Blog

Unity Montessori was visited by OFSTED inspector Penny Fisher on 2 May 2025. Our nursery was found to be Outstanding in Overall effectiveness, The quality of education, Behaviour and attitudes, Personal development and Leadership and management.

This report makes us extremely proud, and rather than adding our opinion we think it is best to let the findings speak for themselves:

“What is it like to attend this early years setting?”

“The provision is outstanding“

“Children at this joyful setting achieve to the best of their potential. They thrive in the calm and harmonious atmosphere created by the experienced and thoughtful teaching team. The leaders of the setting have a clear ethos. They know precisely what is important for the children to learn and ensure the cohesive team provides a consistent approach in the way it teaches the children. Children feel valued and safe and are ready to learn.“

“The resourceful leadership team prioritises children’s independence, self-care, curiosity and love of learning. All of these are fostered in abundance. The team has high expectations, trusts the children’s capabilities and provides every opportunity for them to discover that they can do things for themselves. Even the very youngest children at the setting take great care of the meticulously planned learning environment. They treat resources with respect and carefully replace their activities when they have finished exploring them.“

“Children benefit from learning together across the age range. The older children offer help and support to the younger ones when needed. They gently remind them to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to the teaching staff when asking for help. Children are kind to each other, play cooperatively and behave exceptionally well. Staff speak to the children with courtesy, and children respond to their requests and instructions promptly.“

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

• “Children are treated as individuals. All the team are aware of what each child needs to learn next. The curriculum is well-sequenced, and children’s skills grow at every opportunity. For example, younger children practise balancing on an obstacle course, which helps to improve their core strength. This means they can maintain stability, take control and navigate space when they move on to riding a scooter.”
• “The team’s interactions with the children are excellent. Staff encourage new vocabulary, introducing words such as ‘unstable’ and ‘vegetarian’ during the two-way flow of meaningful conversation. Children respond well to open-ended questions from the team, such as ‘Your house fell down. What are you going to do to fix it?’ This inspires the children to think critically and problem solve.”
• “Children’s learning is evident. They recall prior learning, demonstrating how the team has built on what they already know. During the harmonious circle time, children revisit the names of baby animals and recollect the bugs that they have found in the outside space.”
• “Children are granted the time they need to investigate activities and engage deeply. They use all their senses. They listen to sounds in the environment, feel the temperature of the water and look closely at the bugs and leaves that land in the water. Staff are skilled at knowing when to intervene and when to allow children space. This means that meaningful play is never disrupted unnecessarily.”
• “The team provides excellent support for children’s speech and language development, including those children that are learning English as an additional language. Staff speak to children at their level. They ensure they make eye contact so that children can focus on what they are hearing. The team speaks clearly, using language appropriate to the age and stage of the children. As a result, children are becoming effective and confident communicators.”
• “The experienced and dedicated teachers conduct precise observations. This means that children that may need additional help are identified early and provided with exceptional, nurturing support. Parents get sage advice and guidance to help them understand and access specialist services if needed.”
• “Parents cannot speak highly enough of the team. They praise the way the team knows the children’s unique needs. The setting is fully inclusive. Parents are invited to join the children to reflect their cultures through important celebrations, such as Nowruz. Through such experiences, children learn about the diversity of the world in which we live.”
• “The team of staff ensure activities underpin the delivery of the curriculum across all areas of learning. For example, they have identified that children need to develop their small hand muscles further, as this supports early writing skills. As a result, children are offered opportunities for cutting, sticking, threading, pouring and scooping.“

One of the core principles of the Montessori ethos is The Prepared Environment, that is everything that children come to interact with is thought through and carefully placed to draw their attention and stimulate independent learning and exploration. Meticulous planning goes into dividing available space in different learning areas (Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Mathematics, and Cultural).

Learning materials are accesible to all children at all times, for ultimately they are the ones deciding which activities to engage with. Children also decide whether they want to work individually, with one another, or join an already formed group. This ability to chose freely encourages free flow between areas, which is another key Montessori principle.

Unity is a pack-away nursery, meaning The Prepared Environment must be set up and then packed away every day. We thought it would be helpful to record this activity so that parents gain a better understanding of the work that goes into it.

“When we say that the children are free in our schools, organization is necessary, an organization more detailed than in other schools, so that the children may be free to work. The child, by carrying out experiments in a prepared environment, perfects himself, but a certain amount of apparatus is then necessary and space is necessary. Once the child has achieved concentration, he continues to be concentrated through many activities, and as he becomes more and more active, the teacher becomes less and less so…” Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind

It is common, even for adults, to feel anxious when facing new situations. It happens to us all throughout life: when going to school or university for the first time, or when starting a new job for example. Meeting new people in a new environment produces anxiety. In the case of many of the families that have joined Unity’s parents community, it isn’t only a new nursery for children, but a new country, new language and culture, and a new education system. It is definitely out of the comfort zone.

For most children, their comfort zone are parents / carers and their home environment. That’s all they know. Parents and home ARE (with capital letters) their secure place. When little ones are faced with a new situation, like starting in nursery for instance, they have to separate from what represents to them the only secure place they know and love. But unlike adults, children cannot verbalise their feelings and cannot discuss pros and cons of joining this or that nursery.

Children will experience a mix of feelings. Perhaps at first a feeling of excitement, of being surrounded by other children, with new activities that catch their atttention in a place where everything is designed for them. That first exploration will be amazing and parents will be exploring this new environment along with their child.  It is crucial in this initial process of discovery to give children every reassurance that everything is fine.

The role of parents when settling-in starts is to introduce the new environment and key teacher to their child. It goes a long way in establishing trust, when children see that their parents are comfortable. The first few days parents stay in with their child, to reassure all is well. Then the time they spend at the nursery starts to decrease, as the chilldren become more confident in the new surroundings. Inevitably at some point, parents will have to leave and separate from their child. This will cause confusion and mixed feelings. Your child would probably think “why are the only people I know and love the most leaving me with strangers?” But remember: children cannot ask this question verbally, they will cry instead to communicate that they are nervous and anxious with the new situation. This is entirely normal. It is a new feeling that they need to express somehow, as settling-in is basically an accelerated acclimatisation process.

For parents, hearing their child crying is heart breaking, for sure, though children have an amazing capacity to adapt. In fact they do it much better and definitely much quicker than adults. Children soon understand that their parents will always come back. It takes time for them to do so, and it depends on each individual child and circumstances. Once they become used to the new environment, teachers and other children, a new bond of trust is established, perhaps for the first time, between parents and their child. By this point, children would have had plenty opportunities to adapt and embrace this new situation, they will happily say goodbye to parents with the certainty that they will come back, always. Very soon after the tears will stop. That is when the period of settling-in ends.

Rather than blowing our own trumpet on how this transitional period works it is best to read what one parent recently commented on Unity’s settling-in process:

“Our daughter started at Unity in September. We were apprehensive about her settling in as she had not settled in at her previous nursery. All the staff at Unity are so warm and caring that within a few weeks our daughter was ready to say bye to us and confidently walk in on her own. We were so happy and surprised at how much she loved being there every day. Her speech and language had developed quickly and she has grown in confidence. We know she is well looked after and receive weekly updates on her progress. Thank you Alex and the team at Unity”