Indirect Support:
WMS, in downtown Toronto, offers a nurturing and educational childcare environment for children (1.5 - 12 yrs.) Westsiders achieve their fullest potential; our students radiate self-confidence and exhibit a love for learning. Our children develop strong executive functions, including: planning, organizing, working memory, self-regulation, task initiation, flexibility, goal-directed persistence and sustained attention.
There are various aspects to the Montessori model of instruction, though Westside nicely addresses not only what Montessori is, but also what it can mean in the longer-term. Maria Montessori didn’t think small—her classrooms, she felt, could be a doorway to many things, including world peace. That’s a very big thought of course, but within it is that idea of the longer-term, the belief that education is about the future of a society through addressing the future of each child. At Westside, that’s very much the intention: to give young students the basis for success in their education, and ultimately, success in life. The vibrancy of the surrounding Kensington Market community finds its way, very happily, into the classroom as well. Core literacy and numeracy are important, though there is also an attention to esteem, executive functioning, and social interaction. Rightly, families look to Westside, often principally, because of the program’s attention to those foundations.
| Program | offered |
|---|---|
| Montessori toddler | |
| Casa | |
| Elementary | |
| Middle School | |
| High School |
| Focus |
|---|
| Academic |
DIBELS Testing: This school does not use DIBELS testing to assess reading progress.
| Subject | offered |
|---|---|
| Biology | |
| Chemistry | |
| Ecology | |
| Geology | |
| Meteorology | |
| Physics | |
| Physiology | |
| Zoology |
| Subject | offered |
|---|---|
| Evolution as consensus theory | |
| Evolution as one of many equally viable theories | |
| Evolution is not taught |
| Subject | offered |
|---|---|
| Acting | |
| Dance | |
| Drama/Theatre | |
| Graphic Design | |
| Music | |
| Visual Arts |
| Subject | offered |
|---|---|
| Computer science | |
| Robotics | |
| Web design |
| Toddler | Primary | Lower Elementary | Upper Elementary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age groupings How children are grouped by age for each class.' |
18 to 30/36 | 30/36 to 72 | 6 to 9 | 9 to 12 |
| Uninterrupted work periods The longest uninterrupted work period for each class.' |
2 hours | 3 hours | 3 hours | 3 hours |
| Tests and assignments How often students are given tests or assignments in each class.' |
Never (Orthodox) | Never (Orthodox) | Occasionally (Moderate Orthodox) | Occasionally (Moderate Orthodox) |
| Graded work How often students have their work graded in each class.' |
Never (Orthodox) | Never (Orthodox) | Occasionally (Moderate Orthodox) | Occasionally (Moderate Orthodox) |
| Arts and crafts The percentage of a typical student's day that is spent on arts and crafts in each class.' |
2% | 2% | 2% | 2% |
Whole-class lectures should only be given occasionally (e.g., at the beginning of a term or unit). Students usually learn best through small group lessons, interaction, and independent work.
External special education support is only rarely necessary. For instance, a psychologist might be brought in to help out a student with a severe developmental disorder.
We don't have any specialist teachers or classes. Core teachers are well-equipped to teach all subjects.
Modern-day technology is very rarely used in class, since it can be a distraction and interfere with development. Students at the upper levels, though, might be permitted to use a computer or a tablet to do research for a specific project.
Overall approach : Which option best describes your overall curricular approach?
Schools that adhere strictly to the original Montessori program. They follow Montessori principles to the letter.
| Flexible pacing style | offered |
|---|---|
| Subject-streaming (tracking) | |
| Multi-age classrooms as standard | |
| Ability-grouping (in-class) as common | |
| Frequent use of cyber-learning (at-their-own-pace) | |
| Regular guided independent study opportunities | |
| Differentiated assessment |
School offers no/limited support for students with learning difficulties or special needs.
| Subject Type | offered |
|---|---|
| Learning strategy and study counselling; habit formation | |
| Extra support and minor accommodations for children experiencing subclinical difficulties |
| Subject Type | offered |
|---|---|
| Accommodations | |
| Modifications | |
| Extra support |
Read our guide to special needs schools and special education
| Program | offered |
|---|---|
| Full-time gifted program (parallel to rest of school) | |
| Part-time gifted program (pull-out; parallel to rest of class) |
Curriculum delivery: This information is not currently available.
