Prima Montessori Day Nursery

Prima Montessori Day Nursery
Unique reference number (URN): EY230735
Address: Elm Court, Capstone Road, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 3JQ
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registered with Ofsted: 30/09/2002
Registers: EYR, CCR, VCR
Registered person: Prima Montessori Ltd
Inspection report: 17 April 2026
Exceptional
Strong standard
Expected standard
Needs attention
Urgent improvement
Safeguarding standards met
The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for
governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open
culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively
identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, children are made safer and feel safe.
How we evaluate safeguarding
When we inspect settings for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:
Met: The setting has an open and positive culture of safeguarding.
Not met: The setting has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all
legal requirements are met.

Strong standard
Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines Strong standard
Leaders have created a highly respectful, nurturing and inclusive culture where every child
is valued. Staff are exceptional role models and, as a result, children consistently
demonstrate care, kindness and consideration towards their friends. Well-established
routines are deeply embedded, and children know and follow these with confidence. Staff
are highly skilful in adapting routines sensitively where needed to ensure all children settle
quickly and feel secure. Older children eagerly take responsibility at tidy-up time,
independently scraping their lunch plates and helping their friends to recycle. Other children
confidently wash their hands and use the toilet independently. These purposeful daily
experiences make a strong contribution to developing children's independence and self-help
skills. All children behave exceptionally well and demonstrate consistently positive attitudes
to learning.
Leaders have an excellent understanding of their local community and respond proactively
to families' needs. They offer flexible sessions to support attendance and help prepare
children successfully for school. Leaders go above and beyond to support families, for
example by providing free food through their community shop, alongside practical ideas for
healthy snacks and recipes to use at home. They have established highly positive and
trusting partnerships with parents and have taken decisive, innovative action to reduce
barriers for families. For example, they created a unique front-of-house management role to
ensure families receive a warm welcome each day and have an immediate point of contact.
This has had a significant impact in reducing barriers to attendance, strengthening
relationships and ensuring consistency of care and support.
Children's welfare and wellbeing Strong standard
Leaders ensure they consistently prioritise children's welfare and wellbeing. They adapt and
review processes and procedures regularly to ensure children settle well and are supported
effectively. They provide individualised and tailored support for children with special
educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders have a comprehensive knowledge of their
children and families and the challenges they face. Staff provide specialist support, ensuring
children feel comfortable and learn to advocate for themselves. A focus on supporting
families with healthy eating has been a key priority. For example, staff provide a community
shop and free food bags to support healthy snacks and meals at home. Leaders have
employed both a nutritionist and chef to ensure all meals are nutritious and balanced. This
supports children's understanding of healthy eating very well. Staff ensure children are
provided with a wide range of activities to support oral health. Children thoroughly enjoy
learning to brush their teeth, supporting their self-care skills effectively.
Leaders ensure well-structured routines are securely embedded, supporting children's
understanding of expectations well. This fosters a solid foundation for the future. Children
make consistently positive choices with regard to their own self-care and physical and
emotional health. For example, children manage their own feelings effectively, seeking safe

spaces when they need to. Other children enthusiastically enjoy choosing fruits and
vegetables in the community shop and talking about keeping themselves healthy.
Inclusion Strong standard
Leaders have developed a highly inclusive culture where every child is valued and
supported to thrive. For example, staff with specialist expertise in supporting children with
special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) ensure children's needs are swiftly
identified and addressed. Children who face barriers to learning or disadvantage are
exceptionally well supported. Staff use assessment effectively to identify individual needs
and next steps, ensuring children settle quickly and make substantial progress. Families are
provided with tailored support and helped to access funding and additional advice. Staff
work closely with parents, external agencies and the local authority to ensure children
receive well-coordinated education, health and care plans that support smooth transitions to
school.
Leaders are proactive and passionate in their commitment to supporting children with
SEND. They use funding highly effectively to purchase specialised equipment and resources
that help children develop the essential skills they need for the future. Parents are provided
with free healthy food and regular ideas to support learning at home. Staff receive extensive
training to enable them to support children with complex and high-level needs confidently
and effectively. Leaders regularly monitor the impact of this support to ensure it remains
highly effective. Staff adapt environments thoughtfully and regularly to meet children's
individual needs, providing safe and calm spaces where children can relax and retreat when
needed. This makes a significant contribution to children's emotional wellbeing and sense of
security.
Leadership and governance Strong standard
Leaders and managers have faced significant challenges regarding governance and
staffing. However, there is a new management structure and team in place, which is having
a significantly positive impact. Partnerships with parents are now significantly improved.
Leaders use their perceptive analysis of the setting to inform their action plan to ensure they
focus on consistency of practice. They are acutely aware of where to focus their support to
enable staff to improve their practice even further. Leaders and managers are very reflective
and proactive and monitor the effectiveness of staff training and professional development to
ensure it is focussed appropriately. They ensure they develop a culture of high expectations,
with a focus on ensuring staff have access to a wide range of training and support. Leaders
continuously review what they offer and adapt practice and provision to ensure they remain
highly responsive to the changing needs of their children and families and local community.
Leaders seek specialist support and advice to ensure they have a continual focus on
supporting children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who
face barriers and disadvantage. They ensure staff workload is manageable, reviewed
regularly and staff report high levels of support. Parents speak very highly of the setting and
the very positive relationships they have with staff. They directly reference the positive
progress their children have made and the support they receive as parents.

