St Thomas More Montessori Pre School

A garden ramp for crawlers, equipment children choose for themselves and a Catholic identity give St Thomas More Montessori Pre School a clear character. Independence is the organising idea: children have room to make choices, practise everyday skills and move between indoor and outdoor activities. The Christian faith shapes its Montessori teaching, an approach built around children selecting purposeful activities with adult guidance.

At its May 2022 inspection, Ofsted rated the provision Good and found effective safeguarding arrangements, good progress and well-supported children with special educational needs and disabilities. That judgement belongs to the nursery at that date. Its strongest current practical features include a dedicated sleep room for younger children, a garden they can reach directly and an outdoor area where growing and physical play sit alongside classroom activities.

The setting is based at St Thomas More Catholic Primary School in Saffron Walden. Its current age range is two to five years. Term-time attendance comes in school-day and extended-day patterns, giving families a choice of finishing times rather than an all-year childcare arrangement.

Rooms and Ages

Nido, the nursery room, supports early communication, movement and social development, with a dedicated sleep room and direct access to a garden whose ramp helps children explore independently. Rest has a space of its own. Soft lighting and calming sounds distinguish it from the activity room, so sleep need not depend on the rest of the group stopping play.

The Pre-school room uses specialist Montessori equipment for science, literacy and mathematics, with children choosing activities according to their interests. Mixed-age contact and collaboration between rooms give younger children opportunities to learn alongside older ones. The emphasis is on participation and choice, rather than a single activity that everyone must complete together.

Learning and Activities

EYFS provides the framework for children's learning, development and care, including the communication, physical and social skills practised through play and everyday routines. Montessori adds a particular way of organising that learning: accessible materials, purposeful activities and adults who guide children as they work at their own pace. It is an approach alongside the framework, rather than a replacement for it.

In May 2022, children explored dried cereal with toy vehicles, investigated how frozen peas thawed and compared the roots of bean and cucumber plants. These examples linked sensory play with conversation and simple scientific questions. Staff used questions to draw out children's memories and descriptive vocabulary, making talk part of the activity rather than a separate exercise.

Outdoor and Community Life

Outdoor Learning includes an undercover area, a mud kitchen and a growing garden, with children able to choose outdoor activity unless conditions are unsafe. Small hills and trees provide opportunities for running and climbing; flowers, vegetables and fruit give children living things to tend. The outdoor classroom extends the choice of where learning happens.

Families supply warm waterproof clothing in winter, and sun hats and sun cream in summer, supporting outdoor activity across the seasons.

In May 2022, children of different ages played outside together, and older children considered risk while balancing on raised pieces of wood. The shared play helped younger children become familiar with the preschool group before moving rooms. That is a useful example of transition happening through ordinary daily contact.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person to help the family settle into preschool routines. This gives parents a defined relationship during the adjustment to separation, as well as someone involved in their child's learning. Individual planning takes place termly, supported by an online learning record containing photographs and observations that parents can access through their own login.

Weekly activity updates and online notices keep families informed. A Spring Term consultation and informal meetings on request provide opportunities to discuss learning and home experiences.

In May 2022, staff gathered information about children's home experiences and shared ideas for learning beyond nursery. Older children changed their outdoor footwear, prepared snacks and cleared their dishes. Everyday care routines doubled as opportunities to practise doing things for themselves.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The SENCO receives concerns from staff and may carry out further observations before discussing support with parents. Families can receive help with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), whether seeking one or working with an existing plan, and with SENIF support funding. The mechanism matters more than a broad promise of inclusion: parents are involved, and outside agencies can contribute to the support around a child.

There were also two clear improvement priorities in May 2022: more opportunities for children to use and hear their home language, and stronger working relationships with every other setting children attended. These matter for multilingual families and children who divide their week between providers. Support needs to connect across the child's whole experience.

Lunch is supplied by St Thomas More Primary School, using seasonal fruit and vegetables and local produce; parents are asked to contribute snacks for sharing in their original packaging. The nursery's allergy procedure includes checking a dietary list before snacks, and its policy prohibits food and drinks containing nuts or nut ingredients.

Sessions and Attendance

Two booking patterns are offered: the school day runs from 8.30am to 3.30pm, and the extended day from 8.30am to 5.30pm. Both operate during term time, Monday to Friday. The later finish gives families additional afternoon cover while retaining a term-time calendar.

Public holidays are closure days. For the current autumn term, half term falls from 26 to 30 October 2026, with term ending on 18 December 2026. Those breaks are a material part of the childcare arrangement for parents whose work continues through school holidays.

Getting There

The address is St Thomas More Catholic Primary School, South Road, Saffron Walden, CB11 3DW. General enquiries can be made by telephone, email or the contact form. The school site is the nursery's location, but attending preschool does not guarantee a Reception place; families still apply through the local authority admissions process.

Funding and Paid Extras

The nursery accepts 15- and 30-hours funding and Tax-Free childcare. Attendance is term-time. Fees have two elements: an hourly charge and a daily Integrated Montessori Package (IMP) charge. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, and the fees and funding information explains the distinction between funded hours and package charges.

Funding pays for attendance hours rather than the IMP. Families using funded hours only can opt out of that package and choose a no-frills place; the package charge is not optional for private places or unfunded hours. That condition is central to comparing the cost of different attendance arrangements, rather than treating every funded booking as having the same extras.

Parents contribute shared snack items, and provide sun cream for summer outdoor use. The snack routine encourages children to prepare and serve food with staff support, so the contribution also forms part of a shared activity.

• Term-time cover. School-day and extended-day bookings follow the term calendar, including half-term closures. Families working through holidays need to account for those breaks when deciding whether the arrangement fits.
• Youngest starters. The current age range is two to five, while Nido is designed around younger children's early development. At a visit, ask which starting ages are currently accepted and which room would suit your child.
• Package and food costs. The IMP opt-out applies to funded-hours-only attendance, while shared snacks come from parents. Request a written quotation covering the package choice and lunch arrangements, alongside current food handling procedures if your child has allergies.
• Language and shared care. In May 2022, home-language opportunities and links with other childcare settings needed development. These priorities are relevant to multilingual families and children whose care is shared between providers.

St Thomas More suits families seeking Catholic Montessori provision with children's choice, practical independence and outdoor activity woven into the day. Both the school-day pattern and the extended day can fit a term-time routine. Nido's separate sleep space and accessible garden are concrete care features, while the preschool equipment gives older children purposeful activities to choose.

The holiday calendar and funded-hours package choice shape the practical fit. The May 2022 improvement priorities remain useful discussion points for multilingual families and those using another setting.