Little Graduates Montessori School

Sandpaper letters, real tools and woodland learning give Little Graduates Montessori School a clear character: Montessori here means learning through handling materials, making choices and practising everyday tasks. A Victorian building in Littlewick Green, surrounded by gardens and fields, provides the physical setting. The combination will appeal to parents who want practical learning and substantial outdoor space to shape their child's day.

Children attend from three months to five years, progressing through the Puffin Room, Penguin Room and Peacock Room. At its June 2023 inspection, Ofsted rated the nursery Good overall and judged safeguarding effective. That is a dated assessment, rather than a description of every aspect of today's provision.

Half-day sessions, Nursery Day, Club Day and Full Day bookings sit alongside flexible sessions, with both term-time and calendar-year attendance. The choice is useful, but the contractual rules matter: regular sessions are fixed, and funding follows an agreed attendance pattern.

Rooms and Ages

The Puffin Room, for three months to two years, combines sensory resources with separate spaces for sleep, meals and messy activity, plus direct access to a secure patio. Those separate areas give the youngest children space for different parts of their routine rather than expecting everything to happen in one undivided play space.

For children aged two to three, the Penguin Room brings early mark-making and introductory Montessori activities into a room with a reading corner, role play, sand and water activities and somewhere to sleep. This stage introduces more opportunities to choose and experiment while retaining provision for rest.

The Peacock Room, for ages three to five, develops practical skills, language, number work and sensory learning alongside cooking, gardening, movement and woodland activities. Weekly plans are displayed for families, making it easier to connect nursery topics with conversations and activities at home.

Room progression also has practical conditions. Children move from the baby unit in the term following their second birthday; preschool entry requires completed toilet training and starts in the following term once a child turns three. Toilet-training readiness therefore affects when a child moves into preschool.

Learning and Activities

The EYFS provides the common framework for children's learning, development and care, delivered through purposeful play with both adult guidance and children's own choices. Montessori adds the nursery's particular method: staff introduce materials, then give children opportunities to use them independently and at their own pace. The two operate alongside each other.

Practical learning is easy to picture. Pouring and spooning develop control through everyday tasks, while sandpaper letters connect touch with early letter work. Counting uses objects and graded apparatus rather than relying solely on spoken explanations. The curriculum overview sets out how these materials connect with language, mathematics and sensory exploration.

Spanish lessons add another language experience. Tumble Tots is included as a music activity, alongside physical education and the Montessori resources within private fees. These are additions to the daily programme, with practical implications for families comparing what their booking includes.

Planning starts with children's interests and conversations with parents. Resources can be added to an activity area so that children may join a shared topic or pursue an interest of their own. This gives the nursery a way to extend learning while allowing children different amounts of time to explore an idea.

Outdoor and Community Life

The Forest School Programme extends learning into a secure woodland setting through weekly sessions that include nature play, tools and fire safety. It gives outdoor learning a defined place in the week, rather than leaving it solely to free play in the garden.

Organic planting beds provide opportunities to grow plants and explore herbs. A tricycle path supports pedalling and steering, while a shaded picnic area provides space for quieter shared activities. These are different uses of the outdoors: active movement, practical care of plants and time to pause.

A sensory room provides another change of pace indoors, using subdued lighting, natural textures, sounds and objects to touch. Its practical value is the option of a quieter space for sensory exploration or time away from busier activity.

Relationships and Communication

Each child has a key person, with the baby-unit prospectus specifying allocation within the first six weeks. Before a baby starts, the room leader discusses home routines and the child's development with parents. A daily care sheet then records the baby's day for the family. This creates a concrete route for sharing routine information rather than relying on a brief conversation alone.

Settling has a specific starting point for babies: two trial sessions, each lasting an hour and a half. The wider settling arrangements allow parents to spend time with their child before attendance begins, and a familiar comfort item can remain accessible. These arrangements offer a gradual introduction to the rooms, staff and routine.

Tapestry, the online learning journal, shares photographs and written observations of development with parents. Preschool families also have end-of-term progress meetings three times a year. The journal and meetings serve different purposes: one gives examples of learning, while the other provides time to discuss development and support between home and nursery.

