Your Montessori Pre-School & Day Nursery

Growing ingredients, preparing snacks and learning to manage coats give independence a practical meaning at Your Montessori Pre-School & Day Nursery. This Iver Heath setting combines a Montessori-inspired approach, based on purposeful hands-on activity and children's choices, with a nursery garden and weekly cooking. Everyday tasks become part of the learning.

At its June 2023 inspection, Ofsted judged the nursery Good overall and found safeguarding effective. The important reservations concerned younger children's independence and the order in which early mathematics was taught, rather than a lack of activities. Those points deserve attention alongside the current emphasis on self-care.

Based at Malta Hall on Church Road, the nursery has capacity for 43 children aged one to five. Explorers, Voyagers and Pioneers organise the progression towards preschool. Morning, afternoon and full-day attendance are offered, with opening across 51 weeks of the year.

Rooms and Ages

Explorers combines sensory activities, music and movement, outdoor play and time for sleep, giving the youngest children a day that includes both exploration and rest. The emphasis is on relationships and familiar routines, rather than rushing towards formal tasks. That is a useful starting point for children adjusting to care away from their family.

For children aged two to three, Voyagers links early mark-making and pencil control with practical tasks such as managing shoes and coats and serving lunch. Independence has concrete steps here. A child can practise something useful repeatedly during the day, rather than encounter it only in a planned activity.

Pioneers, for three- to four-year-olds, combines early phonics, preparation for writing and storytelling with setting up meals and clearing afterwards. Its weekend diaries connect experiences at home with conversations at nursery. Monty, the class teddy bear taken home in turn, gives children another familiar starting point for sharing stories with their friends.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the required foundation: children's days support language, movement, social development, early reading and mathematics, creativity and understanding their surroundings. Alongside this, Montessori-inspired practice adds selected materials, practical life activities and opportunities to make choices. The distinction matters: the approach shapes how children learn within the framework.

Planning draws on practitioners' observations of children's interests and readiness for their next challenge. Hands-on activities emphasise concentration, problem-solving and small-muscle control. For parents, the useful thread is the connection between watching what a child can do and choosing what to introduce next. The curriculum overview also sets out the additional activities.

Spanish introduces simple words through games and songs, while yoga uses gentle movement, breathing and relaxation. Music combines instruments, singing and movement; dance gives children opportunities to explore rhythm and coordination. These are nursery learning experiences, with different ways for children to participate through language, listening and movement.

Weekly cooking gives children healthy dishes to prepare, either for snacks or to take home. Gardening involves caring for fruit, vegetables and herbs. The nursery garden makes the connection tangible: children can work with ingredients they have helped grow, connecting food preparation with an understanding of where food begins.

Outdoor and Community Life

Community involvement has a recognisable local thread. The nursery takes part in the annual Light Up the Ivers celebration, makes regular food-bank donations and invites older residents to read with children. Reading with someone beyond the usual staff team brings another relationship into nursery life, while local activities give families a shared point of connection.

Wells on Wheels, the chosen charity, supports access to education by reducing the work involved in collecting water. For each new child joining, the nursery donates a Water Wheel, a drum that can be rolled rather than carried, and gives the family a charity certificate. This is a specific joining-linked contribution, rather than a general statement about helping others.

Relationships and Communication

Settling begins with All About Me, a meeting with the child's key person covering preferences, food requirements, sleep, comforters and family routines. It gives the adult who will support the child practical information from home. During the second settling visit, parents are encouraged to leave their child for two hours, followed by a final three-hour visit that aims to include food and possibly sleep.

The daily routine brings together free play, Montessori activities, meals and rest. Staff can mirror an established home routine, which gives families a concrete way to connect care in both places. Sleep and familiar habits are part of the conversation from the start.

A secure parent app carries daily photographs and observations shared regularly. Parents can also arrange time with the key person for a fuller discussion of progress. Pictures provide a glimpse of the day; a conversation allows parents and practitioners to explore what a child is learning and how support can continue at home.

Family events throughout the year include afternoon teas for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, Sports Day, carol concerts and a graduation ceremony. These offer opportunities to meet other families and take part in nursery life beyond app updates. They also make parent involvement more varied than a single formal meeting.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

Every staff member holds a full paediatric first-aid certificate, and staff receive continuing training in safeguarding and health and safety. Recruitment includes references, checks before employment and supervised working interviews. These are concrete arrangements; the dated safeguarding judgement belongs to the inspection position above.

An in-house chef prepares meals and snacks on the premises, using a four-week menu cycle with daily vegetarian choices, Meat Free Mondays and vegetarian Veggie Wednesdays. Food of the Fortnight introduces less familiar ingredients, and the nursery's allergy arrangements include allergen training for all staff and catering for individual dietary requirements.

School preparation extends beyond early literacy. Reception teachers are invited during the summer term to meet children in their familiar nursery surroundings, and staff follow up with children and teachers in the autumn after they have moved on. This supports continuity around the change of setting.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Malta Hall, Church Road, Iver Heath, SL0 0RD. Opening hours are 7.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, across 51 weeks, with bank holidays closed. Morning, afternoon and full-day patterns give families different ways to use the setting.

Standard fees cover the complete opening period, so using the early opening or late collection within that window does not attract an extra hourly charge. That distinction matters when comparing quotations: the length of the opening day and the attendance pattern being booked should be read together. Tour bookings and enquiries can be made through the contact form.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered, with funding spread across 51 weeks rather than confined to the usual funded term-time weeks. Eligibility depends on household circumstances. Stretching funding supports a more consistent monthly payment pattern, but it should not be read as a promise that a family's chosen attendance will be fully covered.

For families using funded hours, the nursery requests a separate, voluntary contribution towards consumables, including learning and care materials. Keep that contribution distinct from the childcare fee when considering the overall arrangement. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the funding and fees page explains the structure.

Payment methods include standing orders, Tax-Free Childcare and workplace childcare vouchers. These are payment routes alongside the funding arrangements, rather than interchangeable forms of funded entitlement.

• Independence and early mathematics. At its June 2023 inspection, Ofsted asked for more consistent opportunities for younger children to manage tasks themselves and better sequencing of mathematics to match development. During a visit, look at how adults allow children time to attempt practical tasks and introduce number ideas.
• Settling time. After All About Me, parents are encouraged to leave their child for two hours during the second settling session; the final settling visit lasts three hours. Families should plan for these stages and discuss how the sequence will accommodate their child's sleep and comfort routines.
• The funded quotation. Funding is stretched across 51 weeks and the consumables contribution is voluntary. Ask how meals, attendance hours and any other consumables are treated in the written quotation, and confirm current allergy practice if relevant to your child.

Your Montessori suits families seeking morning or afternoon sessions as well as full-day attendance, with practical independence running through the room progression. Cooking, the garden and everyday self-care give its Montessori-inspired approach substance. The key-person settling sequence and daily photographs offer useful connections between home and nursery.

The balance is important. A Good judgement in June 2023 sits alongside specific improvement points about independence and mathematics. For families attracted by the current practical learning offer, those are the areas to explore closely during a visit. The strongest reason to consider this nursery is the way ordinary tasks, food and communication are woven into children's learning.