The trustees of the Montessori St Nicholas charity have pledged £500,000 over three years to help Montessori achieve the aims set out in its Community Manifesto, which was launched at the House of Commons last December.
The manifesto outlines an ambitious plan for Montessori to expand its national reach and take its practice into areas of disadvantage. Its aim is to become integral to UK practice and be at the heart of the Government's childcare agenda, with more trained practitioners and more settings giving children a Montessori start. It also believes that Montessori can make a valuable contribution to the two-year-old offer and wants to support this.
CEO Philip Bujak says, 'There are issues around funding and concerns about how the programme is being delivered, but we are keen to ensure that as many two-year-olds as possible benefit from Montessori.
'We intend to achieve this by partnership working with local communities and providers, and believe we have a high quality model for delivering on two-year-olds that is fit for purpose.'
He emphasises that this is an exciting and challenging phase for the charity, underpinned by the development of new qualifications and a drive to train more practitioners. Last year Montessori launched a new training centre in the grounds of the Cherry Tree School in Suffolk, MCI East, which offers a range of part-time and distance learning courses.
Mr Bujak says, 'We want to increase the total business turnover of Montessori Centre International as the largest Montessori training college in Europe by expanding in the UK and in Poland.
'We are in the process of developing our qualifications. Barbara Isaacs is leading the expansion of professional development courses, focusing on childminders wishing to promote the Montessori ethos in the home. We plan a launch in the autumn, and we are seeing a great deal of interest in this project on our website.'
He also reports that Montessori is working with education specialist the Crossfields Institute to develop and validate specialist qualifications at Level 3 and Level 4, and is also working on a graduate module for those who wish to specialise in Montessori teaching.
SUPPORTING ROLE
Montessori currently operates three settings and two training centres and Mr Bujak reports that the aim is to increase the number of settings to 12 over the next three years.
At the beginning of May it acquired Longacre Childcare in Kent, which joins the ranks of Cherry Tree Prep School in Suffolk and St Nicholas Preparatory School in Knightsbridge, London. In 2005 Montessori St Nicholas worked in collaboration with the DfE to introduce Montessori practice to Gorton Mount Primary School in Manchester.
Established in 2003, Longacre Childcare has three day nurseries in Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells catering for children aged three months to five years from 150 local families. It had already embedded Montessori practice prior to the takeover.
'This has made it a good fit and it is a very high quality nursery,' says Mr Bujak. 'We are now looking at a nursery opportunity based in a church in Lambeth. We are always looking out for good settings and hope that the private sector will consider us more in future.'
Inevitably there has been the odd set-back since the manifesto was launched. Earlier this year, Montessori decided to withdraw from the Camden trial for the free CANparent classes, despite investing £100,000 of its funds in the programme. It cited bureaucracy and low take-up as the reason.
'But we are not deterred,' says Mr Bujak. 'And we have other parent partnership projects, including parenting classes for Montessori settings, in development.'
As the Government's plans unfold, Montessori St Nicholas is determined to retain its ear. 'In June I am looking forward to meeting up with Elizabeth Truss to discuss what Montessori can offer to improve childcare standards,' Mr Bujak says. He adds, 'What we're doing is a fantastic example of the third sector supporting the Government without a financial return.'
Further information: www.montessori.org.uk
GORTON MOUNT PRIMARY SCHOOL
Montessori practice has turned around Gorton Mount Primary School, serving the deprived East Gorton community in Manchester. Formerly a failing school, its new approach has significantly improved pupil well-being, engagement and academic standards.
The school has embedded Montessori since 2005 and in 2011 it was graded good by Ofsted, which said, 'This is a good and improving school that takes excellent care of its pupils in a safe and welcoming environment. Pupils are now making progress as they are taught well.'
Just over £80,000 was invested between the former Government and the St Nicholas Charity in the first year and more than 100 pupils and their teachers worked with the approach. The second phase of the project involved the training of 14 staff to Montessori Diploma level, as a collaborative effort between the school, Manchester LEA and St Nicholas. With £20,000 invested in training, these 14 staff became the first cohort of state school teachers to also hold a full Montessori qualification.
The school is working with MCI on an on-going basis to develop teachers' expertise and extend the Montessori curriculum into further key stages.
