Parenting Success for Montessori! Montessori St Nicholas is delighted to announce that it has won a DfE tender to provide FREE 0-5 parenting classes in the London Borough of Camden

Montessori St Nicholas, the UK’s Montessori charity, is delighted to announce that it has won a DfE tender to provide free 0-5 parenting classes in the London Borough of Camden from July 2012. The classes form part of a wider pilot scheme, launched by the DfE in November 2011 to trial and evaluate 10-15 FREE parenting classes across 3 local authorities: Camden, Middlesbrough and High Peak Derbyshire over 2 years. The trial ends in March 2014.

The pilot is the first stage in a wider government commitment to offer parenting classes universally during 2013/14 and follows on from various reports (Field 2012, Monroe 2010) which demonstrate the huge impact of positive parenting in children’s life chances. The DfE also announced that demand for such classes is high with over 1 million queries to the family support help services in 3 months.

The classes will be based on a voucher system, with parents claiming £100 against a choice of parenting programmes approved by the DfE, delivered primarily via local authorities and children’s centres. They will attract a wide range of parents and use a mixture of face to face and online media delivery.
Philip Bujak, CEO of Montessori St Nicholas says,

"This is groundbreaking news for Montessori and evidence of how far acceptance of Montessori as a valuable approach to family life and education has come in the last 10 years. The parenting classes in Camden give us the opportunity to share the benefits of Montessori’s child-centred, holistic approach with London parents.
A child’s early years – from birth to six – are the period where he or she has the greatest capacity to learn. It is what we, as adults, do during these critical years that lay the foundations for all their future learning and understanding. Maria Montessori lectured on exactly this in London 100 years ago and now, on the 60th anniversary of her death in May 1952, her work has come full circle.
We continue to support our 600+ Montessori schools but the bid underscores our on-going commitment to take our values beyond the Montessori community. We have also just published an exciting new Parenting Book that will lend further support to the project.

We are grateful to the DfE for recognizing what Montessori has to offer and also to the Fatherhood Institute who will work with us on the project to ensure that the classes are relevant and inclusive to Dads. The whole Montessori parenting approach will be assessed by our academic partner, The University of East Anglia.
We will also work closely with Camden Council’s Children’s and Young People’s Services including the Camden Children’s Centres, Early Years Provision and Third Sector Children’s Services and support agencies to disseminate information to a multi cultural client base.”

For further information on the classes, please email: parenting@montessori.org.uk

For further information and media briefings, contact Amanda Gilchrist, Marketing Director:
Email: a.gilchrist@montessori.org.uk

www.montessori.org.uk

Notes to Editors:

• The Montessori St Nicholas Charity was founded in 1954 and works to support Montessori across the UK in every way it can.
• Inspired by Dr Maria Montessori in the 1900s. The Montessori approach quickly became the world’s largest global education movement.
• Used and acclaimed in 600+ UK Montessori schools and now adopted in some state schools with significant benefits. Over 25,000 schools worldwide.
• The majority of UK Montessori settings cater for children from 2 ½-5 years. Some settings have Montessori baby units and others extend practice into the primary years.
• Montessori works! 88% of Montessori schools were graded outstanding or good at the last OFSTED inspection.
• It delivers on the Early Years Foundation stage at every level.
• Montessori is in the tune with the way children learn best – through choosing, trying and doing themselves. Children are encouraged to problem solve and think independently making it attractive to many parents.
• The classroom is a prepared environment designed to support a child’s developmental needs. Learning materials are freely available and reflect a commitment to the children’s ability to do things for themselves.
• A Montessori Accreditation scheme was introduced in 2008 to ensure that all Montessori schools offer the same high quality education and care to children. There are now 122 MEAB schools and all schools are actively encouraged to join the scheme.