One of the gifts of Montessori education is that we can truly focus on the whole child —cognitive, social, emotional, and physical. Our approach is not just about academics but also about nurturing life skills, emotional intelligence, and social relationships.
The Montessori approach to child development revolves around the understanding that children are naturally curious, care deeply about others, and can be intrinsically motivated. When provided with the right environment, children can deepen both their love for learning and their appreciation of and care for their community.
Prioritising the Prepared Environment
One of the keys to balancing social-emotional learning with cognitive and physical development is prioritising the impact of a prepared environment. In Montessori, a prepared environment is a place specially designed to appeal to children’s sensitive periods for learning, as well as their core human needs and tendencies. When designing these prepared spaces for children, we work to ensure children feel safe and supported so they can reach their potential. The Montessori-prepared environment is a place where children can feel at home as they develop their inner selves and outer skills.
Our carefully prepared Montessori classrooms are intentionally calm and orderly. The set up is designed to foster independence and decision-making. The order, layout and ‘place for all things’ means children feel safe to make decisions and act in the room, which feels familiar, structured and predictable. There is less chance for overwhelm, so more space for learning.
The sense of calm in the classroom, again intentionally created and managed by the lead educator, makes the Montessori classroom a healthy environment for the child to feel and act in a calm and ordered manner themselves. Visit our 6-9 classroom on most days of the week and you will notice the music playing quietly in the background, spreading a sense of quite calm through the room. Children can develop their emotional regulation skills in these more child-centered spaces.
Opportunities for Conflict Resolution
Montessori classrooms weave in opportunities for conflict resolution. Our highly teachers actively model and support children to learn to communicate their feelings through words. In addition to promoting self-awareness by identifying and naming emotions, we also teach active listening, problem-solving, and techniques for self-regulation from deep breathing to using calm spaces or quiet activities as required.
Through guided discussions, we help children think reflectively about social interactions, and how they can practice respectful communication, facilitate peaceful solutions. Ultimately, we want to empower children with life tools they can use outside the classroom, even if an adult is not present!
Respect for Others
Because children work together in a variety of ways through their care of the classroom environment and small group projects or lessons, they develop a deep sense of compassion and empathy. Our students learn to be mindful not only of their own needs in a given activity or situation, but those of other people around them. Our classrooms favour collaboration over competition. We promote problem solving as a group endeavour so all students learn from the process as well as the resolution. Our mixed-age groupings and peer-to-peer learning activities promote this collaboration and allow space for mentorship. As well as teachers and assistants, older students learn to serve as models of emotional regulation and conflict resolution for their younger peers.
Safety in Community
The sense of belonging within a class community or cohort is another aspect of supporting emotional support and safety for children in a Montessori school. And again, it’s intentional. Children thrive when they feel safe, comfortable and accepted within a trusted community. At FMS, we promote various levels of community, starting in the toddler classroom, which firmly establishes a very small group of children and adult guides as the initial outside-of-the-home community.
During the preschool years, this tiny community expands to a larger class of children, and also extends to the wider preschool groupings in which children mix during lunch times and for various incursions and excursions.
Children at this age are growing their experiences and interactions and at the same time, their safety net and community is growing too. Our trained educators gently guide the growth of these little communities that provide safety and security for our preschoolers.
When children move into our primary classrooms they engage in community meetings and community lunches, further building and supporting this sense of engagement and belonging. These intentional class activities promote inclusivity and respect for all children in the classroom. The long-term benefits are stronger social-emotional skills, a sense of ones’ own agency and confidence, and a deep sense of empathy.
With adult guidance, a purposeful environment and intentional community building, our classrooms go beyond academics to offer genuine holistic development for each child; encompassing social and emotional awareness alongside physical and cognitive learning.
