Interview with Clanmore Montessori School PARENT, Sheridan McLelland

Clanmore Montessori School is a hidden gem in the GTA. I stumbled across it, and I'm so grateful that I did.

My son has been at Clanmore Montessori School since he was three, so he started in the first year of CASA. Clanmore Montessori School is my son’s second home. He's got a lot of good friends there, and he enjoys going. He misses it, because it's summer. He's missing his friend and the community there.

We initially thought that our son would just be at Clanmore Montessori School for just the early years, but there are a few things that stuck out about the school that we loved. Within the year, we brought our other three daughters over from their original schools over to Clanmore Montessori School.

Clanmore Montessori School was recommended to us, and I didn't really know much about Montessori then, and I went with this recommendation. The first thing that put my mind at rest was my son was quite reluctant to go into the Clanmore Montessori School classroom at first. So the teacher sat us on a sofa outside the room and didn't pressure him to go in. It was a very smooth transition. I liked that they didn't force us in. It was in his own time, and I really felt that they respected him and my kind of parenting style. While I was sitting on the sofa with my son I saw some amazing things that also made me think, ‘this is something different. I want to learn more about Montessori and see how it could work for our family.’

At Clanmore Montessori School, I saw a teacher facilitating the classroom. She wasn't standing in front of the classroom. The children were working in groups, totally engaged in their work, all working on different projects. To me, that was just a fascinating way to work. They were all so engaged in what they were doing, and it wasn't chaotic. It was pretty quiet in that room. Sometimes, I would see a child lead the class, so she would be talking to her peers at the front of the class. I liked that Clanmore Montessori School classes weren’t teacher-led, it was child-led, and the teacher was facilitating.

Before attending Clanmore Montessori School We were fairly new to Canada. We had only been here for a year from the UK, and they were settling in. We moved from overseas, and I needed to find child care for my young son, who was three. This recommendation of Clanmore Montessori School came up, and when we saw what we saw, it just seemed like the right thing to do for us as a family. We've never looked back. It was the right decision for us. It was a step outside of what we were used to. My schooling was at a very traditional school, and that's all I knew. So this was a leap of faith for us as a family.

My kids were traditionally educated, especially coming from the UK. It was very teacher- led by giving them work to do. Initially, my oldest daughter struggled because she was used to being handed work, and she liked that, but she didn't have to think about what she was going to do next. The key difference between Clanmore Montessori School and other types of education is that the child is part of the education process.

During my children’s first few months at Clanmore Montessori School, I saw that they enjoyed going to school. They wanted to be there, and they were happy to be there. They were engaged. It was a little different with my older daughter; there was a bit of resistance, but we stuck with it and eventually got used to it. It probably took her six or so months to understand the difference between her traditional schooling and where she was now.

At Clanmore Montessori School, students don't have homework or tests until middle school.

There's a conservation area behind Clanmore Montessori School, and they utilize that quite a lot. That was fun for my kids as well. It was very interactive, with lots of group work. They could really focus on what they were interested in, what they wanted to do, rather than being given work. All of that combined sold them on Clanmore Montessori School.

Aesthetically, Clanmore Montessori School is a lovely place. It's an old farmhouse, and it has a big extension. They utilize the conservation; there's a wooded area with a Creek behind the school where the children go on a brisk walk three times a week, and the parents are invited as well.

When my children first enrolled at Clanmore Montessori School, I didn't realize how they valued and respected the children. I had got an inkling of that, but I didn't realize how far they took it in as much. For example, if a child has an altercation with another child, neither is in trouble. They're not blamed for what's happened, but they're guided through fixing it. There's a lot of respect for the individual child and individuality. Whoever you are, the school knows there's good in you, and they will find that.

Clanmore Montessori School has a respect for the child, a respect for the world, and it’s concerned with self-growth of each individual child.

If you're just looking for academics, then it's not necessarily the school for you because you won't go to the school for a viewing day and see children sitting behind a desk, studying for all of their time. Clanmore Montessori School is much more interactive, and it's more subtle than other schools. Clanmore Montessori School is child-led, so there is a degree of freedom in that.

If you go into Clanmore Montessori School, and perhaps go into a different room you may see two children working away because they needed peace and quiet, and they're working on whatever they're doing. It's quite fascinating to see. One of the things that did blow me away about Clanmore Montessori School was seeing that the students were so motivated to do their work. Perhaps if you've got a child who isn't used to finding their own work, it could be a struggle at the beginning, as my daughter struggled with that at the beginning. She wanted to be fed work, and it took a while for her to understand that she'll be guided, and she has a responsibility to work.

Clanmore Montessori School instills that inner drive for learning. Learning this way sets students up well for the world, for their future.

My kids all have very different personalities and different abilities. They have different issues and needs, and their needs have been met one way or another. Clanmore Montessori School has suited all four interestingly.

One of my kids is very quiet, and she has identified learning challenges. Clanmore Montessori School has readily worked with her, and she's thriving in high school now, which is lovely for me to see. Academically, she's doing very well. One of my daughters made a mistake at Clanmore Montessori School and needed to fix it. She actually broke a window, and rather than being shamed, she was asked to come in on the weekend. So she had to take time off of her tennis lesson that she loved and fix the window. She went with one of Clanmore Montessori School’s owners to Home Depot, and they fixed the window, and she made amends. Now, years later, I see her in the garage doing woodwork.

One of my kids is very quiet, and she has identified learning challenges. Clanmore Montessori School has readily worked with her, and she's thriving in high school now, which is lovely for me to see. Academically, she's doing very well. One of my daughters made a mistake at Clanmore Montessori School and needed to fix it. She actually broke a window, and rather than being shamed, she was asked to come in on the weekend. So she had to take time off of her tennis lesson that she loved and fix the window. She went with one of Clanmore Montessori School’s owners to Home Depot, and they fixed the window, and she made amends. Now, years later, I see her in the garage doing woodwork.

Clanmore Montessori School has a garden, so they grow vegetables, which they have to start from scratch. It's a process, and they need to prepare the ground, and the students end up with the fruits of their labour at the end of the season.

Clanmore Montessori School students run a cafe one morning a week at the middle school, and the students are responsible for funding it. They take the bus to the grocery store, buy their provisions, market it, and serve it. It's lovely for the parents because we congregate there every week and enjoy their delights.

Clanmore Montessori School students are all very capable of cooking. From a very early age, they start to do the washing. They'll collect the laundry from the different classrooms and put the washing machine on. At eight years old, all of my children were doing their laundry. They're perfectly capable. They're very used to cleaning up after themselves because that is another responsibility they are taught at Clanmore Montessori School.

Clanmore Montessori School has a very caring community. Many like-minded families at the school appreciate what the school is doing and understand that it's different but valuable.

I like how the students are free. Clanmore Montessori School is a safe place for children to make mistakes, so there's no blame, and there's no shame. They're guided through fixing their mistakes, and I think that is a valuable lesson that we as parents can support, and I've learned a lot too.

Clanmore Montessori School is totally different from my schooling. My school would have sent me to the head teacher had I not behaved. There just wasn't the understanding, I don't think, of children's motivations. I noticed at Clanmore Montessori School that they have a good understanding of the different stages of child development But they do hold students accountable. I love that they do that and work with them to fix their mistakes.

The only time the students have homework from Clanmore Montessori School is when they want to bring something home because they haven't managed to finish it at school. That often happens because they are keen to do it, but they won't be given extra work. Everything that they have is done in class.