Hatch House Montessori School

[EduCativ]

Hatch House Montessori School provides authentic Montessori based, high-quality care and education for children from 9 months to 14 years of age. HHMS is a very child-centered school where each student is respected for his/her uniqueness and is taught accordingly. Learning is enhanced in a positive, nurturing, and disciplined environment. Teachers are observers and facilitators, always ready to guide and direct. Their purpose is to stimulate the child's enthusiasm for learning and guide it, without interfering with the child's need and effort to become more independent.
Our language enriched Toddler Programme is the perfect platform to sow the seeds of learning to love different languages by introducing French and Spanish at this very formative age. This inspiring program is in absolute sync with one of Dr. Montessori's most significant discoveries. The toddlers' sensitive period for language as children reach higher levels in their development - from toddlers through Casa and into Elementary - the focus on language studies increases.
At Hatch House Montessori School, we take great pride in being the pioneers of our unique, fully Bilingual Elementary Programme conceived and implemented in September 2013. Our French Inclusive Elementary Programme facilitates students to learn in a fully bilingual environment, where the entire Montessori curriculum is instructed in both English and French simultaneously.
While children progress through the different levels – Toddler to Casa and then to Elementary – they undergo an incredible transformation. They are encouraged to ask questions, think critically, engage in daily explorations, and stretch themselves as far as possible. Our students build fundamental life-long skills and a solid academic foundation; they embrace the world around them and become independent, lifelong learners.
Our Mission is to continually improve our facilities, build and promote ourselves as a multi-cultural school, and further develop and implement progressive programs for all children's benefit. We believe in the ongoing growth and support of our students in a nurturing, caring environment where students are inspired toward a lifelong love of learning. Our school is located in a historic mansion in the heart of downtown Whitby. HHMS offers a unique, warm, and cozy setting where every child is allowed the freedom to develop at their own pace. The historical setting of HHMS features an environment full of natural wood and beautiful stained glass windows.
Our Junior Toddler Programme provides a unique introductory period of the Montessori learning practices to the youngest children entering the classroom. Through multi-sensory explorations, the child begins his or her incredible journey of self-creation.
Children enter this program at a tender age of 9 months, where the environment is carefully prepared to offer a safe and nurturing atmosphere of unique understanding, to provide challenge and excitement while encouraging the child's natural curiosity, and where independence is fostered, respect is modeled, and support is continuously displayed.
Our Junior Toddler Programme is somewhat slower-paced than our Toddler classroom. The teacher-child ratio is 3:10, lower than in the Toddler environment. Similarly to the slightly older age group, the classroom is furnished with small scale tables and chairs, suited ideally to this very young group of children. Besides the daily practice and refinement of gross motor and excellent motor skills, the program is designed to focus on visual discrimination and language, which is in perfect alignment with the Sensitive Periods of this age group, discovered by Dr. Maria Montessori.
To fulfill the junior toddlers' sensitive period for language, our program introduces "BabySign." With the combination of this intriguing concept and the teachers' repetitive, proper enunciation of simple words and expressions, our youngest children eagerly begin to form words and start expanding their constantly growing vocabularies. Paired this with their newly acquired skill of Signing, our young toddlers can begin to communicate in a simple and very effective way. Listening to stories, learning songs, and introducing French all enrich their flourishing language development.
The simple multi-sensorial Montessori activities with their gradually increasing level of difficulty satisfy our young toddlers' thirst for the full experience of exploring everything around them, not only engaging all their senses but their entire body. Gross motor activities are essential for our young children's growing bodies. Running, jumping, climbing outside and on our outdoor play structures, and, dancing, playing games, learning to walk up and downstairs and walking on a balance beam indoors all nurture the proper development of the physically active, healthy body and plant the seeds of a healthy lifestyle at a very early age.
Our highly trained, qualified teachers, by modeling kindness, respect, and consideration of others, instill these ideals at this very young age and encourage children to emulate them in daily practice. Freedom of choice is a regular practice in our Junior Toddler classroom. While children are given access to countless activities and explorations, it all takes place in an environment with healthy, natural limitations. Therefore, children begin to learn to respect themselves, each other, and their environment, which will be valuable.
Our Toddler Programme offers very young children different self-exploration years in a safe, tender atmosphere of unique understanding, respect, and support.
Dr. Montessori discovered that children of the toddler age are, like a sponge, capable of absorbing incredible amounts of knowledge from their surroundings rapidly and effortlessly. She identified this fertile period of cognitive development. She recognized the need for a productive, well-prepared environment just for toddlers, with even the furniture scaled to the size that offers ultimate comfort and accessibility for young children.
Our Casa program provides a warm, caring, inviting and a positively engaging atmosphere in three very carefully prepared, but physically distinct environments. Young children take in a tremendous amount of information from their environment with what Maria Montessori called "the absorbent mind." The "conscious absorbent mind" way of learning is the unique ability of our multi-age group of 2.5 – 6-year-old children in the Casa classrooms. Our Casa program delivers an enriching hands-on learning experience with specially formulated, purposeful Montessori materials for Practical Life activities, Sensorial Exploration, Language, Arithmetic, and Culture.
The Elementary program at Hatch House Montessori School is offered for students from 6 to 14 years old (Grade 1 – 8). True to the discoveries of Dr. Maria Montessori, the program is organized into two three-year cycles: Lower Elementary from Grades 1 – 3 are for 6 to 9-year-olds, Upper Elementary from Grades 4 – 6 are for 9 to 12-year-olds and from Grade 7 - 8 are for 13 - 14-year-olds. Our elementary students continue their studies in the same classroom year after year, which allows them to build a strong community with one another and intensify their relationships with the teachers, who will stay with the students through their elementary years. Similarly to the Casa program, Elementary children continue to learn through the manipulation and aid of concrete materials as they move gradually toward increasingly abstract thinking. The Elementary Montessori materials engage multiple senses; the lessons are dramatic and impressionistic to spark the students' imagination and curiosity. The spiral curriculum of the Montessori classroom exposes students to many interrelated topics repeatedly over time. With each repetition, children build on the knowledge they already have about a topic, delving deeper into the details, seeing the connections more clearly, and ultimately developing a deep understanding of our complex world. In the productive Elementary environment, there are no limits to what the child may learn and explore.

View full school