The Montessori Method

Video transcript

Discovering Montessori with Tana Ramsay

Tana Ramsay voiceover

In 1907, a young Italian doctor opened a nursery in one of Rome’s worst slums for children who supposedly could not be educated.

Very soon, the older children were helping to take care of the school and look after the younger ones.

They were transformed from disadvantaged children with a bleak future into independent and self-confident children, with a chance for a better life.

Maria Montessori had pioneered an approach to education that focused on a child’s natural desire and capacity to learn. She recognised that given the right environment and materials and under the guidance of a watchful, caring teacher the child's full potential could be realised.

A century on and her message, her insights and the practical strategies she’s passed on have influenced hundreds of thousands of children around the world.

Maria Montessori said: "The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say the children are now working as if I did not exist."

Tana Ramsay to camera

For me, this has special meaning. Being a Montessori teacher, I’ve seen the independence and capability that this gives children and when I had my own children it was so important to instil in them the self respect and the confidence that Montessori gives them.

What makes the Montessori approach so effective, is that it’s based on a deep understanding of how children learn and develop through making their own choices, trying things out and doing things for themselves.

Philip Bujak, Chief Executive, Montessori St Nicholas

The best thing about Montessori is its applicability, regardless of whether you’re using the method in a state school or a private school, a large or a small, a rural or an urban environment. And anywhere in the world you’re going to find people doing the same thing in the same way with the same commitment and the same beliefs. And it’s quite amazing.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

Montessori is a way of life as much as it’s a way of education. And it doesn’t just start when the child is old enough to go to nursery school.

Barbara Isaacs, Principal, Montessori Centre International

It’s really from birth to six. The child is born with a potential. And the potential is enormous and what we as adults or parents or carers have to do, is to provide an environment which will allow the potential to unfold. And the environment has to be stimulating, and in the very early stages needs to be very tactile and offer lots of opportunities for movement. Because the child learns through activity. The child learns by doing.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

Many Montessori schools have toddler classes for children between 18 months and three years. The toddler classroom is simpler and slower paced than the older classrooms. And the child has the time and space she needs to learn how to do things for herself. Soon 'what is it?' becomes 'what can I do with it?'

Sarah Franklin, Head Teacher, Paint Pots Montessori School

When children come into the environment and you introduce activities to them, when they then return to an activity and you watch them repeat that thing over and over again, the enjoyment that they get from it and just discovery, you can see in their faces.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

Maria Montessori’s insights and approach to child development have had a great influence on education practice throughout the world. The meticulously prepared environment, the carefully designed learning materials, child-sized furniture, and equipment suited to the size of a child’s hand are all characteristics of the Montessori approach.

Extended periods of learning allow the child uninterrupted time to master simple and practical skills in preparation for progressing to more advanced activities. The role of the teacher as a guide rather than as instructor allows the child to choose and explore in an orderly environment, at their own pace, driven by the desire to learn and experience.

Many characteristics that have been present in Montessori schools for 100 years, have since become common place in mainstream classrooms throughout the world.

Val Penoyre, Montessori Teacher, Gorton Mount Primary School

I trained to be a teacher in the 1960s, quite a long time ago now. In many ways it was different from the sort of teaching that I’m doing now. But in many ways it was similar because I realised that a lot of Montessori principles were there and sort of rather intrinsically part of the training that I had at that time.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

Today’s Montessori classroom is based on Maria Montessori’s orignal 'casa de bambini' or children’s house. It’s an environment of calm concentration, where you’ll find children totally absorbed in activities they’ve chosen themselves.

Mother interviewee

I was immediately attracted. I felt immediately that this was a good environment. Really, the perfect environment for my children to blossom and grow.

Tana Ramsay

To find their own paths and what they wanted to do…

Mother interviewee

Yes exactly

Tana Ramsay

…freedom of choice within the classroom

Mother interviewee

Yes exactly.

Tana voiceover

Children in a Montessori classroom have the freedom to make their own choices from those activities that are within their ability. But discipline, particularly self-discipline, is key to the Montessori approach.

Male interviewee

You choose to do what you wish to do. But you understand that what you choose to do, you’re also responsible for your decisions, basically. So, you deal with the consequences and I think it’s really important to have lessons about responsibility like that at that age because it really sets you up for the rest of your life.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

The Montessori experience begins from the moment the children arrive in the morning.