Expected standard
Achievement Expected standard
Children develop age-appropriate knowledge and skills and are provided with activities and
experiences that build their learning across all areas of the curriculum. All children, including
those with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who face disadvantage or
barriers to learning, are prepared well for their next stage of learning. Children who were
non-verbal when they started now use words and signs to communicate. Children receive
tailored support to help them reach their individual goals. They are provided with visual aids
to help them understand what is happening next and to make choices about what they want
to do, supporting their independence and understanding. However, at times, some children
are not given enough time to process what is asked of them or are not consistently
encouraged to extend their thinking further during activities. Nevertheless, all children
achieve well from their starting points and are happy and content. They display high levels
of confidence and positive self-esteem.
Curriculum and teaching Expected standard
Leaders ensure children are provided with a well-planned and inclusive curriculum. Leaders
are acutely aware of the strengths of the setting and where they need to focus support. They
accurately identify that some staff need support to build their confidence to identify how they
can extend activities to support children's learning even further. Leaders have also identified,
that at times, some staff do not always give children enough time to process what is asked
of them before moving on. However, leaders have a clear action plan to ensure consistency
of teaching and are supporting staff with this.
Leaders have prioritised support for children with special educational needs and/or
disabilities (SEND), and those who face disadvantage and barriers to learning. This means
children are ready for their next stage in education successfully. Staff focus on developing
children's social and communication skills. Children learn about feelings and demonstrate
kindness and care towards their friends. Children with SEND are provided with tailored
support to help them settle and as such, they make positive progress from the starting
points. Staff use funding to create sensory spaces for children helping them to develop
important physical skills. Children are supported to develop their mathematical
understanding effectively. For example, children learn to measure different quantities when
following a favourite playdough recipe. Older children use money in the community shop
developing their knowledge effectively.

Compulsory Childcare Register requirements
This setting has met the requirements of the compulsory part of the Childcare Register.
How we check if a provider meets the requirements of the Compulsory Childcare
Register
When we check if settings meet the Compulsory Childcare Register requirements, they can
have the following outcomes:
Met
Not met
Voluntary Childcare Register requirements
This setting has met the requirements of the voluntary part of Childcare Register.
How we check if a provider meets the requirements of the Voluntary Childcare
Register
When we check if settings meet the Voluntary Childcare Register requirements, they can
have the following outcomes:
Met
Not met
What it's like to be a child at this setting
Children and their families are warmly welcomed into this happy and safe setting. As a
result, children display high levels of confidence and emotional wellbeing. Staff demonstrate
genuine care and affection towards children, and children are respectful and kind to one
another. Children check in with staff, asking if they are okay and immediately seek them out
for cuddles and comfort, demonstrating very secure attachments.
Children thoroughly enjoy the activities staff plan for them. For example, some children
explore herbs in the mud garden, learning about healthy ingredients. Others enjoy

Inspector:
Victoria Salisbury
purchasing items from the community shop, choosing recipes to take home and try. These
meaningful experiences help children understand where food comes from and how to make
healthy choices.
Staff place a strong emphasis on children's mathematical learning. Children learn to count
and identify colours, proudly sharing with staff the different shapes they make. Staff praise
and encourage children, celebrating their achievements. Other children explore tyres of
different sizes, rolling them down ramps outdoors. Babies beam with delight as they explore
soft-play resources, developing their climbing and balancing skills. These activities support
children's physical development effectively.
Children benefit from staff who are positive role models. Staff prioritise children's language
and social development. Children sustain high levels of concentration when making
playdough, taking turns and sharing resources cooperatively. Staff use sign language to help
children communicate. Babies eagerly join in with rhymes and share books together,
demonstrating very positive attitudes to learning.
Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are very well supported. Staff
know their children and families exceptionally well. Leaders identify children's needs swiftly
and ensure families receive the help and guidance they need. For example, staff build
strong partnerships with parents to help reduce barriers to learning. Staff also offer flexible
sessions to help children attend regularly. As a result, all children make very positive
progress from their starting points and are well prepared for their next stage in learning.
Next steps
Leaders should strengthen staff confidence in identifying when to extend activities for
children, including when to allow children more time to process what is being asked, in
order to further support and deepen children's ongoing learning.
About this inspection
The inspector spoke with leaders, managers, special educational needs coordinators and
practitioners during the inspection.
We carried out this inspection under sections 49 and 50 of the Childcare Act 2006 on the
quality and standards of provision that is registered on the Early Years Register. The
registered person must ensure that this provision complies with the statutory framework for
children's learning, development and care, known as the early years' foundation stage.

About this setting
Unique reference number (URN): EY230735
Address:
Elm Court
Capstone Road
Gillingham
Kent
ME7 3JQ
Type: Childcare on non-domestic premises
Registration date: 30/09/2002
Registered person: Prima Montessori Ltd
Register(s): EYR, CCR, VCR
Operating hours: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday : 07:00 - 07:00
Local authority: Medway
Facts and figures used on inspection
This data was available to the inspector at the time of the inspection.
This data is from 17 April 2026
Children numbers
Age range of children at the time of inspection
0 to 4
Total number of places
132
Our grades explained

Exceptional
Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other settings can learn from it.
Strong standard
The setting reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of
them.
Expected standard
The setting is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are
following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional
standards expected of them.
Needs attention
The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary
improvements.
Urgent improvement
The setting needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of
education and/or care.
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) inspects
services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects
and regulates services that care for children and young people.
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