Brixham Montessori Friends School

Nurturing the Whole Child

An accredited Montessori school serving children ages 2-11, Brixham Montessori Friends School offers a holistic approach to learning where children’s minds, bodies and spirits are nurtured through an enriched Montessori educational program.

Teachers thoughtfully create a learning environment that engages and excites a child’s natural curiosity and sense of wonder and the school garden is a vital part of this environment. Teachers believe that every child has the desire and capacity to meet his or her learning potential and this guides the teacher’s creation of the prepared learning environment and informs when and how individual and small group lessons are presented. With over a hundred lessons in each of the curriculum areas, Montessori education is academically rich and culturally diverse at every grade level. Freedom with responsibility is a cornerstone of the Montessori approach to learning through this innovative and scientifically-based curriculum.

There are six raised beds in the school garden and each class of students, ranging in age from 2-9 years old, planted in designated squares. The oldest students measured out the squares and strung yarn to make the grids which helped to guide the planting process. They referred to companion planting guides to determine which plants would be most compatible.

In addition to the raised beds in the school garden, they also experimented with left-over straw bales from the winter sledding hill. They moved the bales to an area on the blacktop that is part of the playground and dug out holes in the bales for a variety of plants purchased or donated by their local hardware store. The plants loved the heat and were tended to more regularly by the children who were part of the summer preschool program. Children and adults sampled green beans in July and cherry tomatoes and lemon cucumbers in September.

In September the school garden is still in bloom with tall, colorful zinnias welcoming our new toddler families to school each day. The zinnias were planted last spring by seed along with nasturtiums, carrots, sugar peas, spinach, radishes, lettuce and mustard greens, scallions, beets, and butternut squash.

Although the window was short for harvesting vegetables before school let out in June, they expect a harvest of butternut squash, pumpkins and carrots in the fall. The pumpkin seeds were saved from last fall and planted in the spring with pretty good success at sprouting.

They are excited to have a new pollinator path that weaves through our milkweed in front of the school. The path was created with simple stepping stones and looks a little like a caterpillar with a butterfly bush and echinacea plants marking its entrance. The path was part of a creative solution to children running through the milkweed under the office window.