Choosing a school for your child

The useful question is which room is right for this child, at this age, this year. A school that suits a confident five-year-old may not suit a shy younger sibling. Before you visit anywhere, picture your child on an ordinary weekday morning. Think about what helps them settle, what overwhelms them, and what makes them light up. Then look for that in each room you see.

The word "Montessori" on a sign tells you less than you might expect, and Why Montessori explains why. What you can check, at any school, is what happens inside the rooms. Four things are worth looking for.

• Trained adults. Ask where the lead teachers trained. At South Coast Montessori, our Primary and Elementary teachers are AMI-trained, and the school is dedicated to the principles of AMI. Training and accreditation are different things, so ask which one a school means.
• Mixed ages and full three-year cycles. A Montessori room holds three ages, and a child stays for the whole cycle. When our founding families built this school, keeping mixed-age classrooms and three-year cycles was one of their first priorities.
• A prepared room. Look for a full set of materials on low, orderly shelves, and children choosing from them without needing an adult's help.
• Long work periods. Ask how long children work without interruption. In our Elementary, the morning work period runs three hours.

If the words on the tour are new to you, the Montessori Method articles translate them.

Ask what ages a school takes, and how many school changes that means for your child. Some Montessori programs in the area don't take children until well past three months. South Coast Montessori is one school from three months through sixth grade, in four programs: Infant, Toddler, Primary, and Elementary. A family that starts with an infant meets each new teacher on a campus it already knows, right through sixth grade.

Length matters inside each room, too. A Montessori room is built around a three-year cycle, and its final year is when a child leads, helps younger children, and consolidates what they have learned. In Primary, that final year is the kindergarten year. A family weighing a move at four or five is weighing that year. Why the kindergarten year matters in Primary.

Ask whether a school runs a school year or a working year. For a family with two working parents, that can matter as much as anything in the classroom. We run a true 12-month, full-day program for Primary and below, so summer doesn't mean finding other care. Tuition shows the options for each program.

Ask who makes decisions, and how quickly you can reach them. At South Coast Montessori, the answer is a small group of people on the same campus as your child. Our Head of School is one of the people who opened the school in 2017.

We are also a nonprofit. What families and supporters invest in the school goes back into the program and the community, rather than toward a return for an owner. Our story and how the school is run are on our About page.

Take these into any tour, including ours:

• Where did the lead teachers train, and how long have they been at this school?
• How long is the morning work period, and what interrupts it?
• Does my child stay in the same room for the full three years?
• What does the oldest child in the room do in their final year?
• How will I hear about my child's day, and how often do parents and teachers talk?

Our first tour is for adults only, so you can ask all of them. Your child visits later. How our tours work.

You don't have to wait for a particular season. We enroll year-round on a rolling basis, and families can apply at any time. How to apply walks through each step.

The surest way to compare is to stand in the room. Book a tour.