About Us

Our Preschool – the Children’s House!

The Montessori Preschool is strategically located in Bourkelands, close to several main arterial roads that link the southernmost Wagga suburbs to the city. The site and curriculum were identified as a result of a robust needs assessment which identified a distinct lack of early childhood curriculum options in Wagga when compared to mainstream childcare.

The Montessori Preschool provides places for 96 children from one year of age to school age. Our centre has been purpose built to support an authentic Montessori learning environment. The facility is an environmentally sustainable design which offers children unique and exciting learning spaces with large light-filled rooms, specially developed living gardens and outdoor play areas.

The Montessori Preschool aims to establish a benchmark in Wagga for outdoor play as a fundamental aspect of early childhood development. The outside learning environment is unique and offers a diverse and tactile series of nature-based play spaces that provide a backdrop for the centre’s learning programs. Incorporating two sandpits, digging patch (mud pit) and watercourse, bike path, swings, obstacle course, fort, sensory pathways, trees, kitchen garden and two flexible-use softfall areas, the gardens vary in season and theme to showcase the diversity of the natural world.

Our Rooms

“We must give him an opportunity in which he can live and play” Maria Montessori

We have 4 large rooms, each named after a famous Montessori student. Our preschool employs a range of highly qualified educators including Montessori qualified Directress’s, Early Childhood Teachers and Early Childhood Educators. Our staff have many years’ experience in both early childhood and Montessori sectors providing a wonderful blend of knowledge and skills.

Our Montessori classrooms are filled with real life materials (glass and ceramic) which are accessible to children at all times and displayed on open shelving around the room. Our carefully prepared and presented inside environment acts as a stimulus to engage children leading to self-discovery of the many and varied materials and activities.

The whole environment provides children with the freedom to follow their natural tendencies towards independence, exploration, co-operation, order, repetition, imagination and communication. The building design (internal and external), the equipment and materials suit the needs of the children at each stage of their development.

Room 4: Brin & Page room (Google founders)

3 – 6 age range
30 children each day
Staff: Directress, Early Childhood Teachers and Educators

Room 3: Prince William room (Royal Family)

3 – 6 age range
30 children each day
Staff: Early Childhood Teachers and Educators

Room 2: Yo Yo Ma room (Cellist and UN Peace Ambassador)

2-3.5 years age range
20 children each day
Staff: Directress, Early Childhood Educators

Room 1: Taylor Swift room (singer artist)

12-24 months
16 children each day
Staff: Early Childhood Educators

Our Preschool Rooms

Infant and Toddler community: 12 months -3 (3.5) year age range

The infant/toddler community spaces allow the young child to move naturally from a physical/emotional stage of development to the more cognitive phase of learning. Through movement and exploration, the child will be exposed to a broader world where parallel play becomes interactive play, where words become tools to communicate needs and desires, and where the boundaries of possibility expand alongside the developing mind.

Our learning rooms will provide activities that seduce the child to care for oneself and the environment, foster further refinement of gross and fine motor skills and provide structure and organization for pre-academic learning.

Preschool (Casa) community: 3 – 6 years

Children between the age of birth and six possess an “absorbent mind” which enables them to learn their native tongue, to perfect movement and internalise order. Generally the 3 to 6 year old child is undergoing a process of self-construction and with the application of the Montessori philosophy and the specifically designed Montessori preschool equipment, the child will be helped to absorb knowledge and continue their path of self-construction.

There are five main areas in the preschool program which include: Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Mathematics and Culture. Considerable emphasis will be placed on Creative Arts, Music, Science, Geography and Cultural Studies. Globes, maps, songs, land forms, collections of pictures of life in different cultures, and much more, will be offered, with the aim of helping the child to grow as an individual appreciating the larger context of his or her world.

Our Staff

Our centre provides a higher ratio of trained staff than is required by regulations. This enables our educators to provide individual attention and programming for each child. All educators are encouraged to participate in workshops and in-service training throughout the year to further develop their skills and knowledge. Staff members will be assigned to rooms for a three year cycle which enables staff to make long lasting and secure attachments with not just children but also families. All staff are first aid, asthma and anaphylaxis trained.

Managing Director

Annette Jarvis

Qualifications:

Diploma Early Childhood and Primary Education (Montessori) (ACECQA recognised)
Masters Public Health
Bachelor Business Management (major IT)

Role:
Centre Management, Directress Infant/Toddler rooms, Leadership, Human Resources and Quality.

Annette works on the floor as the Directress Infant/Toddler 4 days per week.