Learning
Montessori
As you visit any of our nurseries you will see in the front hall Maria Montessori’s Principles. These are very important to us. They capture our ethical approach to our care and development of very young babies and children. Whilst we can never be a mother or father like you can be we promise you an environment where the Team will genuinely care for your child, where we consider them as precious as you do, and where they will be loved.
Whilst the Montessori approach is usually associated with pre-school learning we have learnt over the years to “blend” the philosophy into everything we do. So the unconditional love of the child starts from the very youngest age.
Every child is inherently good, and we train our Teams to build on these strengths, and then help the children recognise the consequences of their actions when they may upset other children. In this way we help children recognise their responsibilities to their peers, and responsibility for themselves. We foster independence.
When children reach the Foundation Stage around 3 years they receive sessions form a qualified Montessori Teacher. Each nursery has a room specifically equipped with Montessori equipment, and there is a qualified Montessori Teacher at every nursery. Maria Montessori firmly believed that children learn through their senses so she devised different areas of the classroom, Practical life, Sensorial, Mathematical, Literacy, and Cultural, each area has materials that are interesting and beautiful to the children. All the materials are designed with a control of error allowing the children to correct themselves if necessary and in doing so giving them the self-confidence and independence. There is only one of each material in the classroom; the purpose of this is to promote turn taking between the children. Children are encouraged to chose activities themselves, take responsibility for bringing it to a table, exploring the learning, and then when they have finished with that exercise to place it tidily back on the low shelf. The Montessori approach accelerates knowledge through building an understanding of quite advanced concepts of volume, sequence, comparison, fine motor control and knowledge of the natural world.
Come and see what we do, we never lose our enthusiasm for the approach, you will be amazed.
