How Montessori Differs

"When the child has been allowed a little room in the world, in time he proclaims as the first sign of his eager defence: 'Me want to do it! Me do It!' In the special environment prepared for him in our schools, the children themselves found a sentence that expressed their inner need: 'Help me to do it by myself!' His work will no longer weigh him down."

The Montessori classroom doesn't look like any other kindergarten pre-school. Structured to encourage our children's participation, the activities are part of a carefully planned purpose-filled curriculum that starts the first day our children enter the school through to the day they move to Secondary school.

Unlike the way a lot of us have been educated, in same age or in year related classes, Montessori schools have a three year age range within each class: 0 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 9, and 9 to 12 year old children. These are called 'cycles' and mean that the Montessori Directors and Directresses remain with the same group for the entire three year cycle, allowing them to truly get to know each and every child.

The Montessori method also fosters social awareness and responsibility in children, allowing the child to interact with children of different ages forming a mentor style relationship. It's important to note that for a child to truly benefit from a Montessori education it requires a commitment for a full three year cycle.

The Montessori environment supports spontaneous learning and discovery. It centres on the individual needs of children and within this environment new information is presented when the child is ready.

In the pre-school there are five defined areas, focusing on the children's interests and their developmental needs:

Practical Life

Encouraging the children to look after themselves, their classroom and home environment, independently.

Sensorial

Developing the sense of sight, hearing, tastes, touch and smells.

Language

Introducing a series of learning tools, such as sandpaper textured letters, a moveable alphabet as they are introduced to reading, writing and language enrichment.

Mathematics

Experiencing numbers and counting with tactile materials and participating in game-like activities that introduce addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, making the learning process fun.

Cultural

Introducing the children to the world in which we live.

Northside Curriculum...