Monmouth Montessori school

Academic Life

The aim of the School is to create an environment in which children can follow their natural desire for knowledge.  The teachers act as mentors to guide them through the channels to acquiring wisdom across a broad base of subjects and interests. The School has developed a new scheme of education which, where appropriate, is proving to over-achieve the National Curriculum by a significant margin.

Each school day holds a varied programme of formal and informal, oral and written, rote and applied learning.  There is a timetable to enable the week to encompass all the different subjects, but often a topic is best learnt by immersion for whole days at a time, and there is room for this at this school.

Success in one area prompts achievement in others and the curriculum is broad to allow skills to emerge.

Crucially, every subject is taught by an expert to give children proper exposure to each area of learning.

It is, of course, highly desirable that children should master the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic and competence in these areas is our priority.  How children reach a level of competence is specific to each individual and the teachers are sensitive to the preferred learning methods of each one and do their utmost to avoid a sense of failure along the way. To this end, children are grouped vertically and not restricted to year groups.  It is because of this that the school produces such high results without excessive pressure.

Science has been given a high priority in the National Curriculum and so it is here.  The subject is expertly taught so that all the children are given the chance to experience the joy of experiment and result, logic and conclusion.

General subjects are used to enhance the basic skills through the satisfaction of researching and recording information.  History and Geography are approached as living topics to be explored and acted out, and Religious Education introduces other cultures and beliefs as well as Christianity.

Variety and inspiration are the best triggers for learning.