Welcome!

Welcome to our little Montessori corner of the internet!

Here at Newpark we are proud to offer our children an authentic Montessori education which we believe best supports their academic, personal and social development and prepares them for life.

Montessori doesn't do itself any favours however by being long on jargon and complexity which makes our job of explaining why we believe wholeheartedly in this wonderful method so much harder! Therefore, every month on this site we are going to cover an area of the Montessori method to help our parents and wider community to become as excited as us about what Montessori education offers our children.

We kick off this month with news that a longitudinal study in America has concluded that Montessori education elevates children’s outcomes in several ways. Children in Montessori preschools show improved academic performance and social understanding, while enjoying their school work more. Good preschool education is crucially important - during the first six years of life our brains develop significantly and much of this development is permanent, so ensuring that children get a good head start will help them for the rest of their lives. Researchers suggested higher academic achievement could be as a result of highly ordered Montessori materials and environment, more school enjoyment could stem from the choices provided by a Montessori environment, and displays of mastery orientation (belief that success is the result of effort) could be due to the lack of extrinsic rewards in Montessori programmes. The researchers added that the Montessori approach of combining different ages in one classroom could help to inform theory of mind due to the need to consider other children’s emotions and mental states.

It is very gratifying that research like this exists, and confirms the experience we have observing the children and their abilities and achievements every day.

If you would like to pose us a specific Montessori question for us to answer in this Montessori Corner, please do get in touch.

For those of you interested, the full study can be found here.