In June 2023, children sought comfort from their key person, but some parents did not know which practitioner held that role. Better communication about key-person allocation was an improvement priority. That distinction matters: a child's relationship with a practitioner and a parent's knowledge of that relationship are separate parts of consistent care.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

A designated Special Educational Needs Coordinator provides a route for additional-needs support. Where appropriate, the nursery works with health visitors and speech therapists, and equipment or activities can be adapted to help children participate. This links support within the nursery with specialist input where appropriate.

External and in-house training support staff development. Collection by someone other than a parent requires advance notification and a password, giving families a clear procedure for changes to their usual arrangements.

In June 2023, the hygiene routines needed more consistent attention to independence, including teaching children to manage used tissues and wipe their noses. This was a second improvement priority, separate from key-person communication. Parents weighing the nursery should consider everyday self-care alongside the more visible learning activities.

A chef prepares meals freshly on site, using a six-week menu rotation developed with a nutritionist. The nursery's dietary policy provides for consultation with families and accommodation of allergies wherever possible, so allergy-affected families should confirm the current arrangements for their child.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is School Lane, Littlewick Green, Maidenhead, SL6 3QY. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with a 48-week calendar-year option and a separate 38-week term-time pattern. The calendar includes bank-holiday closures and breaks around Easter, Christmas and the end of August, so calendar-year attendance still needs holiday planning.

Half Day bookings run from 8am to 1pm or 1pm to 6pm. Nursery Day runs from 9am to 3pm, Club Day from 8am to 3.30pm, and Full Day from 8am to 6pm. Flexible sessions are also offered. These choices allow families to distinguish between a shorter daytime booking, a half day and attendance spanning the full opening window.

The minimum booking is two sessions per week, which can be met by one Full Day or by sessions on two days. Regular bookings are fixed: sessions cannot be exchanged, and fees remain payable for absences. Extra sessions require a written request and advance payment; term-time families may pre-book holiday sessions a month ahead.

Enquiries can be made through the contact route, and a registration form is provided. One full month's written notice, or payment in lieu, is required to leave or change permanent sessions; changes take effect in the following calendar month for private sessions and the following term for funded sessions.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded childcare is offered through the 15/30-hour arrangements, including universal funding for three- and four-year-olds, Bright Start for eligible two-year-olds and up to 30 hours for eligible working parents with children aged nine months to four years. Funding begins in the term after the child turns nine months old. Eligibility conditions still apply.

Funding is delivered over 38 weeks, including for children attending on a 48-week contract. Families pay privately for the additional ten weeks and five inset days. Flexible sessions, holiday care and extra hours beyond the agreed attendance are outside the funding arrangement, and funded children follow a consistent weekly pattern.

Private fees include meals, snacks and drinks, together with nappies, pull-ups, wipes and Sudocream. For funded hours, separate contributions are requested for food, hygiene items, learning resources and Tapestry; parents may instead supply their own meals or hygiene items under a separate agreement.

The deposit applies to funded children as well as private bookings and is refundable subject to the notice and settlement terms. A non-refundable registration charge applies except to children attending only funded hours; adding unfunded hours or changing from term-time to year-round attendance brings a non-refundable administration charge. Current prices come in the nursery's written quotation, and the fees page explains the charge structure.

• Key-person communication. In June 2023, some parents were unclear about their child's key person. During a visit, ask how allocation is communicated and how families are told about changes.
• Self-care and room progression. Hygiene independence was an improvement priority in June 2023, and preschool progression is linked to toilet training. Discuss the support available if your child needs more time with these routines.
• Fixed bookings. Sessions cannot be swapped and absences remain chargeable. Half Day, Nursery Day and Club Day offer different lengths of attendance, but each requires a fixed booking pattern.
• Funding beyond childcare hours. Funded attendance includes separate contribution arrangements, while calendar-year contracts include privately paid weeks and inset days. Request the sample funded invoice and agree any parent-supplied food or hygiene items before joining.

Little Graduates suits families who want Montessori materials and practical independence alongside substantial garden and woodland learning. The Puffin Room's separate activity and rest areas, weekly Forest School Programme and online learning journal give that offer concrete substance.

Its attendance range serves parents seeking half days or a shorter Nursery Day as well as Club Day and Full Day bookings, across term-time or calendar-year patterns. The decision turns on how those fixed sessions fit family life, how funded extras are agreed and how clearly staff communicate about everyday care. The June 2023 improvement priorities make key-person communication and self-care important considerations.