Saturday 12th December 2012
I am writing this letter sitting at the kitchen table in the Family Room, warmed by the red glow from the light above. Beside me stands the Christmas tree decorated by many small hands. Just a year ago Paul and I stood shivering in the same spot, wondering if we were mad to have just signed a 25 year lease on what was then a cold, damp former squat.
It has been an amazing first year for The Montessori Place, with so much happening is such a short space of time. It was in the spring that we met many of you for the first time, planting gerbera seeds outside bookshops and on the cold sea front (did any of them flower?) Some of the older children have reminded me on more than one occasion ‘Do you remember when we planted seeds together?’ ‘Yes’ I reply, ‘We have been friends for a long time’.
It was from September that The Montessori Place really came to life as your children came to spend their days here and made it their place. We hope that you too also now feel that it is yours. It is a great gift to spend time with your children observing and participating in their discovery of the world. On a daily basis they help me to wonder at the simply beauty of the everyday life. This is a conversation I heard yesterday between two girls after they had spontaneously sung a carol together.
5 year old: ‘Do you do praying?’
6 year old: ‘Yes, sometimes’
5 year old: ‘What do you do?’
6 year old: ‘I say things to God that make me feel good, like ‘thank you’ for stuff’
5 year old (walking away): ‘Oh.. I ask for things’
6 year old: ‘Does it make you feel good…?’
Nor could I forget a teary-eyed boy who come to me on hearing about the death of Terry the guinea pig. ‘Terry is dead. He’s not even doing this… [not moving] He’s not even breathing. [pause] Pebbles… Pebbles… Pebbles is our only hope!’
It has also been quite beautiful to see the interactions between the Children’s House and Infant Community, interactions that few Montessorians in this country have seen due to the scarcity of Infant Communities where the same children are there each day. This familiarity breeds great love and has invoked many random acts of kindness from the older ones. Some have written poems or stories for the infants, another wandered up one afternoon last week as Paul and Kristell were cleaning up and simply said ‘How can I help?’
In starting The Montessori Place we wanted to help build a Montessori community, not just a school. Out of that idea has come our extensive range of events for parents, friends and grandparents to join us in exploring the development of children.
The Poetry Pot Luck was the first event we held this term when a group of us got together around the Family Room table sharing the poems we love and enjoy. It seemed that it has been the case for many of us that the children’s love of rhyme has rekindled our own interest in verse, both silly and profound.
Then just after the half term many of you joined us to explore the Planes of Development – the different psychological stages in your child’s life, and how education, and The Montessori Place, can support them. It was something of an epic topic – from the vastness of evolution to the details of a lesson in scrubbing a table, but we wanted to convey the broad vision of education as seen at The Montessori Place. Certainly the question ‘What is education for?’ is something worth discussing again and again.
The other lecture-style event we held was Karen’s talk on early language development The Wonder of Words. Over the Christmas break we hope to put together the short summaries of the language games that Karen shared which have been requested by many of you. A particular thank you to those of you to gamely pretended to be children participating in a small group!
Along side these, there were two other smaller groups: Sarah’s session looking at some of the ‘101 things to do with children’ outlined in the parent handbook, and Paul’s description of the 3 basic constitutional types that can be identified from birth and help us respond more sensitively to the needs of babies. There is still one more to come, on Tuesday 13th, in which Paul will pick up on some of the language themes Karen began, but focus more specifically on communication in the first two years of life.
All that brings us right up to date, to the Christmas Play and the end of term. With just a few days to go to the play I still only have a vague idea of what the play will be like, as it is being written, directed and acted by the children. As it stands it is certainly more ad-libbed than rehearsed. We hope many of you will be able to join us for a pot luck lunch afterwards to celebrate the end of what has been a most wonderful term.
2012 promises to be a busy year at The Montessori Place with lots of new programmes and children’s communities beginning, and with them some new faces. Sadly, we also have to say one goodbye. Laura Pereira is leaving the Children’s House to return to her native Venezuela. Laura’s constitution simply does not agree with British winters so she is returning to warmer climes to recover her health. She carries with her our thanks and warmest wishes on her journey.
From January, Kristell will be moving from the Infant Community to the Children’s House – ‘graduating’ along with Pia and Trinity. We have found a most wonderful person to join Paul in the Infant Community, Naomi Galloway. Naomi has recently graduated with an Art History degree and is, as you will discover, beautifully suited to the service of young children.
You will also see more of Stephanie Garrett in the New Year as she joins us to start our Primary Community. Our intention, OFSTED permitting, is to open the Primary Community after the February half term. Initially this community of 6-12 year olds will be on the first floor, then expanding into the whole of the top floor from September 2012.
As well as going up the age range, we are also heading down the other way. The Parent’s as Guides group on Friday mornings for parents and their babies is now well established and creates a peaceful atmosphere that seems to permeate through the whole house. We hope to start another group in the spring, so do let any friends with babies know.
Getting younger still, we have been working with other Montessorians and an experienced ante-natal facilitator, Agnes Munday to develop a Montessori Preparation for Parenthood programme for expectant families. All being well, we will launch this programme in the spring. Such programmes have been run elsewhere in the world, but it will be the first time it has been available in the UK.
Finally, in September we will be opening a second Children’s House –the Upstairs Children’s House as opposed to the existing Downstairs Children’s House. We are absolutely delighted that Karen Pearce will not only be joining Paul and I as a Director of The Montessori Place, but will be the Lead Guide in that community. Without question, Karen is the most experienced Montessori Guide in the country and is leaving her role as Head of the Maria Montessori School in London, and her mentoring of a dozen other classes, to come back to working directly with the children.
A vibrant Montessori Primary Community needs two good Children’s Houses to ‘feed’ it. We have just offered the first place to a child for the Upstairs Children’s House , and will begin recruiting in earnest in the New Year. If you know of anyone that may be interested in a place for their child, please do put them in touch with us.
That just leaves me to say a very big thank you to all of you for placing your trust in us, and joining with us in the creation and development of The Montessori Place. We are grateful for your continued support and friendship and collaboration in the service of your children.
I wish you a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.
Yours sincerely,
Rob Gueterbock
