The Move to High School

a parent's Northside News article February 19, 2001

This article was written because so many of the families of Northside 2000 Graduates were experiencing a similar phenomenon – not phenomenal for the children but to those of us around them. Risking that it may sound like a marketing guru’s product endorsement, good news deserves to be shared by our school community!

So this is it… Moving on from that slightly awkward yet ebullient child at Graduation 2000 who “strutted his stuff” with bravado and exhilaration, having completed the Montessori primary years.

Here he stands… Some ten weeks later, dressed in his first ever school uniform. He is excited, anticipating the challenges with quiet confidence (and huge butterflies)! All those questions you asked yourself – wondering if you were right to keep your child in Montessori – come winging back through your memory. And yet, there is your child, ready and eager to move on to the next stage.

Off he goes… You pause during the day and hope that all is well. Suddenly he bursts through the door and is home. He holds himself differently, he shows off his new responsibilities and increasing self-sufficiency:

• Obligations of dress and address are observed.

• The unexpected physical exertion (running!) when moving around the school, to meet time constraints, is accepted.

• Class work is enjoyed, not least because even in his weakest subject he is well ahead!

• Homework is received and completed without fuss.

• The routine of a fortnightly timetable is examined and duly prepared for the night before.

This honeymoon period of the transition is going unbelievably smoothly and it will hopefully lay down the foundations for the next few years. All doubt and concern is swept away by these children who are so prepared to meet the demands of high school, conventional or otherwise. It is all the more remarkable because the alumni of 2000 and their families are sharing these same experiences across a range of high schools.

Looking back… as your child progresses through Montessori primary, you do wonder whether you have made the right choice for your child.

• What are they learning? How are they learning?

• Do you take that spot in the Opportunity Class, or Year 3, or turn down a move in Year 5?

• Will that place you wanted still be there in Year 7?

• Having been outside “the system” how will your child cope in high school?

In retrospect, the completion of the six years of Montessori primary has been fundamental to creating a wellspring of confidence in our son. An earlier move would have interrupted his freedom to develop at his pace and could have exposed unknown vulnerabilities with a consequent effect on self-esteem.

As an aside, I do feel that Montessori primary education in Sydney is, to borrow an expression “a road to nowhere”, so that I will always wonder how it would have been for my child to attend a local Montessori high school!

High school, let’s go… Northside has done a fabulous job.

Our child, who found the move from pre-Primary to Primary hugely challenging, and the move from 6-9 into 9-12 disconcerting, is the same child who, with such a well developed sense of self, delights in this new environment: in its variety and in its people.

So the process continues – Montessori children intuitively employing their enthusiastic approach to learning and all the skills they have acquired– to confidently construct a world for themselves wherever they might be.

What a gift!