Rectory Garden Montessori School enjoys an enviable position within the picturesque village of Melton, just minutes from Woodbridge and with easy access onto the A12 and Suffolk's heritage coast. Built in 2009 the property was originally a potting shed and gardens belonging to The Old Rectory but now fully restored with the help of local architects and craftsmen the building is enviably positioned in an acre of garden with surrounding open countryside where an abundance of wildlife can be seen in its natural habitat.
Rectory Garden Montessori enjoys two purpose built classrooms that are warm, well-organized, and inviting to help children feel calm and at home.
The Acorn Room for children aged 1 - 2.5/3 years;
- Provides a safe, engaging and nurturing environment for the child
- Promotes trust in themselves and their world
- Develops confidence in their emerging abilities
- Develops gross motor skills and language skills
- Offers opportunities to gain independence in daily tasks
The Oak Room for children aged 2.5/3 - 5 years;
- Fosters the growth of functional independence, task persistence and self-regulation
- Promotes social development through respectful, clear communication and safe, natural consequences
- Contains a large variety of materials for the refinement of sensory perception and the development of literacy and mathematical understanding
- Offers opportunities for imaginative exploration leading to confident, creative self-expression
The outdoor environment is important in a Montessori school, offering opportunities to engage in the natural world. Rectory Garden has a large and natural space to use as a second classroom and a place to play. Outdoor equipment in the garden includes a large blackboard, a water tray, a sandpit, a play house, trim trail and a large climbing frame with the children continuing to offer further resource ideas! There is a vegetable patch with raised beds where the children are supported in growing various fruits and vegetables and have even helped to plant a number of fruit trees. The settings wild and uncultivated area continues to flourish each year as wild flowers and grasses are added in order to encourage butterflies and other wildlife to visit the garden.
Rectory Garden is designed to take advantage of children's early years which Maria Montessori referred as the period of the absorbent mind and specified that during this time children have the greatest capacity to learn through absorbing information from their environment. With this in mind the prepared environment at Rectory Garden, offers a place where children are the focus, with all items in the school being scaled to the child's size, encouraging independence. The design and flow of a Montessori classroom creates a learning environment that accommodates choice; uncluttered spaces, natural lighting and fascinating objects offer the children complex sensory and intellectual experiences.
