REVIEW OF Enquiring Minds Montessori BY parent, Christina Farina

(5) Student Experience

My son previously went to a traditional Catholic School in Toronto. We felt like there was not much progress for his age group. Every day he came home and said he did nothing but play. We also noticed lately from all the after-school programs that he had sparked an interest in musical theatre, dance, art, and music. We then found Enquiring Minds Montessori and enrolled him. He was a little nervous to leave his school, and we thought it would be an issue since it was such a big change, but he absolutely loves it! He has made so many friends these last few months, and always comes home talking about his day, and telling all our family and friends about the art he is doing, and he is so excited about tap dancing in the fall! Thank you EM for providing everything our child needed!

(4.5) School Leadership

I truly believe that Enquiring Minds Montessori has a wonderful curriculum and wonderful staff. The staff go above and beyond for the children and are always creating lots of fun and artistic programs for them, along with all the fun excursions, and special guests. The school always responds to any concerns in a timely matter and does well with communication. The school quite frequently meets multiple times a week to communicate with each other, and discuss curriculum, or concerns, and also have monthly meetings. I believe they truly do have discipline following the Montessori methods instead of traditional which is really important and way more effective in the long run for the child.

(5) Teaching

The Teachers and Teacher Assistants are all magnificent. They are all certified, have a great education, have lots of experience, and most of all have a passion for the Montessori philosophy, and for the arts! I am very pleased with the teachers, and teaching methods at this school. They are very wonderful in the sense that they even do parent workshops, and they give us a visual on what they teach the students, and the purpose of it, and I think it is really great how they go above and beyond for the parent community because it also benefits us and gives us a better understanding of the purpose and how we can implement these activities, and vocabulary and strategies into our own homes, and in the real world.

(5) Academics

The academic program at Enquiring Minds is a lot of hands-on work which benefits my child because he is a visual learner. They also cover a wide range of subjects and offer excursions and special guests that relate to their curriculum. It is truly amazing how everything they do focuses on and connects back to their curriculum. The school's strengths are for sure their mathematics, their language, and practical life skills, but they also have strengths within their geography, history, and also technology. The school has many strengths in its traditional subjects, but its biggest strength is its dedication to its arts program. The only weakness they could possibly have is that there is not enough time in the week to implement more art programs!

(5) Extracurriculars

We struggled to pay, and finding the time for after school programs for multiple extracurricular activities for our child, but the best part is that we do not have to do that anymore since our son has gone to Enquiring Minds. They offer many different types of arts! They offer Violin, Tap, Acro, Art, French, Mandarin, & Photography! They even turn into a dance school in the evenings, and on weekends so that if our son wanted to take Ballet, Hip Hop, Jazz, or get extra practice in other genres of dance, he could stay after school!

(5) Students

I believe that since it is a small school, it benefits each child because it gives the teachers more time to focus on each child individually rather than always a whole group which wouldn't benefit them like in a traditional school setting. The size of the school is perfect, it is not too small, but also not very very big. The spirit is usually positive and the general atmosphere is great. All the children get along very well! The spirit of the school feels very warm, respectful, and collective and it gives all children a sense of belonging. Working in previous schools, and having my son at another school, there would always be concerns with making friends, or bullies, but here we have never had that issue, and since it is smaller and intimate the children get along better, and build great friendships since they participate in so many extracurricular activities together, and the teachers can observe how they interact more.

(5) School Life

My child has only been here for a few months, and he absolutely loves it! He always looks forward to going to school because every day is exciting, it is always filled with fun learning experiences, art specialties, excursions, and special guests. My son would only look forward to going to his previous schools to just see friends and because of recess, he never had anything to really discuss during dinner time about what he learned or did at school. At Enquiring Minds, he looks forward to something every single day, and we always ask how his day was he always has something to talk about or share which makes us confident that he is actually learning something and enjoying it at the same time.

(4) Community

The school has been working on involving parents more internally, but the school has started up their parent-student excursions again, and parent events within the school and they are fantastic and so beautiful to attend. The broader community at Enquiring Minds Montessori is based on families who share a passion for the Montessori philosophy & who also share a peak interest in the art department. The community here at Enquiring Minds is very communicative with each other and also is very involved with the student excursions, and parent-held events. The parent community seems to be very friendly, and honest from what I noticed so far. Parents are always welcome to have a voice at the school which I think is really important and makes me feel valued.

(4.5) School Location

The school is located right off the highway, and it is very convenient to get to. The school has a very large parking lot and has a decent-sized playground for the number of students who attend it. Students are safe within the playground around the entire school. The school is also working on getting additional fencing to give more security and safety around the entire facility. The school ventures off the facility when they go on their monthly excursions. These excursions would include art galleries, recreational parks, theatres, museums, and much more!