About Us
Porirua Montessori Primary School
Porirua Montessori is a growing Montessori primary school in Porirua New Zealand. We welcome children from all backgrounds and have a sliding fee scale to make Montessori education accessible to as many people as possible. Find out more about what makes our school different below:
The Teacher
The role of the kaiako/teacher is to awaken the child’s curiosity and then to act as a facilitator in the child’s learning experience by guiding, assisting and encouraging the child. . As each child has an individual programme, the teacher’s role is to follow the child’s progress and interests, take into account the child’s style of learning and to present new material at the appropriate time.
Educating for Peace
Peace is a key part of Montessori. We develop a culture of respect for others and for the environment.
Why grouping children in mixed ages? The emphasis placed on cooperation and the non-competitive nature of a Montessori classroom.
All this plays a role in developing a sense of social and moral responsibility towards the community and the environment.
Classroom Set Up
The Montessori environment has especially designed hands on materials that invite children to engage in activites of their individual choice. Children in a Montessori class learn by using the equipment and develop their concentration, self-discipline and love of learning.
The Montessori classroom contains many components that suit the needs of the 6-12 child. There are a variety of shelves that have activities for Mathematics, Language, Science, The Arts and History. The materials on these shelves have concrete concepts to more abstract ideas. Children are welcome to use and revisit ideas they have been presented by the teacher.
Maria Montessori described children of this age as children of imagination. We use stories to facilitate this and help children see how the ideas we are learning in class apply to the world they live in.
Children choose where they work and may work on the floor, at a table, independently or with others. Where needed, the teacher will give guidance to the child on where they can sit to facilitate the best learning.
Three hour work cycle
In Montessori education, we have a prolonged work session called a 3-hour work cycle. This allows for children to choose work and delve deeper into their areas of interest. It also helps to build their concentration.
Each child develops their own rhythm for their day. We have five 3-hour work cycles in the mornings.
Multi age classrooms
Montessori classrooms were built around Maria Montessori’s idea of healthy communities. Montessori thought it unnatural to segregate by age pointing out that segregating elderly people because they were old was as unnatural as segregating children into different grades because of age. (Montessori, 1949) Montessori saw mixed aged classes as being essential to building a community that benefited all children and society at large.
Montessori gave the illustration of a large family where because of its size children at different developmental stages are able to form a society as each is at different stages in their journey.
Montessori said ‘The main thing is that the groups should have different ages …. To have success you must have these different ages … The older children are interested in the younger, and the younger in the older.’