TOADHALL MONTESSORI NURSERIES, MEITHRIN AND OUT OF SCHOOL ACADEMY

THE MONTESSORI APPROACH

What is the Montessori Approach to Teaching and Learning?

“Montessori settings promote hands on, self-paced, collaborative, joyful learning. Children in our Montessori settings, follow their interests, wherever that passion leads; giving them strong academics, leadership, self-discipline, responsibility, independence, initiative and a lifelong love of learning.”

– Maria Montessori 1907

Children are innately interested in learning about the world around them and through their natural curiosity can develop for themselves.

By providing an environment that supports natural development, Montessori education enables children to develop the fundamental capacities that they need to become happy and fulfilled adults, who contribute fully, to their communities and to society.

Authentic Montessori environments encompass the following principles:

- The well prepared and nurturing environments evoke calm, security and safety.
- Mixed age groups which not only offer a wide range of activities to spark children’s interest and ignite their curiosities but also enable children to learn from others and learn by helping others.
- Freedom for children to work at their own pace, without interruption, choosing from a range of activities that are developmentally challenging and appropriate.
- Exploration is encouraged so that children find things out for themselves, make mistakes and with support and guidance form an experienced adult, they learn to correct them independently.
- Respect for each child as an individual personality with unique talents.
- Respect for others, the community and the environment.
- Free movement to explore, investigate from area to area, wherever their interests take them.

Children at Toadhall Montessori develop many of the skills stated above within a well prepared and pre planned environment that offers indoor and outdoor learning zones, related to the following curriculum areas:-

- Everyday Living Skills (formerly known as ‘Practical Life’)
- Sensorial – learning with specially designed Montessori apparatus which develops the use of all the five senses and is an essential prerequisite for pre reading and prenumber knowledge and understanding
- Language, including speaking, listening reading and writing
- Mathematics and Numeracy
- Knowledge and Understanding of the World (formerly known as Cultural)
- Creative – including the Arts, Crafts, Music, Singing, Dance and Drama

When you walk into Toadhall Montessori, you will find the children busily engaged in their own ‘work’ and ‘play’. Maria Montessori said that each child learns and develops through their own ‘serious business of play’. They have the freedom to move from one area to another – wherever their interests take them, using both the indoor and outdoor learning environments to extend their learning.

This ‘free flow’ of movement from one area to another allows the children to develop their confidence, independence, self-esteem and self-reliance, all of which enable them to develop and learn.

You will notice that the children are calm, well-mannered, courteous and gracious, working on their own, in pairs or in small groups – whatever their preference is at any time. They show respect, courtesy and tolerance, which develops their ability to be empathetic towards others, which in turn, develops their social and emotional literacy and skills.

You will also notice that the children will come to you and readily greet you with confidence and joy, eagerly wanting to show you around their Montessori setting for themselves!

The staff at Toadhall Montessori are there to guide and direct the children in their own learning. They sensitively observe and assess and empathetically know and understand, when to step in and move the child’s learning forward or when to step back and allow the child to do it for themselves, thus promoting confidence, self-esteem and self-reliance and most of all true resilience.