Raising Eagles Montessori Nursery

Number rods, sandpaper letters and practical pouring activities give Raising Eagles Montessori Nursery a clear practical character. Learning involves handling materials, choosing activities and practising everyday tasks, rather than simply listening to an adult. Its home is St Marys Church Hall on Dock Road in Grays, with capacity for 24 children.

At its March 2025 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good, found that children made good progress and judged safeguarding effective. The main improvement concerned lunchtime: children sometimes waited too long between finishing their play and eating, which left some unsettled.

The enrolment offer welcomes children aged 18 months to 5 years and includes a full-day session. The strongest reasons to consider it are the concrete Montessori resources, opportunities to practise independence and a classroom arranged around different kinds of activity.

Learning and Activities

The early years foundation stage sets the requirements for children's learning, development and care: everyday play and activities help children build communication, physical and social skills. Montessori adds a particular way of organising those experiences here, using hands-on materials and allowing children to choose work and develop it at their own pace.

Practical life activities include washing, dressing, preparing food and pouring. These are useful skills in their own right. They also give children repeated opportunities to coordinate their hands and manage a task for themselves. The Sensorial Area uses materials involving touch, sight and the other senses, bringing exploration into the classroom's physical resources.

Within the Language Area, sandpaper letters and movable alphabets give children objects to handle as they explore language. Mathematics has its own concrete equipment, including golden beads and number rods. These resources make an abstract idea something a child can examine, arrange and compare.

In March 2025, children used rods to connect number with length and matched picture cards while solving problems. Scissors, spoons and tweezers gave them practice controlling small movements; transferring rice and water with little jugs added another purposeful task. The materials had a practical role in the day, rather than serving as classroom decoration.

Stories and songs supplied a different rhythm. During March 2025, staff used expressive storytelling, repeated phrases and action rhymes to encourage children to participate and encounter new vocabulary. Tissue-paper flower pictures combined cutting and sticking with exploring textures. This gave children several ways to take part, through speech, movement and making things.

Outdoor and Community Life

The outdoor space supports gardening, exploring nature and active play. In March 2025, children rode bicycles and ran in the garden, practising movement and spatial awareness alongside their indoor activities. Outdoor learning therefore has a physical setting of its own.

The Cultural area brings maps, globes and objects into exploration of the wider world. In March 2025, children also encountered Diwali, Chinese New Year and Black History Month, while staff acknowledged their home languages. These experiences connected learning with different family backgrounds and celebrations.

Art and Music Area activities use instruments and art materials for expression. For a quieter alternative, the Peace and Quiet Area provides space to read, pause or choose a calm activity. That contrast matters for children who need a break from busier play.

Relationships and Communication

In March 2025, staff gathered information from parents before children started, using it to understand their next steps in learning. They also planned around children's interests. This made the information families supplied part of the nursery day, rather than simply an introductory conversation.

My Montessori Child is the nursery's management and developmental-reporting application, intended to keep parents informed as children gain independence. In March 2025, staff shared photographs and updates through an app, giving families material they could use to continue activities at home. Communication had a practical learning purpose as well as providing news about the day.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

At the March 2025 inspection, Ofsted found strong support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities, with specialist professionals helping staff plan communication activities that supported progress. This is a specific account of support at that date, centred on work with professionals and children's individual communication needs.

Emotional development was also part of daily practice in March 2025. Staff demonstrated considerate behaviour, and children cooperated in activities. The lunchtime finding remains an important counterweight to that positive picture: a transition between activities needs as much attention as the activities themselves.

A cook prepares homemade meals, and the nursery's dietary policy includes catering for allergies and individual dietary requirements. Families managing an allergy should discuss current arrangements during a visit, including how their child's needs will be handled.

Sessions and Attendance

The full-day booking runs from 8am to 6pm. The enrolment form includes a funded-place enquiry and a waiting-list application, giving families a direct route to begin the joining process. Contact is also possible by telephone or email, and visits can be requested through the contact form.

In March 2025, the nursery operated Monday to Friday throughout the year. That is the dated operating pattern; the full-day session supplies the practical clock times for planning a booked day. A family weighing this arrangement needs to consider the whole span of care alongside the child's routine.

Getting There

The address is St Marys Church Hall, Dock Road, Grays RM17 6EX. The church hall is the nursery's premises.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare enquiries are part of enrolment. In March 2025, the nursery provided funded early education for eligible children. Eligibility remains a condition, rather than a promise that any particular child will receive funding.

Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation. For a family comparing arrangements, the useful document is an itemised quotation covering their intended attendance, funded hours and any additional charges.

• Lunchtime organisation. In March 2025, the move from play to eating sometimes involved excessive waiting and unsettled children. During a visit, ask how lunchtime now works and what children do while food is being prepared.
• A full-day pattern. The booking offered is 8am to 6pm. Consider how that session fits your child's rest, eating and activity routines, and discuss the settling approach for their age.
• Funding and the complete bill. Enrolment includes funded-place enquiries. Request an itemised quotation for your intended pattern, including the treatment of meals and non-food consumables during funded hours.

Raising Eagles suits families seeking a full-day Montessori setting where children can choose practical activities and work with tangible learning materials. Pouring, food preparation, number rods and language resources give that description substance.

The March 2025 findings provide a positive quality judgement alongside a concrete reservation about lunchtime organisation. Families who value independence, hands-on learning and developmental updates have clear reasons to consider it; the visit should establish how the daily routine supports their particular child across the full session.