R11 East Anglia

You can read about the last R11 meeting at Tavernham Hall Prep School in the latest issue of Montessori International. Attendees learnt about Forest Schools, learnt to whittle elder, make dream catchers, build dens and much more.

The previous meeting, Boys – are we meeting their needs?  was held on 13^th March 2010.  Thirty delegates attended representing ten Montessori Nurseries in the region.  Barbara Isaacs’ talk was inspiring and she helped us all to think about our own groups, our feelings about the boys and considering boys in our planning.  She also reminded us that parts of the brain are hard wired in respect of gender – boys really are different.

We covered a great deal of ground and there will be a lot of fresh ideas in the nurseries of East Anglia on Monday morning.  For example, boys like to be ‘doing’ and they respond well to challenge – such as being given a special job.  They become confused by mixed messages and need simple, clear, brief and positive messages.  They develop more slowly in terms of large movement, so need opportunities for pouring from large jugs into large containers, large blocks etc. rather than the smaller activities we so often set out which are more suited to girls.

It also emerged that we need to develop a more tolerant attitude to super hero play as boys seem to have an intrinsic need to play in this way and forbidding them might drive it underground and encourage the telling of fibs, but not stop it!

Lucy Smith gave a very positive talk on her experience of MEAB Accreditation and encouraged other members to follow in her footsteps.

Then we had a discussion on the dreaded topic of the Single Funding Formula and agreed that we must do all in our power to fight for our nurseries.  We shall shortly be holding a meeting for the heads of nurseries to discuss how to take this further.

SINGLE FUNDING FORMULA

Do keep in touch with regard to how you are planning to cope and any problems you may be having. Martin, our Chairman is still collected data from the regions as this helps him to argue our case.

ACCREDITATION

I am happy to visit anyone thinking of applying for accreditation, to give advice if that would be helpful. Just give me a ring.