Montessori all the way to 12 - any thoughts?

[bigkidsdidit]

Hi everyone

We are looking to buy a house in the next year or two and as DS is now 15 mo we are looking at local schools already to factor into our decision.

In the area we are renting now a Montessori primaryhas just opened, going all the way up to 12 ( in Scotland so we go to senior a year later).

I have never heard of Montessori post nursery. Does anyone have any experience of a primary like this? What should I think about?

i think there's a montessori school in exeter too.

DS1 went to montessori nursery and it was perfect for him, but sorry I don't have any experience after pre-school.

Thanks anyway :)

Instinctively I like the sound of it, but everything on the Internet is about nurseries and it's too new to have had an inspection yet...

well it doesn't do any harm to have options does it. nearer the time you can go check it out, even do nursery there and then decide.

I can only give you my own experience. I went to a Montessori primary as a child. Loved every moment of it. I had to transfer to mainstream primary at the age of 8 for logistical reasons. Would have stayed all the way to secondary otherwise. When I transferred over I was about a year ahead of my peers.

The montessori system has always covered up until secondary age, so it's not a new system. One of the Montessori training colleges might be able to give you more information on the system.

If I had the option I'd send both of my children to Montessori right through their primary education.

I sent my first 2 children to a Steiner pre-school (kindergarten) and then with heavy heart onto mainstream primary school.

Upon reflection I should not have worried, mainstream primary school has been great, my children have been so happy there. In fact DS3 is now attending the mainstream preschool that feeds local primary- its lovely!!!

I waisted so much money on private education for my PFB.

My advice would be, unless you are rolling in it, spend you money more wisely.

steiner is not the same as montessori though.

i would deffo go for it. Ours were all at montessori nursery, if there had been a mpntessori primary school within distance, they would certainly have gone on without question. Lucky you!!

No, nothing like steiner.

Thanks for the opinions

From what I know, Steiner is different to Montessori. And I absolutely cannot send DS Steiner, we live in Edinburgh and he's called Bertie

I am lucky :) Does anyone know - Wouk a school like this be inspected like all others or are private ones different? (in Scotland)

I was trying to say that mainstream is great, even though I thought that it wasn't.

I understood

i am sure they would have to meet either ofsted criteria or independent schools inspections. I am sure this would be very much the case in scotland as it is in england etc. inb fact you should be able to look it all up on the internet.

Montessori schools (as opposed to nurseries) are very popular all over the world.

Where I'm from there are many state Montessori schools.

And now with free schools they're starting to be state schools here to.

It's a brilliant education system and I would have sent my kids to a Montessori school in a heartbeat if there was one near me.

Research Montessori. There's loads and loads written about the philosophy of it.

If you search "Montessori elementary school" you might find some more info, this is the term used in the US sites and on sites written in English about European schools.

www.michaelolaf.net/1CW312MI.html

Thanks!

Off to do some googling :)

I went to a very academic private single sex school and have no idea, really, apart from I want DS to both fulfil his potential and be happy. I would rather he wasn't crammed and overloaded with homework. But I would like him to know about the apostrophe! Are the academic results as good in Montessori schools?

There's one near me if you are just looking for some examples of how they work in general.

Meadowbrook