What is the Montessori Method?
- The Montessori Method is an approach to learning which emphasizes active learning, independence, cooperation, and learning according to each child’s unique pace of development.
- Originator: Maria Montessori (1870-1952), Italian teacher and physician.
- Keywords: absorbent mind, sensitive period, prepared environment, auto-education, planes of development
- The Montessori Method is an approach to education which emphasizes individuality and independence in learning. Children are seen as inherently curious and learning driven. Thus, education is viewed as a process which should occur in harmony with the child’s individual developmental pace. High academic standards are critical, but it is a holistic approach emphasizing all aspects of development, rather than on attaining specific pieces of information.
What are Planes of Development?
Dr. Montessori defined 4 stages of development and labelled them as the 4 planes of development, noting that within these stages, the development is intense at the beginning, consolidates and then tapers to the next. The 1st and 3rd planes are periods of intense creation, while the 2nd and 4th planes are the calm periods of consolidation. Key to all the planes of development is the individual’s need for independence. This is expressed differently throughout.
Planes of Development | The Way Children Grow
As a child progresses from birth to adulthood, he or she passes through several distinct phases of development (also known as “planes of development”).
In each of these phases a child is not only physically different but also has different psychological characteristics and therefore different developmental needs.
At each plane of development, the child has such different physical and psychological characteristics that Dr Montessori described the passing from one plane to the next as follows:
“It is as if we have a new child at each new plane who will require a different environment just as the new born baby requires a different environment from the womb in which she has spent the last nine months”
Maria Montessori
Dr Montessori called the first plane of development from zero to six years Infancy, that from six to twelve Childhood, from twelve to eighteen Adolescence and the final plane from eighteen to twenty-four Maturity.
There is a particular time in the child’s life when he is most able to take a particular developmental step. An example is the “sensitive period” toward acquiring new language in Infant Plane, and social awareness in the Adolescent Plane. These opportunities must be grasped because when they are missed the development that can take place later may never be as complete as if it had happened at the right moment.
Many psychologists have described these six planes of development, but so far Dr Montessori has been the only person who has provided a way to respond to this knowledge through an educational system. In this way she redefined education as an ‘aid to life’ saying that if we support the natural development of the child at each plane then we will optimize development for the whole human being.
Newberry House Planes of Development
At Newberry House, we follow these planes of development in 3-year age groups all the way from 18 months to 18 years:
Toddler (18 months – 3 years)
Freesia | Jasmine
Pre-Primary (3 – 6 years)
Cosmos | Azalea | Disa | Protea (Afrikaans class)
Elementary (6 – 12 years)
Lower Elementary (6-9 Years): Oak | Willow | Yellowwood; Upper Elementary (9-12 Years): Newton | Breeze
Middle School (12 – 15 years)
Our Middle School follows an authentic Montessori Adolescent Programme, which effectively prepares our students for adult life as well as the academic rigours of the Cambridge curriculum.
High School (15 – 18 years)
Our High School students follow the internationally acclaimed Cambridge curriculum, where they take a variety of subjects at IGCSE and AS/A-level and leave school with a qualification that allows them to study at most Universities worldwide.
Newberry House uses the standards of Association Montessori International (AMI), as adapted by SAMA for a South African context, to govern all planes from Toddler to Middle School, and the Cambridge International standards for our High School plane.