Montessori magic at Gorton Mount

A state-funded school making steady headlines since 2005, Gorton Mount is long hailed as the poster child for the Montessori teaching method. The latest revelations see a whooping 20% improvement in 11-year-old test results, cementing the hundred-year-old method’s relevance in the 21st century.

“Children need boundaries to be able to learn and progress. They need to be introduced to ideas and concepts at their own pace, so whilst the Montessori material gives intellectual variety, the teachers are always on hand to ensure the pupil is doing tasks aimed at his/her level.”

But amongst the seven million odd Google results, there doesn’t appear to be much consensus on just what Montessori’s about.

Everyone from Mumsnet to Christian groups weigh in on the topic, some gushing with praise for the freedom it allows youngsters in the classroom whilst others liken its rigid teaching structure to some sort of satanic cult. Which is all quite interesting, but how does Montessori actually work at a deprived inner city school like Gorton Mount?

For the last five years Carol Powell has overseen the transformation from high unemployment and high gang membership to high exam marks. She admits that there were little for youngsters to do in Gorton, and estimates that half of her school population of 350 are facing at least one serious social issue. She cites the example of three-year-olds arriving in nursery, already eighteen months behind in development. Mental health problems and broken families are still rife, and therapeutic interventions come with the territory at Gorton Mount.

Beyond confiscating toy guns, Carol is an avid advocate of developing social behaviour in her pupils. She focuses on emotional intelligence, improving self-regulation and building self-esteem. Resilience and perseverance are virtues she hopes to instil, which will not only help kids learn, but also equip them with a core philosophy to help deal with hardships outside the classroom.

Years of success has also had the effect of building up parents’ confidence in Gorton Mount’s Montessori, and Carol tells of greater cooperation and trust from mums and dads.

Carol is quick to debunk myths about Montessori – 1) giving children ‘freedom’ to undertake ‘imaginative play’ and not having them sit and listen to a teacher at length doesn’t mean they roam around directionless; 2) much of the progress relies on the expertise of the seemingly passive ‘facilitator’ teacher, and that; 3) the children are learning just as much about learning itself as they are motor, language, numeric and social skills.

“The emphasis in one to one learning in foundation and early stages is vital; our teachers are specially trained to observe and assess the children’s skills gaps,” “each piece of equipment in the classroom is carefully thought out to teach a concept,” but at the same time, children will learn crucial behaviours for learning in subsequent stages, including “trial and error, persistence, and having better concentration.”

Carol responds easily to common criticisms that the rigid Montessori structure inhibits the development of creative skills. “Children need boundaries to be able to learn and progress. They need to be introduced to ideas and concepts at their own pace, so whilst the Montessori material gives intellectual variety, the teachers are always on hand to ensure the pupil is doing tasks aimed at his/her level.” “Emotional skills are taught implicitly through working with Montessori equipment.”

And these core skills the pupils learn whilst playing with movable alphabets or puzzle maps will improve their ability to learn and think independently, organise their own work in classes at higher levels which will resemble more traditional methods of having teachers teach to larger groups.

There's still the question of funding: how are the meagre state funds to compete with the resources of wealthy parents, and how many specially trained teachers can we count on to choose a difficult inner-city area over a middle-class suburb?

As head teacher, Carol must be intimately acquainted with resourcing issues, but she is also a resourceful woman and her role gives her autonomy to use her budget effectively. For instance, instead of forking out for expensive external teachers she gets her existing staff to cross-train in-house; she chooses to spend and ensure Gorton Mount has its own quality counselling materials rather than waiting on packaged offerings from the local authority.

And given one success story after another over five years, even cynics would be hard-pressed to deny that Carol and her Montessori methods are clearly getting things right at Gorton Mount.

Montessori has ambitions for the method to be implemented to state schools across the nation, and Carol thinks this is within reach. Carol is clearly not a PR-drone, so we are spared their slogan of Montessori being “exclusively for everyone”, but she is confident that the Gorton Mount formula can successfully be applied to other inner city schools in the region.

Currently, Gorton Mount is only one of five UK state schools using Montessori practices. Throwing money at poor schools is one thing, making it a successful enterprise is quite another.

Academies – schools which are state funded but independent of public authority control – are already at the core of government education policy: maybe rather than encouraging parents to set up their own schools under David Cameron’s ‘big society’ ideas, the Coalition should take note of Gorton Mount’s example and put Montessori on the map for impoverished inner city schools up and down the country.