20 April 2014
Spring is in the air.
It seems even Spring-ier than usual after the succession of winter storms. Trees everywhere are beginning their gentle explosions of green and the still and sunny days bear promise of the warmth to come. Our two new hens have finally settled in well with Snowy, and have started laying, producing up to 20 eggs a week between the three of them. Haami and Tullia arranged to select and collect them, kindly chaperoned by Ed (Ethan and Emily’s dad). While Glosette was named on the journey home, the Elementary decided to let the Children’s House name the third, brown, hen; naturally they called it Blacky.
A year ago The Montessori Place community came together for our first Spring walk, the chill encouraging a briskness and brevity. This year couldn’t have been more different allowing for some lingering around climbable trees, and lunch in the sun. There were the same familiar faces, and some new ones too, reflecting the growing community we are a part of. That growth continues – next week we have Max’s brother Reuben (Dan and Rebecca Chatfield), Renee (Matt O’Shea and Esme Young) and Lily (Lisa Creagh and Steve Swingler) starting in the Infant Community; Sidh (Balasubramanian Murugan and Reena Bondada) and William (Emily Senior and Simon George) starting in the Children’s House with Athos and Beatrice.
The Montessori Place is also in its Spring. Around this time three years ago we met many of you for the first time, planting gerbera seeds with the children, representing the seed that was being planted in Hove, the seed of a new Montessori community. I was once asked by a young child who had watched as a seed grew, ‘How did it know what to become?’ ‘Something inside told it what to do’ I replied. For us, it is the principles set out by Dr Maria Montessori that guide our growth. Those principles are our genes. Infused with the energy of the children and the atmosphere of love and support that you bring, we see fresh green growth in our community.
The Infant Community and Children’s House have been full and oversubscribed for the last 2 years, and we expect the Elementary to be full within a few years with a mix of intake from the Children’s House as well as from other schools – in September Gabriel Johnson (7) and Amara Walker (6) will be doing just that. To allow for this growth we – sounds of a drum roll – are opening a second Children’s House in September 2015, a little under 18 months! That will be our fifth year and the most significant change we have made since we opened. The timing reflects the needs of our growing community and fits with the development of our team.
We will be looking to acquire a site for the new Children’s House just a short distance away so that we maintain a strong sense of being one Montessori community. We will keep you updated along the way as people and premises get firmed up.
We are clear that any new community we create must enhance the school as a whole and be infused with the same high ideals and loving practice that we look to bring each day to 45 Cromwell Road. Over time we expect this second Children’s House to lead to a second Elementary Community, eventually reaching a capacity of around 50-60 children in the Children’s Houses, 50-60 in the Elementary Communities and a similar number in the Montessori Secondary School.
As well as growing sideways, we continue to look upwards towards meeting the needs of the adolescent and are actively working towards opening a Montessori Secondary School in 2017. We will soon be announcing the details of our next seminar on adolescence that we will be running jointly with the Maria Montessori Institute, bringing together administrators, teachers, parents and students who have experience with Montessori secondary education. Gathering these people from around the world is being made possible by the money raised through your generous contributions at the Auction of Promises we held before Christmas. I hope you have enjoyed the subsequent giving and receiving of gifts; I am still in the midst of mine.
In the lead up to our expansion into secondary education, Paul will be attending the Association Montessori International (AMI) Orientation to Adolescence at the Farm School in Sweden, which begins in June. He will be away from us for the last 4 weeks of the Summer Term. We are very fortunate that a wonderful Infant Community Guide, Magdalena Tomcyzk has agreed to come from Poland to cover for that time. It is likely that I will follow in Paul’s footsteps and complete the Orientation to Adolescence course in 2015, and Karen in 2016.
Continuing on the subject of dates we have all manner of lovely events planned for this term. Working backwards, we will once again end the Summer Term with a picnic in St Ann’s Wells Gardens (31st July). That picnic will no doubt be buzzing with tales from the previous weekend’s camping. The community camping was one of the highlights of 2013 and promises to be double the fun this year, this time for two nights – Friday 25th and Saturday 26th of July.
Our summer Garden Party will be on the evening of 4th July – which, given the date, you could think of as giving your children an evening of independence! The previous weekend (27th and 28th June) we will be running a Journey & Discovery workshop. If your child has moved communities since you last came – i.e. Children’s House to Elementary or Infant Community to Children’s House – you might like to return with a fresh perspective in mind. I promise you will find it rewarding.
The Montessori Society – the charity that promotes the work of the AMI in the UK – is holding its AGM in the evening of 11th June. As members of the AMI (through The Montessori Place), you actually have a voting right! This year Paul, Karen and I have been invited to give the keynote presentation on the strong connections between infancy and adolescence. The AGM is a lovely way to connect to the wider Montessori community in the UK and so we hope some of you who are not away for half term will be able to make it up to London that evening.
Also this term there will be evenings at The Montessori Place focussing on a specific mixed age group. On the 29th May and 17th July the spotlight will be on ‘This Week in the Elementary Community’. I will be talking about the kind of work that has been taking place in the Elementary over the previous days, and drawing out the Montessori principles that the children reveal. Karen will be running the second Parent Study Group for this year, starting on Tuesday 6th May. Paul will be talking about ‘The development of language’ on the 8th of May, and on ‘The crisis of identity’ (theirs not his) on the 5th of June. As ever you are most welcome at these events whatever the age of your child. It can be lovely way of seeing where your child, and you, will be heading in the near future.
I have also enclosed the Fee Structure and Calendar for next year. We have increased fees by 3% to reflect our rising costs. Our main expenditure is on salaries, and this increase allows us to increase staff salaries, which, like the fees, have remained unchanged for 2 years.
For children joining from September 2014 we are introducing a new fee structure. Children from age 3 to age 12 will pay the same fees, regardless of the hours they spend or the community they are in. While the 3 and 4 year olds will still benefit from the Government early years funding, the overall cost of education to age 12 will now be spread across the age group rather than being focused on ages 5 to 12. This new fee structure will only affect children joining the community after September 2014.
Finally we would really welcome your feedback on your experiences with us at The Montessori Place. Following your encouragement last year we have sought to improve our communication on the ‘big stuff’ – staff changes, secondary school updates and the like. I hope we have met your expectations – if not don’t hesitate to let us know. And, as ever, it’s also helpful to hear what you think works well.
Best wishes,
Rob Gueterbock
Enc.,
