What We Believe

At Westside Montessori School, we believe that even small choices have the power to make a difference. Encouraging ecological awareness and educating our students to be environmentally responsible is one choice: leading by example is another.

Westside Montessori School’s efforts to create a green school environment include the following:

Real Food for Real Kids

Our healthy snack and lunch program is supplied by Real Food for Real Kids, a company committed to using “…whole, natural and organic ingredients to make food, fresh from scratch, every day.” Not only does this save you the hassle of preparing school lunches; it drastically cuts down on the landfill and recycled waste our school produces. RFRK is committed to sustainability. Discover more about RFRK at http://www.rfrk.com.

Non-toxic, sustainably-produced furnishings

Westside Montessori School’s classroom materials are sourced from companies that implement water-based finishing technology and are free of heavy metals such as lead and other toxins. We purchase our furniture from companies that minimize any negative impact on the environment and use renewable and recyclable materials from certified, responsibly managed forests.

Recycling and Energy-Saving Classroom Practices

Allowing students opportunity to care for their environment, including both the classroom and our Earth, instills a sense of responsibility and pride. Children, along with staff, use eco-friendly products to keep it clean. They are also involved in our recycling and composting programs and becoming aware of simple, but important, energy-saving practices such as turning off the lights.

Gardening at school

Our students are active gardeners, learning to care for their world from a very young age. Together, we grow and enjoy vegetables, herbs and flowers in our school gardens.

Field trips

Our field trips take students outside of the urban context to experience the outdoors. These ecology-based outings may have the children visiting places as the Kortright Centre for Conservation, Riverdale Farm, apple orchards and pumpkin patches and fall salmon spawning in the Humber River*.

*All field trips are subject to change year to year depending on factors such as parent involvement, weather and transportation.

Our Core Objectives

Every child is an individual, captivated by different things at different times. We personalize your child’s learning experience by creating individualized lesson plans based on their interests, level of understanding and experiences. In this manner, every child is introduced to all aspects of our curriculum at the right time in their development.

Children who graduate our program are prepared for the next step in their education, private or public, with a genuine love of learning. They have an increased curiosity about the world around them and the confidence necessary to take on new academic and social challenges.

From our first visit to the school, we were taken by the warm and inspiring environment. The experience we’ve had for the last 3 years is one that we can’t recommend highly enough. The teachers are not only passionate about Montessori learning in their classroom but also connected with the parents to bridge that gap in the home environment.

Laura Jane & Nick
Parents

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