| Program | offered |
|---|---|
| Custom subject enrichment (special arrangement) | |
| Custom curriculum compacting (special arrangement) | |
| Guided independent study (custom gifted arrangement) | |
| Cyber-learning opportunities (custom gifted arrangement) | |
| Formalized peer coaching opportunities (specifically for gifted learners to coach others) | |
| Custom subject acceleration (special arrangement) | |
| Career exploration (custom gifted arrangement) | |
| Project-based learning (custom gifted arrangement) | |
| Mentorships (custom gifted arrangement) |
| Sports Offered | Competitive | Recreational |
|---|---|---|
| Baseball | ||
| Basketball | ||
| Ice Hockey | ||
| Lacrosse | ||
| Soccer | ||
| Softball | ||
| Swimming | ||
| Tennis | ||
| Track & Field | ||
| Volleyball |
Clubs offered: None
| NS | PS | JK | SK | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| Day | $20,700 | $18,700 | $19,000 | |||||||
Discounts
| Discount Type | Enrollment Type | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Full payment | all students | 2% |
| 2nd child (sibling) | all students | 5% |
| 3rd child (sibling) | all students | 10% |
This information is not currently available.
This information is not currently available.
| Grades | Gender | Living Arrangement | Enrollment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group 1 | Nursery/Toddler to Gr. 6 | Coed | Day | 90 |
| Total enrollment | 90 |
| Average enrollment per grade | 9 |
| Average class size | 10 to 24 |
| Gender (grades) | Nursery/Toddler to Gr. 6 (Coed) |
| Boarding offered | No |
| Percentage of students are international students | |
| Number of different nationalities within student population | 0 |
| Five-day boarding programs offfered |
| Assessment | Required | Grades |
|---|---|---|
| Interview | 1 - 6 | |
| SSAT | ||
| SSAT (out of province) | ||
| Entrance Exam(s) | ||
| Entrance Essay | ||
| Application Fee |
Day students: Rolling
Student Entry Points
| Student Type | NS | PS | JK | SK | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day Acceptance (Acceptance rate) | 10 - 15 (50%) | 2 - 3 (25%) | 2 - 3 (25%) | 2 - 3 (25%) | 3 - 5 (85%) | 3 - 5 (85%) | 3 - 5 (85%) |
Below, find stories and testimonials about Westside Montessori School.
The Montessori Casa Program is the most popular program for kids aged 2½ to 6 years.
The Montessori classroom is a nurturing, bright and spacious environment specifically prepared for children. Your child will explore and expand their knowledge in this social and interactive environment. In our Montessori classroom, children engage in a variety of activities; some enjoy a snack, one child writes a story, others work in a group and the teacher introduces a new lesson to a student.
Practical Life
The exercises of practical life instill independence and confidence through learning to take care of oneself, others and the surrounding environment. Through doing up zippers, sewing and preparing a snack, along with other activities, children naturally develop and fine tune muscular coordination and motor skills. Through their work, the children build their sense of order, understanding of the work cycle and ability to concentrate, all of which are important skills needed for academic work.
Sensorial
The sensorial materials are the tools Dr. Montessori devised for development and refinement of the senses. The children develop cognitively and through exploration learn to order and classify concepts. The classification, contrast and comparison of colour, shape, smell, feel, temperature, weight and texture are all explored. This work indirectly prepares the students for later work in Mathematics, Algebra and Geometry.
Language
Our students are presented with a wealth of opportunity to enrich their language through exploration while being encouraged to express themselves intelligently, with precision. Through work with Montessori language materials, children will learn at their own pace to write and as a result, to read.
Mathematics
Through work with tangible Montessori materials children develop an understanding of mathematical concepts. We introduce the children to numeric symbols, their quantities and the decimal system. We present the operations of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division, as well as place value. The concepts of fractions and measurements are also explored. Ultimately children aspire to abstractly understand these operations.
Culture
The children study plants, animals and their parts, the life cycles of living creatures, metamorphosis and the physical sciences. Seasons and temperature are also explored. Specific biology activities include the study and classification of living things, including plants, animals, and more specifically: vertebrates and invertebrates. Geography, history, calendar, time, holidays, maps and various cultural traditions make up aspects of the culture curriculum.
