Little Tots Montessori Nursery - Reading

Little Tots Montessori Nursery - the best foundation for life. The Montessori ethos encourages "family grouping" where children aged 2 - 5 work together.

Little Tots Nursery Reading is a Full Time Private Montessori Day Nursery, one of only 10 Montessori nurseries within the Berkshire, Hampshire & Surrey Area to obtain the sought after Montessori Accreditation from the Montessori Evaluation & Accreditation Board (MEAB). A Montessori Accreditation is the true bench mark for all Montessori Schools in the UK and is not awarded unless the nursery can continually prove that they provide excellent care, high quality education and are meeting all the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Little Tots Nursery Reading has been running for nearly 10 years and is located near the Central Reading area and has an excellent reputation for providing the highest quality of care and education for children aged from 2 to 5 years. Our last Ofsted inspection we were awarded “Good with areas of Outstanding”.

What makes us different???

Little Tots Nurseries offer the best foundation for life, the Montessori philosophy is to teach children independence from an early age, every child learns at their own pace and is treated as an individual. We also pride ourselves on our Forest School which is an inspirational experience, that offers children the opportunity to achieve and develop confidence through hands-on learning in a woodland environment. To complement our nursery day we also offer extra curriculum activities e. g Children’s Yoga and Music & Dance and Cooking sessions. Freshly prepared meals included.

Unlike many nurseries, we benefit from a smaller environment, we take a personal approach and the children remain with the same staff and peer group throughout their time with us, helping them form relationships and gain confidence. All our children are integrated benefiting from strong social bonds, stability and continuity of care. The Montessori ethos encourages “family grouping” where children aged 2-5 work together, with the older children acting as role models for the younger children and the younger children benefiting from learning by example from the older children. Little Tots put the child and parent’s needs first.

Advantages of Non Transition Room Changes:

• The mixed age group environment creates an atmosphere where children learn to help and be helped by other children, because they interact consistently with children whose age and abilities are varied. Children gain an appreciation for their achievement and the accomplishments of others, and are naturally challenged by the achievements of others.
• Children develop a strong sense of community and stability
• Your Key worker truly learns each individual child’s learning abilities, style, and developmental level, allowing them to set accurate learning goals as well as build on strengths and work on weaknesses.
• We promote “Family Grouping” where there are no “rooms” and a key person is free to move about the space with her /his group of children, like you would in a home environment

Disadvantages Transition Room Changes:

• A change of room also means a change of a child’s key person and the loss of this close relationship, which can be very distressing for young children
• Experts warned that significant harm was caused when children were “moved up” into the older room, breaking the vital bonds they have formed with a key worker and their friends, when they turned a certain age or reached a developmental milestone

Montessori

The Montessori philosophy is to teach children independence from an early age. Every child will learn at their own pace and is treated as an individual. Montessori has a proven approach to education which is based on a deep understanding of the way children learn, through choosing, trying and doing themselves, rather than being told. This manifests into confidence and joy of learning, as they develop self-belief, satisfaction in success and improve their abilities as problem solvers. The Montessori approach helps put children on the path to becoming confident, self-motivated learners.

Forest School

We also pride ourselves on being the local pioneer's of Forest School which is an inspirational experience, which many nursery settings now copy. We were the first to recognise Forest School and what it can bring to offer children the opportunity to achieve and develop confidence through hands-on learning in a woodland environment. The nursery owner’s travelled to Norway to explore the full Forest School experience and after extensive training started the first Forest School in the area. Our Forest School site is based in Mortimer West End where we have access to over 4 acres of beautiful woodland, which is completely enclosed this allows the children to explore the whole site independently. Forest School is a life enriching experience for children, which allows them to nurture nature and gives them a lifelong passion for being outdoors.

Little Tots Nursery offers:

• Privately owned – the owners have an active role within the nurseries on a daily basis
• Exceptional Montessori Education
• Forest School Visits
• Secret Garden –children have the opportunity to visit our Secret Garden
• ParentZone App – see below for details
• Excellent care with highly qualified mature and caring staff
• Happy, safe, calm and stimulating environment
• Open 50 weeks of the year (only closed Bank Holidays, 1 week at Easter & 1 week at Christmas)
• Opening Hours 8am – 6pm
• Excellent care with highly qualified mature staff
• Multi-lingual and Male staff
• Highly competitive rates
• Clean and airy premises
• Happy, safe, and stimulating environment
• Healthy & daily prepared home cooked meals – lunch & tea
• Free-flow outdoor facility – able to access outdoors all day long
• Outdoor learning
• Own minibus for visiting our Forest School. Allotment site & other outings
• Central Reading location
• Covers a wide catchment area for Reading schools reaching from Tilehurst, Purley, Southcote, Caversham to name a few.

ParentZone

At Little Tots we recognise how important it is that parents have instant access to their child learning journal and reports. ParentZone is a smart phone and tablet app which brings you closer to your child’s development at nursery. You will be able to see a timeline of your child’s day at nursery, with photos, videos and notes on your child’s daily activities. We want to make sure we work with parents to enhance your child’s development, so as well as being able to see what he or she is getting up to while in our care, you can get involved and contribute your own photos and notes from home to show all of the fun things your child gets up to outside of nursery. Together we can provide the very best experience throughout your child’s early years.

Registration

In the first instance we would highly recommend you make an appointment to view the nursery and meet the staff, you could bring your child along too. We require a completed registration form, copy of birth certificate and £30 registration fee to register your child with us. We can either post you our registration pack or you can collect one on a visit. We take children from the age of 2 years old. Our core opening hours are 8am – 6pm, you can either choose a full day session, morning sessions or afternoon sessions. We request a minimum attendance of three sessions per week over three days, to ease the child’s settling in period, and to make the child’s nursery experience beneficial. We are a Day Nursery offering sessions All Year - but we do close one week for Easter and one week for Christmas.