Oak House Montessori

A Victorian house, grounds covering ¾ of an acre and a separate preschool give Oak House Montessori its character: children have room for both carefully arranged indoor activities and woodland exploration. My Little House is the preschool space where children choose practical tasks from shelves; My Little Forest adds planting, digging and building outdoors. Independence connects the two.

At its June 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated Oak House Montessori Good and judged its safeguarding arrangements effective. The setting has capacity for 119 children, with an accepted age range from birth to 96 months. Its named nursery groups run from Little Ones through Toddlers and Kindergarten to the preschool, with development influencing some room moves.

Families can choose full days or shorter morning and afternoon sessions, alongside separate full-year and term-time funded contracts. Those contracts carry different rules on additional attendance and charges, so the choice affects more than the weekly timetable.

Rooms and Ages

Little Ones caters from 6 weeks to 18 months, depending on development, with sensory exploration, songs, stories and messy play, plus low tables and low highchairs for shared eating. Activities span the early stages of movement and exploration: tummy time, toys that respond to a baby's actions, and materials to handle. The emphasis is on learning by doing rather than watching.

Toddlers covers 15 to 30 months according to development, combining creative play, construction and stories with a soft play and sensory room, climbing equipment and access to a partly sheltered deck. Familiar songs and a daily reading of the story of the week give repetition a place alongside exploration. Staff also coordinate toilet-training approaches with families, linking a practical developmental step between home and nursery.

Tweenies serves children aged 2 to 2.5 years through creative and imaginative activities across connected rooms, while Kindergarten covers 2.5 to 3 years with art, construction and role play, followed by daily introductory Montessori lessons from the term after a child's third birthday. These lessons introduce equipment in small groups, with individual help when children are learning how an activity works. Choice remains part of the arrangement.

My Little House is an open-plan preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds in their final year before school, combining practical Montessori work with a climbing frame, astroturf and a little village area outdoors. Preparation for school centres on handling tasks, making choices and developing independence. It is preparation through everyday practice.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage shapes planning across children's areas of learning, with play and activities matched to their interests and next developmental steps. Montessori adds a concrete method: children select materials, work with them and return them when finished. In My Little House, a child rolls out a mat, chooses an activity from a shelf and receives a demonstration or guidance when needed.

That sequence makes independence tangible. Choosing a task, organising a workspace and tidying materials are part of the learning itself. Staff make daily observations in the preschool and use children's interests to shape materials and subsequent activities, rather than treating every child as ready for the same task.

In June 2024, children explored whether objects would sink or float, including what happened when bottles were filled with water. Staff introduced vocabulary and signs during conversations, but their questions did not consistently push children to reason through problems for themselves. Extending language and independent thinking through better questioning was an improvement priority. For parents attracted by the Montessori emphasis, this is a useful distinction between giving children choices and helping them explain those choices.

Outdoor and Community Life

My Little Forest provides outdoor Montessori exploration with a mud kitchen, planting space, sensory plants and tools for digging. Children can investigate insects, make mud pies or build with sticks. These are practical ways to follow an interest in living things or construction, with materials that behave differently from indoor toys.

Access to Little Forest runs from 9am to 4pm. In suitable weather, food can be eaten outdoors in the heated Little Shelter, allowing the outdoor space to serve more than a brief play break. The gardens also include water-play facilities and a tractor play feature. Together, these give families several concrete reasons to consider the outdoor offer, rather than relying on the size of the grounds alone.

Relationships and Communication

A key person is allocated during settling and takes responsibility for observations, next steps and a short report each term. Parents can follow their child's learning through the Famly app, including photographs and developmental records. Weekly activity plans are shared on Monday mornings, giving families a view of what children will be exploring as well as what they have already done.

The set-up fee includes two settling sessions, each lasting one hour, and an initial three-month app subscription. Parents share interests, preferences, allergies and developmental information during settling, and can remain close while their child begins to build relationships with staff. The process allows families to judge whether further settling is needed, rather than assuming every child adjusts at the same pace.

