Every child is unique. A bright new member of a community, and the world at large. And with the world changing so fast, doesn’t it make sense to provide your child with an educational foundation that nurtures a love of discovery, creativity and self-mastery?

Our directresses follow the Montessori traditions of observing and meeting the needs of each student in their care. This allows your child to develop the habits, attitudes, skills and ideas that lead to a lifetime of creative thinking and learning.

The classroom environment is key.

Montessori emphasizes reality-based hands-on learning. Classrooms are arranged with child-size furniture and open spaces to invite movement and exploration, with materials available on shelves around the room. Prepared environments allow the directresses to spend each day giving presentations or demonstrations of activities available on the classroom shelves. Children can observe a presentation, work independently, get their own snack or visit the in-class bathroom as the need arises. To the extent that they’re able to accept and respond to it, this freedom allows children to develop self-control and an internal set of guidelines that become part of their personalities.

These special environments also let children explore materials through a variety of tasks, which leads to thinking about how the tasks and materials all relate to each other. Each activity takes place at a table or while the child is seated at a rug. Free interaction in the classroom helps our students develop social relationships, with the older children in the room helping the younger students. Meanwhile, the logical, sequential nature of the curriculum provides orderly structure that guides discovery and creativity. Expectations are clearly stated in the classroom and reinforced by the directress and the students.

This setting naturally leads to every child feeling important and like a member of the community. Children in the Montessori environment feel active, strong, excited, happy, relaxed, sociable and proud as they do their daily work. In short, Montessori students discover the joy in learning, and develop a sense of pride and ownership in their work.

There are no grades or tests in the curriculum. Instead, Montessori directresses provide feedback and qualitative analysis as a list of skills, activities and critical points. A written evaluation of the child’s achievements and strengths, with an emphasis on areas of anticipated growth and improvement, is reviewed with the parents twice a year during a conference with the directresses. Parents can always contact the directress at any time during the school year if they have questions or concerns

Parents are so important to Montessori.

At the Montessori School of Rochester, parents play a critical role in how the school is run and in its activities, through participation on the board of trustees and various committees. As a Montessori parent, you have a variety of opportunities to learn more about your child’s program through classroom observations and parent study groups. To help keep parents informed, MSR publishes a quarterly newspaper featuring an editorial from the head of school and reports from each directress. You’ll learn about classroom news, including educational information, particular topics of interest, activities and current events. Please feel free to call or email us for more information on how MSR can benefit your child.