Montessori at Christopher Robin Day Nursery

Christopher Robin Day Nurseries incorporate the Montessori philosophy because it is ideally suited to the day nursery environment. Maria Montessori knew that everything a child does, from birth, forms part of its education rather than education being a separate part of life.

Children are fascinated by, and want to learn about, the wonderful world around them. They have amazingly receptive minds and it is the role of the Montessori directress to encourage the child's innate passion for learning.

Montessori easily covers the six Early Learning Goals as inspected by Ofsted:

Ofsted inspects the nurseries and, as the curriculum covers the Early Learning Goals, children of qualifying age are eligible for the Government Nursery Vouchers.

Children feel secure in a well-ordered environment and the Montessori classroom provides a carefully planned and structured environment in which the child can grow and learn in a natural way with the best possible opportunities for reaching his or her maximum potential.

All materials are accessible to the children and are the right size for their small hands to use in order to engage in purposeful activity. Within this environment children can have freedom - freedom to choose what they want to work with and freedom to complete it in their own time. When children work without interruption they can develop concentration and inner harmony.

Practical life skills encourage children to learn to take care of themselves and their environment so that as they grow, not only in confidence and self-respect, they also learn to respect others. Children develop a love of nature by experience of the natural world and by caring for plants, animals and all living things.

There are no limits to achievement in the Montessori classroom. Each child is treated as an individual and moves on to the next stage as and when he or she is ready. Central to the Montessori approach is that all children have a natural learning cycle. Within this cycle there are periods of time when each child is especially receptive to a particular area of learning. This is known as the 'sensitive period'. By matching specific educational activities to a child's 'sensitive period' knowledge can be absorbed with ease. Each child will reach different stages at different times, and the Montessori directress is trained to observe when each child is ready, and gently guide the child towards the next stage.

Our staff are able to train in-house to gain a qualification from Montessori Centre International, one of the world's leading Montessori teacher's training centres.