The Holly Park Montessori Primary Classes for children up to 11 years

Montessori Primary Schools have been running successfully in the USA, Sweden, Holland and Australia. Recently there has been considerable interest in Montessori Primary Schools in this country. The Montessori Primary classes are a natural progression from the nursery. The child has learnt all the basic skills and is now ready to explore Culture and the Sciences, the Arts and the Universe. Maria Montessori noted three main changes in a child of this age as he or she enters a new phase of development:

• A keen interest in the world outside the classroom and an inexhaustible desire to know the reasons for things.

  "Knowledge can be best given where there is eagerness to learn so this is the period when the seed of everything can be sown (Maria Montessori: To Educate the Human Potential).

  Therefore the Montessori Directress in each Primary Class is constantly sparking the child's interest and imagination in a wide range of subjects to generate the enthusiasm and the desire to know more.

• A keen interest in morality. A child of this age is eager to learn to discriminate for himself/herself The difference between right or wrong.

• The social need. A child of this age craves not only to be in the company of other children but also to work with them in organising activities. Therefore there is a great amount of group work involved in the Montessori Primary Classes. The elementary environment is designed to maximise independent learning and exploration. It invites the child to learn.

Curriculum

The curriculum offered to the child covers a wide range of subjects. When offering a child a particular subject there is a constant emphasis on the inter relationships of the disciplines.

• English. Initially children are helped to become fluent readers. They learn the importance of good handwriting and spelling. They are helped to develop story writing skills and introduced to concepts of grammar and how it forms the basis of the English language. Once these sklls have been acquired the children begin to study English at a deeper level. They learn to challenge themselves in a wider range of literature, factual texts, poetry, vocabuIary, the use of grammar, developing compositions, punctuation and spelling and they become more fluent in boTh cursive and script styles of handwriting.

• Maths. Having been introduced to some basic mathematical concepts using the equipment in the nursery, the child continues to build upon this knowledge, with the aim of being able to work towards abstraction in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, fractions, decimals and a wide range of other mathematical concepts.

Once these are understood, the children work more and more on an abstract level. They become more efficient in working out problems in number, geometry, algebra, handling data, shape and space.

Other subjects covered in the Montessori Primary Classes are History, Geography, the Sciences, Art, Cooking, Computer Skills, Design and Technology, religions and festivals around the world. Topics also play an important part of the curriculum at the Primary level. The National Curriculum subjects are covered within the school curriculum. Each class has its own computer and is connected to the Internet. During the last two years of school, children are prepared for entrance into secondary schools.

Visiting teachers come into the school to teach French, PE and Music, Drama and Games. Individual tuition in a variety of instruments can be organised.

All the children in the Primary Classes will go on outings and visits to museums, theatres, farms etc., as part of their topic work.