Spring newsletter

Saturday 10th April 2012

No one can fail to be uplifted by the joyfulness children bring to the most ordinary of moments, but witnessing the peaceful stillness of a child deeply engaged in their task is something that I find to be a particular gift.   Editing the film from the Children’s House became a lovely meditation on the children’s lives. I hope you have managed to get it working.  I have also created a shorter film with a Louis Armstrong soundtrack.

The end of the term is always a time of reflection, on the journey each child has made, the journey each community has made (Infant Community, Children’s House and Elementary Community) and that of The Montessori Place community as a whole.   We have welcomed a number of new children to The Montessori Place, Amelia, Indigo and Caspar into the Infant Community, Sanya, Louis and Stefan into the Children’s House and Esme who is now in the Elementary Community.  However since all of these children are already so embedded in the fabric of our lives, it is frankly impossible to see them as ‘new’.

Other children have transitioned from one floor to another.  Sam, Lorry and Bunny have followed Pia and Trinity down into the Children’s House (Sam said ‘This is like a double-decker bus with an upstairs and a downstairs’).  Meanwhile Boudicca is heading upstairs to join Leonid, Cassius, Isabel, Esme and Arthur in the Elementary Community. If you followed all of that you are doing well, if not you’ll be pleased to hear that we’ll shortly be sending out a new Family Directory with details of the children in each community.

The opening up of the Elementary rooms on the first floor has transformed the atmosphere of the building.  It really feels now that the building belongs to the children – between 8.45 and 3.30 I rarely go up or down the stairs without bumping into someone, either off to ask Freia for more soup, heading out to the garden, or simply exploring.  The Elementary is such an inspiring place with vast swathes of human learning waiting to be discovered.  I was recently engaged in a wonderful correspondence of notes with Isabel regarding the ‘Commutative Law’ which she very generously offered to explain to me.

Just after the Elementary rooms opened a number of you took the opportunity to place yourself in the mind of a child and experience the journey a child makes from 15 months old in the Infant Community through the Children’s House and up into the Elementary.  It was the first time the Journey & Discovery workshop had been offered in the UK and clearly marks a radical departure from the traditional approaches to sharing Montessori with adults.  Even after just one experience of it, it is a no-brainer to make it a permanent feature of The Montessori Place calendar.  We will offer it twice more this year, and hope that by then all of you will have been able to participate in it.  To avoid a clash with the end of the Brighton Festival, we have moved the next date to the 11th and 12th of May. Please see the enclosed list of dates for the summer term.

Before the Journey & Discovery got underway at the end of February we had already had our appetites whetted and sated during an evening cooking fish with Freia.  I was in the room next door and happily gorged myself – first on the samples of moules, pate and fishcakes that were brought in, then on through the onerous task of finishing a pan full of left over mussels.  Our minds have also been well fed.  Sarah has facilitated two discussions around ideas for engaging children at home.  For those with children under 3, Paul hosted evening sessions sharing Montessori thoughts on ‘toilet learning’ and ‘collaboration’.  And most recently a number of us came together to look at how Montessori education fits so neatly with the contemporary idea of ‘Flow’ that has emerged from the field of positive psychology.

Many of you also filled out the parent feedback forms we distributed.  We really appreciate the time you took completing these as they have given us a valuable perspective, different from the day-to-day conversations we have with you.  It was good to know that there is a general mood of contentment and even happiness in what we are doing (especially with what Freia is doing it seems!)  One suggestion that came up a few times was to do with increasing the use of garden and the time the children spend outside.  Since then, the garden is more fully prepared for the Children’s House and Elementary children to use throughout the day, and the Infant Community are also spending more time outside.  Having had some time to see how the children use the garden, we have started planning our next wave of garden alterations.  Hopefully you will see the fruits of our labours at the Parent Garden Party on the 6th of July.

In the letter I wrote before Christmas I said that we would be opening a second Children’s House in September this year.  We have decided to postpone this for two main reasons.  Firstly, it would have meant moving Freia and the kitchen off-site which we couldn’t bring ourselves to do at this point.  Secondly, it would have meant another summer of intense building work, knocking down walls and putting in toilets etc which – if I’m honest – we simply don’t feel like embarking on right now.

Another positive from this is that we can recruit staff more slowly, finding people who really fit with the ethos of The Montessori Place.  During the summer term we will gradually increase the size of the Infant Community up to its ideal size of 10 or 11 children.  To facilitate this we are very pleased that Mizuho Akizuki will joining Paul and Naomi.  Like Paul, Karen, Sarah, Kristell and I, Mizuho trained at the Maria Montessori Institute in London and beautifully served the children there alongside Paul and Karen.   Meanwhile, Karen Peace – who is now confirmed as a co-director with Paul and I – will be joining Kristell and myself in the Children’s House from September.  That will allow us to accept a few more children into the Children’s House community and give us a wonderfully experienced team.

It is still our intention to open the second Children’s House in 2013, but as things stand we have more demand for places than we are able to offer.  We have recently had to turn children away from both the Infant Community and Children’s House.  If you have younger siblings who are not yet on the waiting list, please do complete a form.   At the moment children need to be under 6 months of age to have a realistic chance of getting a place starting in the Infant Community when they turn 16 months.   We have a couple of places for the Children’s House in September. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Paul or I.

Other news from the Children’s House is that Kristell got married yesterday.  She is one of the few people who has managed to marry the same person twice in the space of a year, in two different dresses – first in Turkey and now in Brighton.  We wish her and Orhan every happiness.

Finally, you may remember we sent a long letter to Ofsted in response to their December 2011 Early Years (0-5 years) inspection which deemed our overall grade to be ‘Good’.   We are happy to say that in one area ‘Preparedness for the Future’ they have now bumped us up a notch.  However, they were at great pains to state that this was most definitely not because they accepted the substance of our concerns.  Instead they say that the wrong grade had been awarded due to a ‘technical error’.  Ho hum.  We will have another Ofsted inspection during the coming term, this time under ‘School’ registration (5 year olds and over).

I hope you are enjoying the beautiful spring, and look forward to seeing you on the 23rd.


Yours sincerely,

Rob Gueterbock