontaneous teaching moments with children. This is evident when routine times of the day are made flexible to create rich sensory learning experiences, such as sharing a story about snow and then having the opportunity to experience snowfall in real-life.

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Leadership and governance Strong standard

Effective leadership and support for the staff team are notable strengths. Personalised goals and expectations are set for individual staff to enhance their professional development, which in turn, inspires excellence for children. Through consistent and proactive supervision, leaders cultivate strong collaboration among staff, parents and external professionals, which enables staff and children to thrive. For example, they have played a pivotal role in coordinating targeted interventions for children who need additional support, resulting in extremely positive outcomes. Leaders regularly seek parents' input, ensuring that their observations and feedback directly frame their children's tailored learning plans. This has dramatically enhanced the already trusted parent partnerships between the setting and home. Parents are kept well informed and are effectively supported by leaders and staff to continue their children's successful

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Compulsory Childcare Register requirements

This setting has met the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register.

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Register

When we check if settings meet the Compulsory Childcare Register requirements, they can have the following outcomes:

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

There is an atmosphere of fun, happiness and enthusiasm at this inclusive and nurturing setting. Children arrive eagerly, ready to start their day. They quickly settle as they engage in a wide range of stimulating activities, prepared by caring and attentive staff. They form trusting and affectionate bonds with their key person. Staff make individual adjustments to support children who need more time to adjust to the routines of the day. This helps to foster a secure sense of safety and supports smooth transitions.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Children's behaviour is exemplary. They show confidence, resilience and independence in abundance. They follow the clear expectations set by staff, to create a harmonious and respectful play environment. Children make great friendships, play cooperatively and offer each other advice and encouragement. For instance, they learn to rub their hands together and move energetically around the garden to keep warm. This approach nurtures a sense of kindness and collaboration, and mirrors the positive qualities modelled by staff.

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What it's like to be a child at this setting

Each child benefits from consistently high-quality teaching and care. Staff know their children extremely well, and meticulously monitor their progress. Leaders swiftly identify and address any gaps in children's development. Staff strengthen learning through revisiting activities and targeted interventions. This helps to reinforce and embed children's knowledge and skills. Promoting children's communication and language skills is a key priority. Staff's

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Inspector:

Sonia Panchal meaningful interactions with children, constantly build on what children already know in a clear and sequenced way. Children use language well to describe and explain what they are doing to staff and their friends. They achieve well across all areas of learning, making significant progress from their starting points.

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Inspector:

Outdoor learning is a particular favourite for children. During snowfall, children learn to negotiate the garden space around them. They tread carefully, assessing the ground beneath them. Some test the climbing frame and railings before deciding it is too slippery to use. Staff closely supervise this activity. They allow children the time and confidence to make their own sensible, well-judged decisions. Life skills such as these, help to prepare children well for the future.

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Next steps

Leaders and those responsible for governance should sustain their work to ensure continued improvement and high standards. They should focus on creating a transformational impact on the outcomes and experiences of disadvantaged children, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, those who are known (or previously known) to children's social care, and those who may face other barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing.

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About this inspection

The inspector spoke with leaders with overall responsibility for the setting, including special educational needs and/or disabilities and safeguarding. In addition, inspectors spoke to practitioners about their key children and the support they receive from leaders during the inspection.

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About this inspection

We carried out this inspection 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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About this inspection

A quality assurance visit by an additional inspector was carried out at this inspection.

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Address:

APPLETON HALL WEST GREEN ROAD,HARTLEY WINTNEY HOOK HAMPSHIRE RG27 8RE

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Address:

Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises

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Address:

Registered person: Caterpillars Montessori Limited

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Address:

Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday : 08:00 - 18:00,Thursday,Friday : 08:00 - 16:00

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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