Bermuda Montessori School follows the Montessori Method, which is a philosophy of education named after its founder Maria Montessori.

Dr Montessori recognised that children have an innate curiosity and, therefore, sought to design materials that would entice children to learn through satisfaction of their own natural curiosity.

She designed bright, colourful materials that stimulate discovery, exploration and imagination.

Child development research has verified that the first six years are the most productive of a child’s life and the Montessori Method of education is regarded by many as unsurpassed in its ability to help children achieve their full potential not only in academic terms but also in terms of emotional, social and physical growth.

History

Founded in 1986, Bermuda Montessori School is a nursery and preschool offering early education and experiences through the Montessori Method to children between the ages of 12 months and 5 years.

Bermuda Montessori School was founded in 1986 by Terry and Yvonne West. It continued until 2003 when Edward (Junior) and Julie Durrant purchased the business. The Bermuda Montessori School educates 35 children and is home to six full-time and two part-time staff members. Among the extracurricular classes provided at the school are Spanish, music and PE.

Peace curriculum

A peaceful curriculum is an essential part of the Grace and Courtesy rules of a Montessori classroom and helps the children to make connected choices in their social interactions as well as in their work in the classroom.

A peace table is a small table where the children can go and spend time to be quiet and peaceful by themselves as they look at the peace book and other artefacts on the table. It is also an area where children can go and resolve conflict in the classroom with the peace rose.

The concept of the peace rose and the peace table is to show the children that there are peaceful ways to resolve conflict. They also learn how to make peaceful choices throughout the day. This is an ongoing process and a very important part of the curriculum which continues throughout the entire time a child is at Bermuda Montessori School.

The school has a toddler class for toddlers between 12 months and 20 months. The Lower Kindergarten Class caters for children between the ages of 20 months and 30 months. The Upper Kindergarten Class combines 2.5 to 5-year-olds.

Julie Durrant told us: “Our oldest children are now refining and building upon previous skills to develop more complex and sophisticated thought processes.

“At this stage, the concept of chores and responsibilities take on more important roles in order to build awareness and care for the classroom environment as well as to create real-world connections to classroom activities.

“Further to the typical areas of focus, children in this class also carry out weekly gardening and small projects around the physical school.

“They also enjoy weekly Virtues Lessons including lessons on compassion, kindness, and honesty.

“These lessons are given with the aid of various resources to pique the child’s interests such as stories, recordings of observed behaviour in the school (such as two children working together to solve a problem), songs and short skits.”

• To learn more, visit Bermudamontessorischool.bm or contact bermudamontessori@northrock.bm