Nova Montessori Children's House

Nova Montessori School and the Children’s House is located at 53 Owles Terrace, Christchurch in a residential area near a large shopping centre. Located opposite the Avon River, there are beautiful views of the Estuary and Port Hills. It is within easy walking distance of the estuary, beach, shopping centre and library.

We use the term Children’s House to designate a Montessori preschool because we do not view it as “pre” school. We see it as a very relevant “school” that meets the child’s physical, emotional and intellectual needs between the ages of three and six.

What are the elements of the Montessori approach that create a unique learning environment?

Let us suggest a few…

• Liberty
• Activity
• Responsibility
• Community
• Love

Liberty

Liberty is essential to learning. Through free choice children express and strengthen their individuality, fostering the development of self confidence and integrity. Freedom of choice reinforces the construction of a healthy and vibrant will as well as independent thinking. Montessori explains, ‘”The child ‘constructs’ his (or her) own will by a process of self education … developing the will by making decisions.”

Activity

Montessori learning strategies for all developmental stages call for the inclusion of purposeful activity – activity which connects the intellect with real to life experiences. The didactic materials that are found in Montessori environments are tools for reflective action. They are meaningful in that they draw the learner into relationship. They are not ‘tools for teaching’ as much as they are experiences upon which one constructs personalised theory. Knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.

Responsibility

The boundary of liberty is the domain of the responsibility. Every child needs opportunities to acquire social, physical and moral responsibility. In the Montessori learning environment responsibility. In the Montessori learning environment responsibility is developed through experience and natural consequences.

Children are provided opportunities through social life activity to align themselves with the highest values needed in a democratic society.

Community

Communion is a basic human need to belong. It is an act of sharing that creates a context for personal and group meaning. A healthy community that requires the nurturing of deep communication skills – skills that honour children as individuals and ones that create a safe space for listening, hearing and honest dialogue.

Love

Love is not only the attractive force that compels us to be with each other, it is a continuum of respect and reverence for life and the unfolding potential of humanity. Without love, learning is reduced to a method or a subject and the field of experience is limited.

Montessori explains, “A teacher must not imagine she can prepare herself for this vocation simply by acquiring knowledge and culture. Above all else she must cultivate a proper attitude to the moral order.” In every school subject there is an activity of love. It is this spiritual component which differentiates a Montessori class from a class that uses Montessori materials.