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 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 can include places as the Kortright Centre for Conservation, Riverdale Farm’s apple orchards and pumpkin patches and fall salmon spawning in the Humber River*.

*all fieldtrips are subject to change year to year depending on factors such as parent involvement, weather and transportation.

“Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature.” ― Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.