Art
Children are introduced to an assortment of art mediums. This introduction includes studying pictures by famous artists and visits to local galleries. In the classroom, the children will learn the specific skills of drawing, painting, cutting and pasting.
Music
During Circle Time, the children sing songs, repeat rhymes and act out finger plays. Exercises with the Sound Bells introduce the children to scales and help them perceive high and low notes and match sounds. Our listening centre enables the children to gain exposure to different types of music, from Classical to Raffi to the sounds of Latin America; they love it all. You would be amazed at what a hit the Grease Soundtrack is.
Throughout the school year WMS invites specialized teachers and artists into the school, exposing the children to a more deep understanding and appreciation of the Arts.
...
The Montessori Toddler Program allows children aged 18 to 30 months to function independently in an atmosphere of love and support. Toddlers flourish in an environment that believes in and encourages their innate abilities. Keeping in mind the child's natural learning characteristics, the prepared environment offers a complete range of purposeful and sensorial activities ideal for preschool years.
Movement Area
The developing brain is stimulated and enhanced through small and large muscle movement, which must be perfected through practice. Our movement area within the classroom allows each child to move seamlessly between large and small muscle activities as needed. Through such activities as the stairs and platform, push cart and wall bars, your child will build and strengthen the large muscle groups needed for coordination while learning how to negotiate their surroundings. Materials such as threading, stringing beads and working with puzzles develop and refine the smaller muscle groups, as well as the ability to concentrate. This work indirectly prepares the toddler for future skills, such as tying shoes and handwriting.
Practical Life Area
Through working with activities in the practical life area such as sweeping, caring for plants and polishing, toddlers develop good work habits and attitudes such as focus, concentration, inner discipline, task completion, pride in work and organizational skills.
Language Area
The language area consists of miniature objects and picture cards, including parts of the body, animals, the neighbourhood, the school and the home. These materials are designed to increase the children’s vocabulary and expressive language. The teacher shares poetry, fiction and nonfiction books with the children. Additional activities including French and music are also part of your child’s language experiences at Westside Montessori School.
...
The elementary program at Westside Montessori School in Toronto is designed on Dr. Montessori's holistic curriculum that meets the developmental needs of elementary children aged 6 to 9. The following subjects are covered at the elementary montessori school.
History
History begins with natural history followed by the introduction of human history. By studying the achievements of those who have come before us, and how they have impacted our lives now, they develop an appreciation for humanity and our special human gifts. Timelines are used to help the children place themselves in time and place in relation to what has come before.
Geography
Geography in Montessori elementary explores geology, meteorology, oceanography, chemistry, and some aspects of economics all in an integrated manner. It is introduced with the story of the universe into which all other parts fit. The imagination is the most important tool used in their geography explorations, as it helps them to understand what is beyond their own experience. From materialized abstractions, such as the ‘air takes up space’ demonstration, or models such as the volcano or river, the children come to understand concepts, and apply these concepts to comprehend the world beyond the walls of their classroom.
Biology
The Elementary biology curriculum offers rich language, and an opportunity to develop and refine the skills of observation, analysis and classification, in order to further their understanding of life. Biology is a gift to the elementary child, as it engages their growing reasoning and imaginative mind, and answers some of their big “why” and “how” questions. The biology work gives the children a chance to practice scientific methods, and further their research skills. Through the study of biology from the perspective of how living things meet their needs, and with a focus on interdependencies, children develop respect, love, gratitude and a sense of responsibility for all life.
Language
In Montessori, language is learned through the efforts, activities and experiences of the children, creating a rich context in which they explore grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and literary conventions of their own language, as well as French. Strong literacy skills and clear communication, both written and spoken, are ultimate goals of the language curriculum.
Music
It is not only a way to explore sound, but also movement, language, history, essentially any and all of the subject areas. The children are introduced to musical theory and have the opportunity to learn to read and write music. They use the tone bars, a Montessori material that builds on the sound bells, as well as other instruments including their own voices, in their musical explorations.
Mathematics
The progression through the Elementary Math manipulatives leads the children from work that is focused mainly on process, to written work, which becomes increasingly symbolic, enabling them to check for accuracy. The children learn the rules of math as a result of their own activity, in other words they discover them as opposed to being told. This allows for a deeper understanding of the algorithms. The elementary child’s reasoning and imaginative mind pushes them to explore the literally infinite world of mathematics, including properties of numbers, and numeration, work with the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) and the order of operations, powers of numbers, integers, other base systems, fractions, decimals, squaring and cubing, as well as word problems.
