The one-year Montessori Early Childhood Teaching diploma qualifies students to teach children aged two and a half to six years. A second-year option is the Infant Toddler Course from birth to three years.
Candidates
Interviews granted to prospective students of all ages from 17 upwards. Tailored courses available for graduates and NNEB/DNN qualified.
Outcomes
Montessori Centre International diplomas qualify graduates to teach in Montessori schools around the world and in most private schools.
Content and costs
The Montessori method aims to develop the whole child. Course work revolves around practical life activities, sensorial activity, language and literacy, mathematics, and cultural learning, all using specialist Montessori equipment. Full-time study at Montessori Centre International costs around 5,000 a year.
Duration
Full-time - one academic year of 36 weeks (405 hours) in college and 420 hours compulsory practical experience. Part-time and distance learning options also available.
Information
Contact Montessori Centre International at 18 Balderton Street, London WIK 6TG, England, tel 020 7493 0165, e-mail mci@montessori.ac.uk
* Abhishikta Mukherjee is about to complete a full-time, one-year course at the Montessori Centre International and take up her first post as a Montessori teacher at Oxford Montessori, having previously taught for ten years in primary schools in India and Kuwait.
When I agreed to teach English evening classes in Kuwait last year, I would not have believed how much my life would change as a result. The classes were held in a Montessori school and I was fascinated by the teaching materials and apparatus in the classroom. I discussed them with my mother, who is the principal of a traditional Indian primary school, and she encouraged me to find out more about the Montessori method. It then seemed inevitable that I would end up here at Montessori Centre International doing the Early Childhood Teaching diploma.
Before this, I had done a Bachelor of Home Science degree, majoring in child development and child psychology, taught at a traditional school in India, and then moved to Kuwait and taught the English curriculum.
The Montessori course I am doing is very, very intensive, but I cannot think of anything that could be changed because it is so important to learn it all.
Work experience is an important part of the training and, during the final term, students spend three full days a week working in a Montessori school.
The approach is very different to traditional practice. Course content is broadly grouped into practical life activities, sensorial learning, language and literacy, mathematics and cultural (which covers geography, history and science).
We have learned to use the special Montessori apparatus to stimulate children's interest in the learning, plus we've done courses in music and movement, creative (arts and crafts) and special needs. In addition, there are courses on philosophy, child development and contemporary issues, which covers human rights, the rights of children and equal opportunities.
I think that when I was teaching the traditional way, we possibly forced children to do things they did not want to do and may have suppressed their natural talents. The children I teach now are so different because they are treated differently. Given freedom of choice, they choose to learn.
As an experienced teacher, I am amazed by the results. For example, I used to find children often struggled with mathematics, but the Montessori materials make it easy for them and they enjoy learning about number.
And I am reminded of my own childhood when adults were constantly saying 'don't do this, don't do that'. Practical life activities teach young children life skills like handling crockery and glasses - it gives them so much confidence to be able to do things competently.
I have loved every minute of the course and have decided to continue my studies with a distance learning course next year to extend my Montessori qualifications and possibly run my own school one day.
It is very exciting to have the opportunity to teach children by allowing them to develop as individuals from a young age.
