Hammond Elementary offers a publicly-funded Montessori program through School District 42. We currently offer kindergarten to Grade 6. When the Montessori students reach Grade 7 they are combined into classrooms with the students in our traditional education program. This transition is quite smooth for most students. Students in a Montessori environment have become self-motivated learners, adaptable and responsible for their own education, and this serves them well when faced with new challenges.
What is Montessori?
Montessori is a method of education centers around Practical Life, Language, Math, Geography, Science, Art and Music, as well as focusing on virtues, the child’s sense of self and their role within the community on a local and global scale.
What is the difference between a Montessori and traditional education?
Montessori emphasizes learning through all five senses, not just through listening, watching or reading. It is a self-motivated, self-paced approach to learning, in which children learn at their own, individual pace and according to their own choice of activities. The classroom is a “prepared environment”, designed to mimic the greater world in which the child has the freedom to explore, discover and learn to make responsible choices. Let children learn through the use of materials, specifically designed to be self-correcting, as well as multi-level, so students have the ability to teach themselves. There is opportunity to forge ahead in an area of strength, or spend extra time on concepts that are more challenging. This instills a strong sense of responsibility and joy in their own discoveries.
What is the Maple Ridge Montessori Society?
The MRMS is much like the PAC of the Montessori program. We are a group of parents committed to having a role in what our child’s education looks like. We work directly with the school board in regards to funding and exposure.
Our Montessori PAC
President – Kim Johnson
Secretary – Christina Wensley
Treasurer – Charene Roberts
Secretary – Nicole Critten
Learn more