Looking at West Chiltington Montessori and the Reggio Approach for the Autumn Term By Julia, Yvonne & Antonia

Montessori  Child focused  Specially designed resources  Careful preparation of the layout of the room  Home from home environment  Children to know where they can find things for themselves  Easy access to resources  Everything having it’s own place  Practical life activities  Doing up buttons and zips  Cutting and threading

Montessori  Sensory experiences  Children to express themselves freely  Children to be involved in real cooking and cleaning activities  Being involved in the community  Montessori is easily linked to the EYFS

The Reggio Approach  Reggio Emilia is a small city in the region of northern Italy  Founded after World War II  Loris Malaguzzi inspired the education experience  Children at the centre of the Reggio Pedagogy  100 languages of expression is a poem by Malaguzzi

Atelier  Is the heart of the school  It is described as ‘the place of what is possible’  Has a wide range of resources available to the children  Atelierista to help with research and continue ongoing projects  A place for children to be creative

Environment  The environment is considered as the third teacher  Welcoming and beautiful to all  Natural plants  Open spaced  Open ended Resources available for the children to access independently  Inviting activities/compositions/provocations

Environment

The great outdoors

Environment

Documentation & Reflection  Is a process for documenting children's learning  It is not an end product, it is ongoing  Tools for documentation include photos, videos, drawings, written notes  For the children it helps them to reflect on their learning  For the practitioner it provides evidence to discover how the children are learning  For the parents it shows them what their child is doing to learn

Documentation & Reflection

EYFS linked to the Montessori and Reggio Approach  A Unique Child  A powerful individual who is strong, confident and competent  Positive relationships  Children, Teachers and Parents are equally important  Enabling environments  Importance of the environment to support children’s development, play and learning  Learning an development  Understand how children learn through long term projects, as individuals, as part of a group and through reflective practice  Key Person  Having a shared image of the child, having a two way relationships between the teachers, parents and children  Parent partnership is essential!

Working in Partnership with parents and families  Sharing Information  Parents Evening (wine and cheese night)  Next Steps  Daily Diaries  Respect  Listen to the parents decisions about their children  Trust  Confidentiality  Creating positive relationships

Parents as Partners continued  Communication  Posters Displayed   Over the phone  Face to face  Social Media? (Confidential private group no information or photos of children.)  Diversity  Show interest in the children's home life  Involve parents as much as possible  In the future a possible PTFA (Parent, Teacher, Friends Association)  Be involved in the community  Summer Fairs

Summary  The Reggio and Montessori Approach are a good way to look at children’s enquiries into the way they think and play  Makes the children use their imagination  The EYFS is used as a reference system, not a target/tick box system to move children on through their development  Reggio and Montessori both share similar visions when looking at the environment and how things are set up  Both use natural materials, Montessori does have it’s own resources which are specifically designed for the approach  Important to work with parents as partners we both want what's best for the child.  September sees the start of further developing our approach – we value your support!