ABOUT
Welcome to Cardiff's first Montessori School. Established in 2016. The Montessori approach was developed by Dr Maria Montessori, an expert in child development and three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Our school strives to foster learners with academic excellence, emotional and social well being, life skills, global citizenship and spirituality & purpose. Cultivating self-directed and resilient learners with a strong social conscious.
OUR SCHOOL VALUES
Be Kind: Being kind often requires courage and strength. Kindness is a willingness to full-heartedly celebrate someone else's successes. Kindness is also about telling the truth in a gentle way so it is helpful to the other person.
Be Honest: Without honesty there is no foundation for a lasting or enjoyable relationship in any context. Integrity depends on honesty. Integrity is doing what is right even when it is not easy and not popular.
Be Respectful: Respect involves accepting difference not merely tolerating difference. Respect leads to better understand and communication.
Be Responsible: Responsibility is essential for smooth and effective operation. It requires all parties to take ownership of their duties and accept the impact of their actions on others.
Be Montessori: Montessori education is different. It nurtures each child’s individual strengths and interests. It is about encouraging children to explore and understand the world, equipping them not just academically but with life skills, self-awareness and resilience. It is about ensuring they are ready for higher education and the challenges of life in real and meaningful ways. It is a complete outlook on education and childhood, not just a curriculum.
OUR APPROACH
Children are taught how to be independent, self-directed learners, each responsible for following their own individualised planner. We develop children who are able to think outside the box and apply skills to ever evolving challenges. Montessori education places great focus on concrete learning and hands on materials in the early years. These materials become more and more abstract as the children get older. We aim to ensure that children have a solid and concrete understanding of concepts before the passage to abstraction.
Education should not be compartmentalised artificially into subject areas. We welcome the shift to a more integrated approach to learning called for in the new curriculum for Wales. A content-focused curriculum does not guarantee meaningful learning, only that certain topics are covered to varying extents; instead, Montessori education has always focused on concepts and supports the notion that ‘the essence of learning should underpin a range of different topics, learning activities and acquisition of knowledge’ (New Curriculum for Wales).
Central to our approach is encouraging children to be independent every step of the way.
We believe the child’s needs are articulated as:
“Help me to do it for myself” in the first plane of development (children aged 0-6 years)
“Help me to think for myself” in the second plane of development (children aged 6-12 years)
“Help us to do for ourselves” in the third plane of development (children aged 13-16 years), the focus of adolescents is to make meaningful and impactful change together as a community.
From preparing their own snacks at age 2, to planning their own outings at age 6, and running their own enterprise at age 13, Montessori education truly has the development of independence and life skills at its core.