Geometry
We begin with the etymology of the word Geometry, a story that takes us back to ancient Egypt, during the seasonal flooding. Geometry offered solutions to some of the challenges that the people faced and it continues to do so today. This approach immediately roots geometry in its applications. The materials lead the children through explorations in equivalence, similarity and congruence, lines, angles, polygons, area, and solid geometry including volume. This work exercises the elementary child’s reasoning mind and helps build higher and clearer cognitions, thereby increasing children’s mental capacity.
Art
Art, like music, is integrated into the curriculum and is often a part of whatever the children are doing, whether it be focusing on the history of art, or using art to explore history. The arts curriculum will encompass visual arts such as painting, sculpting and photography, as well as physical arts like theatre and dance. Exposure to and experience within the arts has shown to support the development of creativity, confidence, problem solving, perseverance, focus, non-verbal communication, receiving constructive feedback, collaboration, dedication and accountability.
Physical Education
Physical education should be a vital part of any elementary program, as it is essential in the development of strong healthy minds and bodies. The children will be introduced to a variety of physical activities. Every week the children have an hour-long specialty class in the afternoon. These classes may include martial arts, dance, rock climbing, skateboarding, etc., and each runs for 6-8 weeks throughout the year, allowing time for the children to get a feel for it, and perhaps even discover a hidden talent. On another day of the week, we alternate between a nature program including a hike in High Park, and Sportball (indoors or outdoors), where a Sportball coach teaches skills used in all different sports.
Digital Technology & Computors
We take seriously our responsibility to make thoughtful decisions about when and how technology is introduced. Digital education should not only include operation of hardware, software, and the Internet, but also social media. In terms of using digital technology as a research tool, children should have certain skills in place first. The Internet is a wealth of information, however it can also be overwhelming, especially to a non-discerning mind. Books and encyclopedias allow children to develop research skills, and it has been proven that hard copies lend themselves to better navigation and reading comprehension. Therefore, technology will be introduced towards the end of lower elementary and as with all other work it will depend on the child’s readiness and interest.
Going Out
As the elementary child is in search of answers to how the world works, many of the materials, such as those in sciences, and social sciences, are purposefully limited to create a need to explore the actual world beyond the classroom walls. These explorations may take place in the library, museums, institutes, parks or even local shops and businesses and offer the children meaningful learning opportunities, beyond just what they discover about the topic being explored. These outings involve planning, and are student-led from beginning to end. This process will have them planning from the proposal stage, to mapping out how to get to their destination, to knowing the hours and costs. It will require learning how to appropriately and politely acquire information from people over the phone or via email and in person and of course showing appreciation to those who took time out of their day by sending thank you notes. The natural consequences they may face due to lack of planning are invaluable learning experiences, as are their successes.
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Children present us with opportunities to think about the world in new and fascinating ways. I am blessed to share my days with our Westside students and my evenings with my own child, who is three. A few months ago, when explaining to my son Wyatt that I work at his school and we may see each other from time to time, he began with the “Why? Why?” that educators and parents are extremely familiar with. He wanted to know why I work at his school, “Because I like to help children and teachers.” “Why?” “Because I love children.” “Why?” Up until this moment, the conversation had been easy, really easy. This was a huge question and he was awaiting my response, “I love children because within each child lies an opportunity for a better world”.
Maria Montessori, who lived through two world wars, believed that through children, we can achieve world peace, and I quote, “Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.” Mahatma Gandhi met Maria Montessori in 1931, and she invited him to speak to a group of Montessori teacher trainees. He said, “If we are to create peace in our world, we must begin with our children.”
They are right, if peace doesn’t begin with the children, it doesn’t begin at all. Spending time with these beautiful souls reminds me on a daily basis that anything is possible and they will lead us there. We must give them the opportunity, trust and confidence to make it happen. We must have faith in their development and know that they will arrive.
I invite you to set up a time to come to Westside Montessori School and learn more about our programs and the independent, motivated and compassionate students we are guiding.
June 19, 2014
Westside Montessori School Toronto Expands Elementary Grades
Think montessori education is only for preschool aged kids? Think again. Montessori education in elementary offers unparalleled development. ...
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