Frequently asked questions

The academic learning and the global approach of knowledge are different from the traditional system.

We work on a three years cycle; it is thus inevitable that the children’s learning are different, even between students of the same age. Every child, within the school, has a different pace of learning.

The material used very early, around 2 and a half , allows the child to acquire tangible knowledge. It is then, on these sensorial experiences that are anchored in him that solid intellectual bases are established. They allow him to reach a proper level of abstraction in his academic knowledge and an open culture, aware of the world.

The children benefit from one-on-one mentoring ; they start working in groups at the age of 6. It is thought so it can best meet their needs, their interests, their speed; academic learning run deep and it is not rare that the pupils have 1 – 2 years of advance in one or two subjects… But it is not the purpose; the objective is, above all the child’s self-fulfillment by respecting his pace and needs.

The children evolve in mixed-ages classroom ( 2 to 12 months and 1 to 2, 2 to 3, 3 to 6, 6 to 9 and 9 to 12 years old). This mix is incredibly valuable for all. It allows:

• The older children to have a mentor-like role: they help the younger ones and it enables them to:
  • Gain self-confidence
  • Assert their learning by explaining what they understood
  • Learn patience and respect
• The younger children to become less reliant on the adults: they learn obedience and respect due to the oldest. It is important that during their 3 years cycle, they experiment shifting from being the youngest to being the oldest, which also balance their place in the family.
• To develop cooperation, mutual respect and communication: the children really like helping each other. The age mixing is really interesting during group work because each finds his place and the youngest bring so much to the oldest.

The available material targeting the children from a 3 years cycle, for example the children from 6 to 9 years old, it leaves the child the chance to progress at his own speed: he can move ahead very quickly in a subject he’s particularly interested in or to review a notion without feeling like its a work for a younger child.
This mix of multi-ages children really helps not only in their intellectual development, but also behavioral and social.

Although Montessori schools are a shrine for freedom, nothing is more neat and disciplined than a Montessori school. Indeed, there is in a Montessori setting a just balance between structure and freedom. First of all the child learns the rules and limits that are essential to maintain the appropriate climate of a Montessori classroom. Then, the idea of freedom, who leads to the idea of responsibility, is gradually presented to the children. While showing them various path they can follow, we give them the keys to make wise and lit choices, respectful of the social values in which they grew up.

Children learn self-discipline, which is very different from an absence of discipline. Misbehaved and inexperienced children are not really free but rather slaves of their primary desires and the more they will grow up with an unsuitable behavior, the more it will be difficult to change this behavior.
In reality, a destructive behavior leads to unhappiness for the individual who continues in that line of conduct.

Being free means much more than “Doing what the individual wishes to do “, being free imply first of all to be capable to identify and choose what is best and constructive for us and then, to be capable of leading these choices to completion.

This freedom is expressed by the free choice of the activities. The child chooses his work, he chooses the spot where he settles down and the duration of the manipulation.

It allows him to be an active participant in his own education.

Beyond the method of education, learning is acquired by the manipulation of many different materials.

The Montessori material is a scientific material which gives us an adapted support to the child’s various ages and needs. Its main function is to allow the child to explore the world, to seize it and to build himself.
There are more than 500 activities and works in a Montessori classroom, which are one by one provided to the children.

Those activities are not an educational helps in the strict sense because they are not used “to teach” nor to inculcate a learning, they rather serve to assist the child in his internal work of self-creation and mental development.

They favor the learning by catching the child’s attention and by strengthening his concentration.
While manipulating the material the child will develop his coordination, he will learn to pay attention to details and he will develop a healthy working habit.

This material, that may appear so magic when we’ve never seen it, is in fact puzzling by its simplicity and efficiency.

It enforces all of the child’s learning channels (hearing, kin aesthetic, visual and even taste and smell sometimes).

Only a lesson given by a Montessori teacher can make you understand all the material’s power.

By respect for the child, and especially not to make him lose self-confidence, teachers in a Montessori school do not judge the child; for this reason, there are no grades: neither good, nor bad.

Besides, what really matters in the child’s evolution, academic or global, is the quality of its personal work; and this cannot be expressed in any form of a grade system.

No punishments and no rewards either: otherwise how can we respect the atmosphere that we suggest, which is built of mutual aid and respect, and restrain competition, which has to be only within the child himself ?

A report book allows to review the child’s work with him and follow his experiences. The teachers provide an individual supervision for every child in his work. They follow every stage of his progression. Children can invite their parents in the class to show them the work that they do.

The follow-up with the parents takes place during discussion and scheduled (as often as necessary) individualized parent teachers meetings, which are the opportunity to provide an update.

Maria Montessori said: “Let us not raise our children for the world of today. This world will have changed when they will be grown. So we must first and foremost help the children cultivate their faculties of creation and adaptation.”

The Montessori method develops the child’s independence, the self-confidence and the self-discipline. These values are ingrained in him for life.
The child can adapt more quickly to new situations: a moving, a change of linguistic environment, a change of school (entering middle school) and thus a change of educational method.
He can gladly adapt to new situations because his concentration and his self-discipline are trained, because he knew the pleasure and the desire to learn and because he is well socially adapted.
These skills favor the pursuit of knowledge throughout the existence and allow the child to easily become part of any new system.
It is certain that a grown-up child, raised in self-respect, will find differences in the other school systems who demonstrate greater rigidity.
Experience has shown that these children adapt well to new constraints and keep the skills acquired during their Montessori years.

If the parents let us know a little in advance that the child is going to leave us, it allows us to prepare him for this change and therefore that is going really well.

From birth to 6 years old children are learning how to talk and communicate, and then how to read and write, around 5. Learning in an other language falls within this perspective of learning speech and communication and again allows to optimize this period of interest for the child.

The English-speaking teacher speaks in English, the French-speaking teacher, in French and the Spanish-speaking teacher in Spanish. This simple and clear rule allows the children to quickly find their marks. Soon, it seems obvious for all the children.
The children do not learn English, French and Spanish… they are spoken to in those languages, they listen, understand, and then they speak, which is very different. This method gets closer from the family model encountered in mixed languages couples.

• In English : Children from multilingual schools will reach the same skills in English (written and oral) than children from monolingual schools.
• In French and Spanish : At the end of preschool the children have a perfect mastery of comprehension (3 to 6 years old classroom) and gradually master the speech and oral side of this other language during their primary years (6 to 12 years old classroom).

The trilingual way allows the children to reach language skills, if not equal, at least comparable in French, Spanish and English.

The most important thing is to be as clear and consistent in the rules as we can. Learning an other language has to follow the same line of order and method as any education and is not an inconvenience in any way for the child.
No need to change habits at home to make a bridge on this other language,English,  Spanish or French, if it is not already the case in the household. However, it is important that the parents show interest for French and Spanish language, even if they do not speak it. The trust granted to the child, to the trilingual project of the school, and to the teaching staff who are involved with him is a key component.