Welcome to Children's House Montessori

1. Listen to our welcome children's House song.
2. Written by Elizabeth, a 13 year old former pupil remembering Children's House.
Together we grow, each voice is heard. In our Montessori home, every child is heard, everyone loves school when the world feels right.

Our school is situated in the historic village of Birling and takes place in the village hall next to the church. The hall was built in 1894 and was originally the village school.

Children's House Montessori is a community, a term-time sessional, independent day Preschool. We focus on high quality holistic teaching, as opposed to just child day care.

Our vision is to provide your child with the best start to their educational journey , so they LOVE learning and we do this using the Montessori approach and a very high ratio of highly qualified teachers to children. Many of our staff are fully qualified teachers. We have a strict limit on places so that each child can get the attention they deserve.

We understand that many nurseries have had to move to multi-site, extended day care provision and that many parents need this sort of support. However we have chosen to stay with a more traditional, quality based approach.

Your children are your most important assets and we value that you in trust us with them.

We firmly believe that by entrusting us with your child they will get the best possible start.

We are sessional school taking children from 2 -5 years and we are open term time, from 9.30 in the morning until 3.30 in the afternoon, Monday to Friday. We deliver a Montessori curriculum that looks at developing the whole child; physical, intellectual, linguistic, emotional and social. We do that by offering Forest school, Science, STEM Lego (Science, technology, engineering and maths) Cooking, Yoga, Music, Phonics, Art, Lego therapy, First Aid classes, Coding and Freeflow (the Montessori principal of constant access to the outdoors). Apart from French and Spanish, these are all included at no additional cost.

The secret of good teaching is to regard the child's intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination. Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorise, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his innermost core. By offering the child the story of the universe, we give him something a thousand times more wonderful and mysterious to grasp with his imagination, in a cosmic drama no fable can rival. Montessori, 1989

We are highly qualified reflective practitioners, which means we are always looking at how we can do things better, for the benefit of the children we nurture and to improve ourselves. Child observation based upon a solid understanding of child development theory enables us to lay solid foundations for our children's education. We take no more than 20 children in a session with a ratio of 1 qualified teacher to every 3 or 4 children.

We believe strongly in close partnership with our parents because as Maria Montessori said "parents play a critical role in their children's education. Education begins with the parent, in the home at birth the parent is the child's first and most influential teacher".

Childhood happens only once and a Montessori education ensures that your child will make the best of theirs. Children from a variety of cultures and backgrounds all over the world have benefited from a Montessori education and your child can as well.

Children's House Montessori is successfully led by the highly dedicated and inspirational Head. The Head is exceptionally passionate about creating a nurturing and enriching learning environment that follows the principles of the Montessori philosophy. In addition to this, she is a strong advocate of being an accredited Unicef Rights Respecting School, a scheme that aims to empower children to understand and communicate their rights and to have strong aspirations in life. The Head is fully supported by an experienced and committed team; together they bring a wealth of attributes in providing a rich and exciting range of learning experiences. All staff members have high expectations of children and are closely attuned to each individual child's interests and development. Adults and children build trusting and respectful relationships, which creates a nursery where children are confident and independent learners with extremely high self-esteem and a positive approach towards learning. Partnership with parents is outstanding. Montessori Assessors report

Read our Early Years Foundation and Montessori (Guide to the Early Years Foundation Stage in Montessori settings) and MEAB (Montessori Evaluation and Accreditation Board - School Accreditation).

The highly experienced and ambitious manager is an inspiring leader. She works very closely with enthusiastic and well qualified staff team to maintain the high quality of practice. Children are highly respected and listened to. From the start they form extremely secure emotional attachments with nurturing staff. They offer limitless support to children and families when required. parents refer to staff as supportive, attentive and amazing! Ofsted