For babies, home routines are followed as closely as possible, and the app records sleep, food and nappy changes. That makes communication practical: parents can see the details that influence the rest of their child's day. Older children's records include activities and toileting, with observations and termly evaluations building a longer learning journey.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the June 2024 inspection, Ofsted found that children with SEND made good progress and that the SENCO coordinated support with parents and external agencies. Current leadership roles include a SENCO and a designated safeguarding lead. Those roles provide identifiable responsibilities for discussing additional support and safeguarding arrangements.

In June 2024, babies' familiar routines were respected and staff used calm speech and repeated simple words during play. In June 2024, other jobs sometimes drew staff away from helping children move from group activities into eating. Better preparation and organisation at these times was the second improvement priority.

Meals are cooked on the premises, with adaptations for dietary requirements and a choice of puréed food or baby-led weaning for babies beginning solids. Children are helped to feed themselves and, when ready, pour drinks, making meals another opportunity to practise everyday skills.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is 77 Wimborne Road, Southend-on-Sea, SS2 4JR. General enquiries can be made by telephone on 01702 611991 or through the enquiry form.

Full-day choices are 8am to 6pm, 9am to 4pm and 8am to 4pm. Part-day choices comprise mornings from 8am to noon or 9am to noon, and afternoons from 1pm to 4pm or 1pm to 6pm. An early-start session runs from 7.30am to 8am and includes breakfast. Sessions are fixed; extra hours can be added where possible, with additional charges, including a meal charge when an extra hour covers a meal period.

The Full-Year Montessori Contract allows additional ad hoc sessions or extended hours, subject to the nursery's attendance conditions. Its stretched funding arrangement covers 50 weeks, with 24 funded hours each week from September through March and 18 from April through August; the nursery closes between Christmas and New Year. Sessions operate only when uptake supports the required staffing arrangements.

The Term-Time Funded Sessions Contract offers 9am to noon or 1pm to 4pm, following term dates. Additional and ad hoc sessions are excluded from that contract. It therefore suits a different attendance pattern from the full-year option, even where the clock times overlap.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare includes working-parent funding from 9 months to 2 years, economic funding for eligible 2-year-olds, universal funding for 3- and 4-year-olds and extended funding for eligible 3- and 4-year-olds. Term-time and stretched delivery are offered. Eligibility applies to the relevant entitlement; current prices and the chosen contract's charges come in the nursery's written quotation.

Privately paid sessions include meals and snacks. Funded attendance has separate food charges, while preschool Enhanced Learning Centre options bundle specified food, consumables and activities into an additional charge; the standard Oak House funded session offers a snacks-and-consumables charge or the option to bring these from home. The preschool enhanced-learning session options require a minimum of 8 children per session.

Parents supply nappies, wipes and nappy cream. Stage 1 formula is included for children until the term after their first birthday, so consumables have different arrangements rather than one inclusive rule. The full-year contract also carries a quarterly operational fee, covering items such as maintenance, cleaning, training and systems.

Fees are paid a month ahead by standing order or bank transfer, and the set-up charge is non-refundable. Absence through sickness or holidays does not generate a refund, nor does closure caused by adverse weather. These terms matter when comparing the total cost of an attendance pattern.

• The contract changes the flexibility. Full-year attendance permits additional bookings, while the term-time funded contract excludes them. Choose against the family's likely need for extra attendance, rather than comparing session times alone.
• Independence needs thoughtful adult support. June 2024 improvement priorities concerned questioning and the organisation of mealtimes. During an appointment visit, ask how staff now help children explain their thinking and remain engaged while meals are prepared.
• Baby groups and room moves. The under-two unit can take up to 30 children per session across 5 rooms, while the Little Ones and Toddlers age bands overlap because development influences placement. Ask which room would suit your child and how moves between groups are planned.
• Dietary care and funded extras. Food and consumables are treated differently across private sessions and funded options. For a child with allergies or medical dietary needs, discuss the current care arrangements alongside the written breakdown of the selected contract.

Oak House Montessori suits families looking for practical Montessori learning and substantial outdoor space, whether they need full-day attendance or shorter morning and afternoon sessions. My Little House gives preschool children an organised setting for independent tasks; My Little Forest brings that emphasis into planting, digging and open-ended construction.

The contract is central to the decision. Full-year care allows more scope for extra attendance, while term-time funding follows a narrower timetable. The June 2024 improvement priorities also give parents specific matters to explore: the quality of adult questioning and the support children receive around mealtimes.