Programs
The Montessori Method
The structure of Montessori learning involves the use of many materials with which the child may work individually. At every step of his/her learning, the material is designed to test understanding and to correct errors. Each child works at his or her own pace.
Dr. Montessori recognized that the only valid impulse to learning is the self-motivation of the child. The director/directress prepares the environment, programs the activity, functions as the reference person and the exemplar, and offers the child stimulations, but it is the child who learns and who is motivated through the work itself to persist in his or her chosen task. This is the core of the Montessori educational philosophy.
Montessori education is not a system of teaching but a method of helping children in the total development of their personalities during the fundamental period of development. The child must have freedom in order to develop his or her personality to the fullest – a freedom that is achieved through work, order, and self-discipline.
In the early 1900s, in Rome, Italy, Dr. Maria Montessori developed what she called the “prepared environment” which already possesses a certain order and disposes the child to develop at his/her own speed, according to his/her own capacities and in a noncompetitive atmosphere.
Program Details
The growth and development of children is unparalleled between birth and the age of 2. More learning takes place during this time than any other time in a child’s life. This series is designed to help bring insight as to how parents can meet the needs of their child’s rapidly developing brain and body.
St. Helena Montessori is proud to offer an educational discussion group highlighting key topics around child development from Birth through age Three. Led by Mrs. Micaela Belmonte, AMI-Trained Early Childhood Educator, parents will be given key insights into how they can best prepare their home environments to suit the needs of their rapidly developing child.
Topics Include:
- Your Toddler’s Fantastic “Absorbent Mind”: Discovering the Child’s Inner Power to Construct
- Movement: Physiology, Interaction and Exploration
- Communication & Language: Building Connection with Others
- Developing Positive Relationships Through Food: What Meals Offer You and Your Child
- Freedom + Discipline: How the Child Learns to Make Responsible Choices
The first experience a young child is offered at St. Helena Montessori school is in the Toddler classroom. Children in the Toddler Program attend school Monday – Thursday 8:30am – 12:00pm. The children are given opportunities to choose activities such as preparing food, setting the table, and washing their dishes. Students will find numerous size-appropriate, variously textured and colored materials in the areas of practical life, language, sensorial exploration and coordinated movement. Through these practical life activities, the children gain independence through self care skills such as dressing, feeding and toileting.
Our trained Montessori teachers prepare the environment for the children with specific materials that will appeal to the young child. The children learn to concentrate more deeply on an activity and to behave in a calm and kind manner.
Children from two to six possess what Dr. Montessori called the Absorbent Mind. The seminal observation of Dr. Montessori’s work, this type of mind has the unique and transitory ability to absorb all aspects physical, mental, and spiritual of the environment, without effort or fatigue. As an aid to the child’s self-construction, individual work is encouraged.
“Adults admire their environment; they can remember it and think about it; but the child absorbs it. The things he sees are not just remembered, they form part of his soul. He incarnates in himself all in the world about him that his eyes see and his ears hear.”
-Maria Montessori
Elementary children have a questioning, imaginative mind, a strong moral and social orientation and unlimited energy for research and exploration. They move from the concrete through their own efforts and discovery to the abstract – thus greatly expanding their field of knowledge.
Elementary children work in small groups on a variety of projects which spark the imagination and engage the intellect. Lessons given by the teacher direct the children toward activities which help them to develop reasoning abilities and learn the arts of life.
Children from six to twelve, are driven to understand the universe and their place in it. Their capacity to assimilate all aspects of culture is boundless. Elementary studies include geography, biology, history, religious formation, language, mathematics in all its branches, science, music and art. Exploration of each area is encouraged through trips outside the classroom to community resources, such as the library, local stores and museums. This inclusive approach to education fosters a feeling of connectedness to all humanity, and encourages their natural desire to make contributions to the world.
“Education should therefore include the two forms of work, manual and intellectual, for the same person, and thus make it understood by practical experience that these two kinds complete each other and are equally essential to a civilized existence.” Maria Montessori | From Childhood to Adolescence
The St. Helena Montessori Adolescent Program (AP) realizes Dr. Maria Montessori’s full vision for the Third Plane of development, the Adolescent Plane, with a carefully prepared environment and curriculum for students of ages 12-18. Dr. Montessori believed that a working farm was an ideal setting for educating the adolescent because it provided ample opportunities for varied and meaningful work, both intellectual and physical. The “place-based pedagogy” acts both as an introduction to nature and to civilization and gives a limitless field for scientific and historic studies. In keeping with authentic Montessori pedagogy, the Adolescent Program serves the developmental needs of adolescents to understand themselves and aids them in forming their understanding of the adult world through the construction of a “micro-economy”, offering students opportunities to practice in the cycles of production and exchange and the fundamental mechanics of society upon which economic life is based. Drawing inspiration from the beauty of the natural world and the incredible patrimony of our civilization, The AP aims to foster a sense of wonder and gratitude for creation and our place in it.
“The essential reform is this: to put the adolescent on the road to achieving economic independence . We might call it a “school of experience in the elements of social life.““Maria Montessori | From Childhood to Adolescence
Admission and Tuition
Children are accepted from the age of 18 months though 3 years for our Toddler Community, 2 ½ years through 6+ years for the Primary Class, 6+ through 12 years for Elementary, and 12 through 18 for the Adolescent Program. Children are accepted to St. Helena Montessori as space is available, with all admissions decisions made at the discretion of the Head of School in concert with class directors/directresses. If a student meets admissions criteria but no space is available, he/she will be placed on a wait list. Admissions decisions will be rolling starting in February, with priority given to those applications already in the wait list.
St. Helena Montessori School admits students of any race, color, national origin, and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It doesn’t discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.
- Please submit an inquiry to receive an information packet. Interested families should contact the school to arrange an initial conversation with the Director of Admissions and to schedule a time to observe a classroom. Observations are typically scheduled Monday-Friday, between 8:45-10:15am. The purpose of this meeting is to inform the parents of all aspects of the program. This meeting is for adults only.
- After this initial visit, please complete and submit an application (if you prefer a hard copy you may obtain one from our office). We also request that you submit whatever school records are available from your child’s current school.
- Upon receipt of a completed application and application fee, the school will contact you to schedule a second meeting with the Head of School and (provided there is an opening) at least one “shadow” day for the student.
- After your child has visited the school, the school will contact you for a final interview with the Head of School.
- Following these interviews you will be notified in writing of our admission decision.
For the 2024 – 2025 School Year
Annual Registration Fee: $250
Tuition Fees:
Half-Day Toddler: $12,200
Half-Day Primary Students (5 days per week, 8:45 am – 12 pm): $12,200
Full-Day Primary Students: $16,800
Elementary Students: $17,800
Adolescent Program Students: $22,250 (does not include annual trip)
Lunch Period Fee (option for Half-day Primary students, 12 – 1 pm): $10/day
Financial Aid
Financial aid is awarded on a basis of need, order of request, and availability of funds. Applications are evaluated by FACTS and the Tuition & Financial Aid Committee of the Board of Directors of the school. Please click here to apply for financial aid.
