Sudbury Schools - Environment

We're really curious about Sudbury Schools. Having gone to a strict boarding school where we marched into meals, the thought of a Sudbury School delights us - the anarchy!

But would we want to work in one, and most importantly - would we want to send our daughter to one, or even more importantly, would she want to go to one?!

So, why are we hesitating?

Before we discover any more about Sudbury Schools, what are our preconceptions?

Environment

We are absolutely onboard for grown ups stepping back but the environment and how it is set up is a powerful source of learning - does anyone control the environment in a Sudbury School?

For example, do kids come in on a Monday morning to find a milking cow in the grounds, or a million ping pong balls piled up in the rec room? (Or have we just come up with a brilliant new concept school!)

What resources are the kids given? What provocations?

This photo from the newly opened La Rosa de los Vientos Sudbury School near Madrid made us wonder - not to say that kids couldn't do a lot already with this space but would it keep them going for 7 years? What else does Sudbury add, or is that the brilliant point - they don't, the kids do?

We were blown away during our ISN project with the many different ways in which the children were exploring the relatively small amount of big and small loose parts (see below) that we'd made available to them. We know that they were not getting those learning opportunities before we put those loose parts there because we watched they play before and after. That said, we know that even in the most barren playground, children will find something to do. Our parents argument today is of course 'When I was a child, you had one stick and were told to come back when it got dark'. Where is the happy balance? Also, the ISN kids didn't bring the loose parts in themselves - small ones yes but big ones no. Do Sudbury kids arrive at school on Monday morning with cartwheels and car tyres? And if so, how brilliant!

Observed freedom

Reggio Emilia International Study Group 2016

Each preschool or infant toddler centre in Reggio Emailia has outdoor spaces and a central 'piazza' where small groups are allowed to go with "liberta vigilanza" or observed freedom. In the morning gatherings each day a group of children will be 'chosen' to independently go outside or in the piazza (where there are often role playing or construction opportunities). The Pedagogista spoke of how the teachers make choices - especially about the makeup of these groups, explaining that some children would not be put in a group together when given this freedom.

The effect is twofold (or reciprocal again!) in that the group get to operate independently with all its inherent benefits and the teachers are able to give more attention to observing a smaller number of children in the class.

Observations from our visit to a Montessori School in Valencia

We visited a Montessori School on the outskirts of Valencia today. It was a limited visit but the first time we have been into a Montessori school, and we don't know very much yet about Montessori, so we had a lot of questions we will seek to answer in the coming months. How much of what we observed is unique to this school - how much is universal to Montessori?

Divided learning

Materials are divide into Maths, English and Geography; they also have an art teacher. Are the days structured or do children follow their interests at their own pace? How are interests outside of these explored?

Self-correcting materials

They use self-correcting materials for the 3-6 year olds. The guide observes but will intervene if they notice the materials are being used incorrectly - what does that type of interaction look like?

The school owner believes the Montessori programme doesn't enable enough creative expression. We agree. She sought to resolve this by employing a Reggio-experienced Art teacher. But rather than acting like an atelierista, weaving the creative languages into all other explorations it seemed that art was still being thought of as a separate subject. Unfortunately, their Reggio-experienced Art teacher decided she wanted to become a Montessori guide instead! We found this really interesting.

Boarding

Maria Montessori believed in the importance of boarding from age 12 to develop independence. Daisy went to Boarding School. I didn't. What would we want for Indigo?

Naturally we had a lot of questions after leaving the school. In searching for answers we found this excellent article titled Montessori Myths: Misconceptions about Montessori Education from the Bala House Montessori School which is worth sharing.

A main overall concern with the Montessori approach is that whilst it encourages children to select which activity they want to pursue ('in a purposeful manner'), it still dictates the activities, and in so doing, decides what is worthy of pursuit and what isn't. Are all Montessori materials self-correcting and therefore closed-ended?

Reggio on the other hand insists on open-ended environments and providing 100+ opportunities for children to explore their 100+ languages, (partly achieved by making environments open-ended).