Lemon Tree Montessori School

Child-sized jugs, sandpaper letters and woodland visits give Lemon Tree Montessori School a clear identity: children learn by handling things, choosing activities and practising for themselves. Based at St Mary's Church Hall in Sanderstead, it combines Montessori learning with frequent outdoor experiences. Independence is the connecting thread, from fastening clothes to exploring natural materials.

Ofsted judged the nursery Good on 15 May 2024 and found its safeguarding arrangements effective. The current capacity is 60 children, with an age range of two to five. Admissions also cover younger children, a point families considering a baby place should resolve before booking.

Attendance can follow either the school terms or an all-year pattern. The more revealing practical distinction is between ages: older children have morning, afternoon and different day options, while under-twos have extended-day bookings only.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care, including early learning goals; here, children work towards those goals through play and practical activities. Montessori sits alongside that framework. Children choose materials introduced by practitioners and return to them to practise, rather than relying mainly on listening to an adult explain a task.

Practical Life activities use familiar objects such as tongs, cups and jugs to develop coordination and independence. Buttons and bows bring the learning into everyday dressing. These are small tasks with a useful purpose: children get repeated opportunities to handle objects accurately and do more for themselves.

Sensorial materials include touch tablets, smell jars and sound boxes. They encourage children to notice differences through their senses. For early literacy, sandpaper letters connect movement with letter shapes, while the movable alphabet lets children assemble words; number materials introduce quantities and number names. The Montessori method explains how these activities fit together.

Choice also brings a responsibility for adults to judge when help is useful. In May 2024, children persisted with cutting paper while staff encouraged them rather than immediately taking over. However, staff sometimes intervened at the wrong moment and broke children's concentration. Better timing of adult involvement was the improvement required. Families who value independent learning should pay attention to how practitioners balance encouragement with space to finish a task.

Outdoor and Community Life

Forest School adds woodland learning to the Montessori day, with several visits each week to neighbouring Wetten Tree Garden. Natural resources and real tools form part of the sessions, which begin with planning for individual children and then develop around their interests. This gives outdoor learning a recurring place in the week, rather than making it an occasional excursion.

Children can choose between the indoor environment and the outdoor space, where activities are also arranged for independent exploration. In May 2024, the large enclosed garden supported climbing, jumping and balancing. Hoop throwing combined physical practice with colour matching and counting for younger children, showing how one outdoor activity could serve different stages of development.

Sustainability is practical here. Children plant and water, watch growth, observe eggs hatching and help care for ducklings. Leaves, flowers and pinecones become materials for making and investigating. Reusing resources gives children another way to explore what is around them before reaching for something new.

SNOAP, a plastic-free system for washing hands, extends that theme into daily routines. Alongside conserving water and reusing materials, it makes environmental choices part of ordinary nursery life. For parents, the useful distinction is that nature appears both in planned woodland sessions and in the smaller responsibilities children undertake during the day.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has an allocated key worker with particular responsibility for their care. Daily feedback during the first few weeks supports settling, giving parents a regular account of how their child is adjusting. The starting guidance also encourages continued conversation with staff about changes in a child's reactions, rather than assuming settling follows a straight line.

My Montessori Child is the secure interactive learning journal used to share development with families. Parents can see observations, contribute examples from home and find suggestions linked to their child's interests. This makes communication two-way: the nursery's picture of a child can include what happens beyond the setting as well as what practitioners observe during sessions.

Email newsletters carry nursery and office updates. Within the learning portal, a questions section offers help from an early-years specialist on subjects such as sleep, behaviour and toilet training. Parents can also contribute by reading to children or discussing their work and family traditions, bringing familiar adults and experiences into the learning day.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the May 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities felt secure enough to explore, supported by relationships with staff who knew them well. The concrete picture was of children checking back with their key workers and then returning to their play. That finding belongs to the inspection date.

Lunch routines in May 2024 were organised to reduce waiting, with children coming in gradually and washing their hands in different areas. Sitting with key workers created opportunities for conversation, and children practised pouring gravy using a lidded jug. Care routines therefore also provided opportunities to talk, take turns and manage everyday tasks.

Sessions and Attendance

Opening hours are 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Morning sessions run from 9am to 1pm; the full-day option is 9am to 3pm, with a later 3.45pm collection available for an additional charge. Extended days start at either 8am or 9am and finish at 6pm.

Afternoon attendance runs from 1pm to 6pm, with a late-afternoon option from 3pm to 6pm. Breakfast sessions run from 7.30am to 9am, with another early-start option beginning at 8am. Light breakfast is provided during the breakfast session and for children starting before 8.15am.

All-year attendance covers 50 weeks, including half-terms and holidays apart from the closures; term-time attendance covers 38 weeks. Under-twos can book extended days only and attend across the year. For children aged 12–24 months, the minimum private booking is two days weekly, 9am to 6pm; the Working Parents' Funding option requires two days weekly, 8am to 6pm.

All-year fees are paid monthly, while term-time fees are due before each term begins. Bank holidays, Christmas and Easter interrupt the all-year pattern. Holiday Club sessions can supplement term-time attendance, subject to availability, which is useful for families whose childcare needs change during school breaks.

Getting There

The nursery address is St Mary's Church Hall, Purley Oaks Road, Sanderstead, South Croydon, CR2 0NY. On-street parking serves collection and drop-off; enquiries can be made through the contact form, by email or on 020 8651 5061.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered through working parents funding, universal funding for three- and four-year-olds, and disadvantaged funding for two-year-olds. The funding scheme includes younger ages, but that does not change the nursery's own starting-age arrangements. For the 12–24-month funded option, entitlement is stretched over 50 weeks.

Free-place arrangements carry no additional fees, with meals, extra activities and additional hours available to purchase by choice. Meals on these funded places are therefore charged separately when selected. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation; the funding page explains the separation between free attendance and purchased extras.

Joining involves a signed registration form, a non-refundable registration charge and a returnable deposit, followed by medical and starter forms. Applications follow a first-come basis, with a waiting list used when the requested places are taken. These are booking rules, rather than an indication of today's availability.

• Starting age. The current age range is two to five, while admissions accept children from 12 months. Confirm the arrangements for your child's age, including the younger children's care space, before committing to a place.
• Independent play. In May 2024, adults sometimes interrupted children's concentration. During a visit, ask how practitioners now decide when to join an activity and when to let a child continue independently.
• Attendance and funding. Under-twos have all-year extended days, with different minimum bookings for private and funded places. Match the proposed booking and any chosen meal or activity charges against your actual working week.
• Reducing attendance. All-year places require two full months' notice, counted from the start of the following month when notice meets the stated deadline; term-time places require a full term's notice given before that term begins. A change of childcare plans needs advance preparation.

Lemon Tree suits families drawn to practical Montessori materials, regular woodland learning and a parent journal that accepts contributions from home. Older children can attend mornings, afternoons or longer days, across either terms or the year; younger children's extended-day requirements need closer attention.

The May 2024 Good judgement provides a positive inspection position, while the concern about interruptions to play gives parents a precise point to explore. The strongest appeal is the connection between choosing an activity, practising a skill and taking growing responsibility for everyday tasks.