Some children entering the Junior School have already been in Montessori programmes and some have had other educational experiences. The school extends in a smooth transition from the three to six year olds - who get a secure grounding in numeracy and literacy - to the older group who go on to work in subject areas across the curriculum. Despite the difference in methods from mainstream schools, we cover the National Curriculum and more in subject areas and levels of learning. Most lessons involve hands-on materials.
Integrated Curriculum is a reality in the Montessori classroom. The Montessori curriculum is taught in a combination of imagination-firing story telling, short lessons directed at meeting needs of particular children, small collaborative groups and independent learning as children follow up their own research projects. There are clear structures for each child to communicate with the teacher and organise their education sensibly to mutual satisfaction. Music, drama, art, physical education are all encompassed with additional help from specialists.
The main divergence in content from the National Curriculum is that the Montessori History curriculum is given in a strongly linear and dramatic form to give comprehension of the place which human beings occupy in time and space. At an age when children's minds are beginning to be capable of abstract thought, the Junior School endeavors to present the entire Universe to the child - in what is sometimes called 'cosmic education'. In Maria Montessori's words, 'grand and lofty ideas' are offered to the child's mind.
