At CMCS we believe that children’s natural interests and talents should guide their education, not the constraints of a defined curriculum. While we make full use of Montessori materials and a “relaxed” Montessori method with the younger child, the older child is stimulated by a program driven by individual interest that offers space for exploration and maintains a foundation in the basics. Our teachers’ commitment to a child’s emotional well being in combination with multi-aged classrooms engenders an environment of mutual respect and understanding among the students. We approach the creativity of the whole child, taking his/her social, emotional, spiritual, academic and physical needs into consideration.

The core subjects offered by the classroom teachers are mathematics, reading, phonics, writing, spelling, grammar, social studies, science and technology. In learning these basics a great deal of room is allowed for personal creativity and individual learning styles and interests. Adding community activities, input in how their classrooms run, environmental involvement and an exciting mix of arts, French, physical education, music and much more, gives the child a unique recipe for educational success. We endeavour to provide the best possible individualized, interest-led, and self-directed educational experience.

In the classroom, the teacher acts as a facilitator, guide, and mentor. The educational experience is highly individualized and is as self-directed as the student is capable of handling. We recognize that not all children come to school with skills for self-directed learning already in place. Therefore, they need instruction in order to learn a variety of skills that lead to independence. We are committed to building a complex set of skills via the child’s interests, and at a pace that meets them at their own level. One advantage that we have over a larger school system lies in the students’ freedom to work at a level suitable to their current stage of educational development. For instance, a child who would be enrolled at a grade 4 level in public school might be working in our school at a grade 5 level in language arts and a grade 6 (or possibly a grade 3) level in mathematics. The possibilities are endless and very exciting.

Evaluation is cooperative and ongoing, involving self, peers, and teachers. Students are encouraged to open doors and explore life and the world around them. To encourage this unique learning experience, the class sizes are kept small with a maximum student to teacher ratio of approximately fifteen to one.

We trust the students to know what they need in order to learn and to excel in the educational experience. Time and again we see them come to love learning for the joy it brings!

 Core Curriculum

• Language and Mathematics
• Content Areas: Science, Social
• Studies, French
• Creative Arts
• French
• Physical and Emotional Education and Health
• Outdoor Education

Language and Mathematics

Teachers at CMCS consult the Overall Expectations stated in the Ontario Curriculum in Language and Mathematics to guide content delivery. Expectations in Specific Areas are available for further clarification when necessary. The methodology for delivering the expectations is left to the discretion of the teachers to allow for providing interest led, individualized instruction that addresses the child’s needs and pace of learning.

The spiral nature of the provincial curriculum in which material is presented developmentally, with increasing degrees of complexity throughout the years, is a positive way to present content. It allows children to build new knowledge on to an established knowledge base. Frequently revisiting ideas builds confidence and self-awareness. Support and skill building for critical thinking and creativity in problem solving are essential complements to academic content learning. In addition to using Ontario Curriculum guidelines, Montessori materials and methods are employed particularly in the Junior level.

Content Areas: Science, Social Studies, French

The Ontario Curriculum can guide the content areas of Science, Social Studies, and French, where appropriate. Understanding concepts, research and communication skills, and applying skills in various contexts are the academic goals of these content areas. The specific topics presented, through which students learn these skills, will be determined by the student’s interests, school-wide themes, and the teachers’ strengths, interests, and background. Therefore students will be exposed to and experience the scientific method, analytic reading, synthesizing ideas, etc. but the chronology of when topics will be presented, for example, Native Communities, Simple Machines, Medieval Times etc. will be determined by teachers and children, rather than dictated by curriculum.

Creative Arts

The Creative Arts are presented both as specific areas of study (music, drama, art) and integrated into the curriculum. Creative expression and response is encouraged in all curricular areas, in order to deepen comprehension and broaden application of a wide spectrum of skills.

For example, when children study animals in Science, they may write stories, make Habitat models, do creative movement to emulate how the animal moves, write poetry, create questions their research has answered, draw/paint/sculpt their animal etc.

A child that is creatively engaged in the learning process is more motivated to learn. We recognize that the children’s imagination is a precious resource that can be encouraged in the spontaneously imaginative child, and nurtured and promoted in the more reticent child. Full integration of the creative arts is therefore essential to the teaching/learning dynamic at CMCS.

French

The primary goal of the CMCS French program matches that of the province: “to increase, within realistic and well-defined parameters, a student’s ability to communicate in French.” In keeping with CMCS’ philosophy, students are encouraged to learn according to their individual strengths and needs. Students will gain skills in all four interconnected strands addressed in the

Ontario curriculum — listening, speaking, reading, and writing — with greater focus on the first two for the younger grades. Through the process of learning a second language, students will also learn about French-speaking communities and cultures, both in Canada and abroad, thus gaining valuable insights and increasing their intercultural awareness and understanding.

Physical and Emotional Education and Health

CMCS staff recognizes the important connection between a child’s physical development and their social, cognitive, and emotional experiences while progressing through their elementary education.

A physical education program is scheduled into each class, with a ‘participatory’ focus on developmentally appropriate movement skills, physical fitness and athletic skill building.

In addition to the physical education classes, we aim to provide children with complementary physical experiences to enhance their learning and emotional development, such as relaxation/ balancing sessions and visualization, Brain Gym (educational kinesiology), focusing exercises, and play-based time in the CMCS schoolyard.

Health and body awareness issues are dealt with in the classroom as they come up, either directly by teachers, or through the use of community resources.

Critical to the CMCS curriculum is the whole child’s connection to their physical environment. Through integrating study areas and theme-based projects, volunteering, camping and field trips, children are supported and guided in their physical experience and connection to their environment within their classrooms, throughout the school, to the broader school community and to the local natural environment.

Other Curriculum Components

• School Ambience – Building a Healthy Community
• Our Environmental Commitment
• Our Commitment to Diversity
• Brain Gym (Educational Kinesiology)
• The Virtues Project

School Ambience – Building a Healthy Community

The staff of CMCS is committed to fostering principles identified by Maria Montessori as school ambience goals. These goals include such things as:

• Promoting spontaneity and joy
• Developing social graces (waiting turns, apologizing etc.),
• Respecting the environment, peers and student individuality,
• Creating order and self discipline,
• Developing a balance between freedom and structure,
• Developing independence and initiative,
• Learning to accept responsibility for actions, work and mistakes. All these qualities are very important in the process of developing the self-discipline and will that a child needs to succeed.

Part of the professional development of staff members at the school includes developing a thorough understanding of the Virtues Project that provides specific strategies and methodologies for promoting these school ambience goals in the classrooms. Likewise the children are directly involved in the promotion of these school ambience goals through the presentation (by the children themselves) of the ‘virtue of the month’ during the weekly assembly.

Hence there is a concrete and school-wide practice of values that promote a healthy community, where our vision is put into holistic practice.