Male interviewee voiceover

The children come in and they’re greeted by the teachers, They’re given the freedom to go and explore things they want to do.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

The mixed age grouping in a Montessori classroom plays a huge part in making the learning environment so successful. Older children love to share their knowledge and are great role models for the younger ones who want to emulate their achievements.

Maria Montessori believed that competition in education should only be introduced after the child has gained confidence in using basic skills. This means a child’s progress is never compared to the achievements of another child. "Never let a child risk failure" she said, "until he has a reasonable chance of success."

Female interviewee

You don’t judge anyone for what level they’re at. You just judge them for how hard they’re working and what they’re doing.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

The Montessori Method is based on a child’s need to learn by doing. When a child is doing something with their hands, she’ll concentrate her attention. And concentration is key to learning. Montessori materials are designed with this in mind. They’re carefully sequenced so that each activity has a logical process to follow. And they introduce concepts that become increasingly complex as the child progresses. The materials are designed to help children understand where they may have gone wrong and to enable them to work out ways to correct themselves without being told how to do so.

In a Montessori classroom, children are free to work where best suited to the activity. At a table, on the floor, making use of the full space of the classroom. Likewise, the teacher isn’t rooted to one spot but rather she goes to where her attention is most needed. Either presenting a new activity, giving gentle encouragement, or observing a child’s progress.

The classroom is designed to cover specific core areas of learning: practical life, sensorial, language and literacy, mathematics, cultural and creative. And bringing the indoors outdoors gives the child an even wider range of experiences.

There’s a growing demand for Montessori schools to extend into primary education, making possible a natural flow from the foundation years right up to the transition to a secondary school.

Linda Madden, Principal, Rainbow Montessori School

They’ve learnt so much, done so much and then they can just carry on with what they know. We’re already following the child. We observe the child. We don’t teach anything without knowing the child, without knowing where they’re up to, where their talents lie, where their desires lie, and all the way through we nurture that, we follow that.

The time in the nursery is really important. That’s where they learn independent work. They carry this on here in the elementary school, because they need to be able to choose their work and know what they want to do for themselves. That’s how we get the best out of them.

We have the same respect for the child, so if we give them that same respect, they do the work when they want to do, have a drink when they want to have a drink, we’ll get the best out of them.

Pupil 1

Well it’s quite fun in the school because the teacher goes 'round to everybody and if you make mistakes, she’ll make sure you fix it and things like that.

Pupil 2

It gives you the freedom to choose other pieces of work.

Linda Madden

That’s the whole point. They can do anything they want. But, they just have to know that and they have to have the confidence and encouragement to do that.

A female former pupil

Once I explained what our school was like, they were like 'how come I didn't go there?'

Your talents get kinda singled out here and I think everybody should be given an equal opportunity to come to somewhere like this, where you’ve got just so much diversity.

The best primary school you could go to. Yeah, the memories are amazing.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

Increasingly, state schools are turning to Montessori for a common sense approach to education.

Carol Powell, Head Teacher, Gorton Mount Primary School

We have 421 children in our school. We had a high staff turnover, I was the seventh headteacher in six years. There were huge skills gaps in many children. So we were sending children off to high school, at 11, unable to read, unable to write properly.

The reason I came to Montessori was that, as a way of teaching, instinctively I know it’s right.

I think the real reason, or the impetus, for starting Montessori in 2005, was a little boy called Jay, who was then eight.

I was called out to Jackson’s Tip to collect Jay, who would run away. And when I got here, instead of just running further away from me, which he would often do, he turned 'round and said 'Miss Powell, look what I’ve got in here.'

And in his lunch box and I don’t know what he’d done with his lunch, but in his lunch box was a whole dollop of frog spawn, which we took inside.

And I took him to one of my amazing teaching assistants and said 'teach him about life cycles'.

It was only later on in the day when I thought Jay actually ran out of school so he could learn things and that was a little bit scary for me. And I then thought the time was right because Jay was setting his own agenda and saying what he wanted to learn.

So, in 2005, Montessori started in nursery and reception. The biggest thing is our results have gone up. Children are much more skilled than they were before. Teachers are better teachers. But the best thing for me is that children have improved their socialised behaviour.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

The introduction of Montessori has had a profound effect on the teaching staff as well.

