Casa Dei Bambini Montessori is set high up in Trieste, within a lovely green area, surrounded by lots of trees and nature. This on its own, already provides a calm sense of education within the school community.
Personally, this job shadowing opportunity was a very valuable learning experience for me. Being someone who has always been interested in the Montessori approach, it was very beneficial and enriching for me to observe this type of education in practice. The main highlight in my opinion, was seeing how the children (even from the young age of 3), are treated as little mature adults.
The children are guided along the day by their teachers, with not much direct
teaching. This provides room for the children to explore and self-teach, within safe limits. The children are given achievable responsibilities which work on self-care development.
Such as dressing and undressing (including buttons), hanging their own garments, taking on and off shoes, washing their own cloth and then hanging it to dry, helping during meal time, and much more. This not only provides the children with the opportunity to excel in independence very early on but also indirectly works on significantly improving their fine motor skills.
What also struck me is that when it comes to the primary years of the school, their system does not pose extreme academic pressure on the children. Peripatetic subjects are given the same level of importance as the academic subjects. Examination results are not child specific, but class
specific, but more class specific, worked out via the average score of the class. Furthermore, the results of the peripatetic subjects are included within the average score. This not only elevates pressure from the individual students but also provides a sense of community and teamwork within the class.
From this experience, I am taking back much insight and inspiration. I am pleased to confirm that we have already started implementing some improvements inspired by the Montessori system, within our
Kindergarten 2 classroom.
Patricia Xuereb Seychell – St Dorothy’s Primary School, Sliema
KA–2023–MT01–KA122-000113115
