Everyone Happy Together!

23/4/2023

Childcare, day-care, pre-schools, nursery schools, all have one thing that is central to their being – to look after children! From there on in they can vary in what they do, how they do it, the culture, the ethos, the routines, the discipline, the character of their classrooms and the backdrop of their settings.

In Montessori classrooms, the founding lady herself, Maria Montessori, made it quite clear that children were best taught in mixed age groups. The reasoning behind she felt was integral to the children developing a sense of ‘community’ and ‘cooperation.’ I love that the emphasis was on the personal, social and emotional development. It has to be said that a sense of belonging is at the heart of the Montessori classroom and underpins the children’s’ ability to be creative and confident.

At Albany Montessori School having mixed age groups has always been practised and it has been wonderful. We always see it the whole group as one big family gathering where everyone is together, seeing what each other is doing, being observers, joining in and creating their own learning pathways. Teachers are akin to ‘favourite aunties’ (said Emma our lovely photographer) and we all get such a sense of joy and purpose in working with children of all ages in one room. What is lovely is how the younger children look up to the older ones, and how the older children become sensitive and understanding of the needs and behaviour of the younger ones. The older ones understand when a two-year-old comes charging in and knocks over their tower that this is part and parcel of two year olds' impulsive nature; in turn the two year olds seeing the dismay and outrage of the older children learn that knocking over a tower can meet with disproval and after repeating the same actions, and having it always been met with irritation, the little ones learn to respect the older children’s work and adjust their behaviour – they build and knock down their own towers instead or they watch for when the tower naturally tips over.

The children learn to cooperate from getting to understand one another and in doing so they also develop empathy and, as they get older they look to help. This was demonstrated beautifully just last week when after coming in from outside play, one of our four-year-old children helped one of our two-year-olds take their shoes off, and subsequently the four-year-old went and found the two-year-old’s slippers and helped the two-year-old put them on. Kindness, understanding, cooperation and empathy ensure that the children develop foundations of being lovely people, and it all happens when children of different ages are all chucked into the same classroom! There is so much more that takes place, but I will leave that for another time! Or as they say in the world of TV ‘To be continued…’!

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