Carol Powell

They’ve been given a whole new lease of life as teachers really. And they’ve been asked to challenge what they’ve been taught before as professionals, so that they have re-thought their approach to children, re-thought their approach to learning and they have become better, more rounded teachers because of it.

Montessori started out in an area not unlike Gorton and she observed wild chaotic behaviour from children who were perhaps not that well nurtured. Certainly children who came from very economically poor backgrounds, and that’s very similar to our profile of children and families.

It means that it’s kind of come home to its origins if you like. So it might be seen as something the middle class want to buy but we’re giving it for free because it’s a child’s entitlement to have the best education they can have and that’s what we hope we’re delivering.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

Training to be a Montessori teacher is different from mainstream teacher training. The emphasis in the Montessori approach is very much on the teacher’s role as an observer and guide.

Barbara Isaacs, Principal, Montessori Centre International

Our training is very practical in that, from very early on, our trainees learn to use the Montessori teaching materials which are then seen as the foundation of the child’s learning. And we of course also teach them child development and observation because they need to understand why children learn in the way they do. And we also introduce teaching practice, so they have an opportunity to apply what they have learnt in the college with children, because they are just always different when the children are involved.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

At Montessori Centre International, the UK’s largest Montessori training organisation, a range of full and part-time courses are available, covering all levels from infant to primary. NCI’s training centres are located all over the world and attract students from diverse backgrounds.

Trainee 1

Before I started the course, I actually have a music degree.

Trainee 2

I left school at 18 with A-Levels and went to university to get a degree in Marketing and Communications.

Trainee 3

I’m a chartered accountant, so I qualified with Ernst & Young and then I’ve been in banking for over 10 years.

Trainee 1

The reason that I chose this course was that I’d been recommended by a friend who’d also studied, who I worked with.

Trainee 2

Having completed the full time early childhood course, I went straight in to do the infant toddler course.

Trainee 1

The teachers at NCI have been completely supportive and they’re a real diverse bunch.

Trainee 3

The support of the staff has been fantastic and also the people that I’ve met. I’ve made some lifelong friends.

Trainee 1

Learning Montessori from these people made this a really special place to work.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

A common concern from parents is how their child will make the transition from a Montessori nursery or primary school to a traditional school.

A female former pupil

I wasn’t afraid to go up and ask for help from the teachers.

A male former pupil to a child

So you’ll find it a lot easier making friends with all the older people.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

The skills that Montessori child develops go a long way to helping make that transition.

Male former pupil

Everything here’s helped me a lot. From growing up just generally, obviously then high school, then sixth form. A lot of people can tell when I say I've been to a Montessori. They go 'Oh you can tell.'

Male interviewee

A Montessori education, in your younger years, it really gives you independence and confidence as a person. As a person in your own right.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

Montessori educated children develop great powers of observation and concentration that enable them to work more effectively, regardless of where they continue their education. As long as the environment is stimulating, the Montessori child will flourish.

Female parent

Besides the obvious that I went to Rainbow, it just really was never any question whether I was going to send them to Montessori.

Tana Ramsay voiceover

Maria Montessori said "From the moment the child enters the children’s house, each step in his education is seen as a progressive building block, ultimately forming the whole person in the emergence from childhood to adult. All focus is on the needs of the child."

That approach is still at the heart of Montessori today, with motivated and knowledge-hungry children being offered a rich and stimulating environment, guided and encouraged by a highly trained observer.

And that is the essence of what makes Montessori a great deal more than simply an alternative way of education.

Whether you’re thinking about your child attending a Montessori school or considering training to become a Montessori teacher, or just interested in learning about the Montessori approach, you can find out more by clicking to www.montessori.org.uk

Text on screen

A big thank you to the pupils, former pupils, parents and staff of all the schools featured in this film.

• Absolute Angels Montessori Nursery
• Gorton Mount Primary School
• Paint Pots House, The Boltons
• Paint Pots (Hyde Park) Montessori School
• Rainbow Montessori School
• Soaring High Montessori School
• Stebbing County Primary School
• Westwood Montessori Nursery

• Presented by Tana Ramsay
• Director of Photography Alvaro Duran
• Lighting and Camera Assistant Peter Lambert
• Location Sound Grant Bridgeman
• Production Assistant Katie Duckett
• Producer and Montessori Consultant Georgina Hood
• Directed by Ian Stark
• Produced by www.film-it.net
• copyright 2008