The experience we had at McGuffey exceeded all of our expectations. You have created a school environment that feels so warm and bright and it makes the transition seamless for our daughter’s first year of school. McGuffey is a special place and we are going to miss you all.

Alyta

McGuffey Montessori Parent

At McGuffey I was in a position where I could learn much faster due to the more personal nature of how they taught. Anytime I got stuck on something I could simply ask for help and if I didn’t need help there was always more to learn once I finished my work. I feel like this has put me on a track where I will succeed much more than if I went to a traditional school.

Shep

2019 McGuffey Montessori Graduate

About The McGuffey Montessori School

The McGuffey Montessori School is located in Oxford, Ohio. When the Miami University Lab School closed in 1983, a handful of staff and parents founded McGuffey Foundation School. Now the McGuffey Montessori School, it is a privately run school, educating students in preschool through ninth grade.

Innovative Academic Programs, a low student-to-teacher ratio, hands-on exploration and discovery, extensive field trips, and creative contributions from the larger community make the McGuffey learning experience unique, compelling, effective and fun.

At McGuffey Montessori School, you’ll see solid basic education with a twist: kindergartners doing complex science experiments and seventh and eighth graders planning the details of their trip to Washington, DC; interactive science experiments and real-life industrial arts, individual instruction complemented by mixed-grade study partners; and workshops with visiting and resident artists.

In class after class, you’ll find secure academic structure with supported spontaneity. You’ll hear the exuberance of discovery. You’ll see the flash of insight. You’ll feel the goose-bumpy thrill of real learning in progress.

Primary (Preschool) Program – 3 – 6 yrs

The Primary years are magical ones. It is the time when a child comes into their own and begins to explore the world beyond their home. We believe this critical time in a child’s life deserves unique experiences, an environment filled with opportunity, and a nurturing classroom culture.

At McGuffey we emphasize several components in our Montessori preschool curriculum:

Independence. We believe these little people are capable of huge things. We have carefully designed an environment in which each child can be responsible for themselves, their work, and their environment. Appropriately scaled furniture, sinks, tools, and supplies allow each child to get what they need when they need it. This independence builds confidence and self esteem, allowing the opportunity for countless, “I can do it myself!” moments.

Hands-on Learning. Virtually every experience in our classroom involves touching, manipulating, thinking, and doing. Children this age learn best by being actively engaged in sensory experiences, so we provide multiple channels through which a child can build a solid foundation of knowledge.

The Importance of Work. In the Montessori environment, what a child does each day is referred to as “work.” Unfortunately, this is often a misinterpreted term. We use this term out of respect. Whatever occupies a child’s time—learning her letters, building a tower of blocks, or digging in the sandbox—it is of critical importance to that child, and they take it quite seriously. Our intent is to honor a child’s work as long as it is productive and respectful of those around her.

A Prepared Environment. Each day a child is given the opportunity to choose their work. In a properly prepared environment, learning will inevitably take place. Every part of our environment is a knowledge-building experience. Each activity and manipulative lays the foundation for one or more of the core components: reading, writing, mathematics, science, geography, history, cultural awareness, physical fitness, and the arts.

A Community of Respect.There are few things quite as important as building a community in which each child feels safe to grow, learn, and explore. Because of this, learning the skills of respect, courtesy, cooperation, problem-solving, and negotiation are critical. This is true not only for the relationships between students, but also between teacher and student.

Lower Elementary Program – 6 – 9 yrs

The focus of the Lower Elementary grades is to develop skill in reading, writing, expressive oral language, math, social skills, and to begin presenting the foundations of social studies and science. Our view of child development is that education is an internal process whereby children learn through experience.
At McGuffey Montessori School, children find joy in work; that they naturally learn with their hands; and that confidence, resilience, and independence develop through practicing and perfecting skills. Our approach is ego-supportive and nurturing, so that children can develop the confidence to be articulate and inquisitive, as well as academically competent.

The McGuffey path rests on the awareness that through practice, a child can miraculously integrate all of life’s little lessons into a growing consciousness. Our lower elementary students experience living and learning everyday at McGuffey on a slower, deeper plane that we call “Learning to Learn.”
Young children develop their academic potential at different rates and times. One kindergartner may be ready to begin reading, while another is not yet developmentally ready. At McGuffey, students learn to read when the time is developmentally appropriate, not when the rest of the class is moving at a predetermined pace. This promotes success and confidence, and eliminates frustration and failure. Reading is taught using either a phonetic awareness approach or a whole-word approach, depending on the learning style of the individual student, as well as his/her developmental stage.

In the Lower Elementary grades, students are given sensorial materials isolate a defining quality such as color, weight, shape, texture, sound, temperature or smell, encouraging children to distinguish, organize and describe their experiences and impressions. They then “journal” these experiences and impressions; first in artistic ways, and later through written expression.

Upper Elementary Program – 9 – 12 yrs

Once in the Upper Elementary grades, students have become competent readers, expressive writers, avid geographers and historians, and emerging mathematicians. Now that students have their basic skills, they are encouraged to use these tools to extend their knowledge and enrich their learning as they explore subjects of their own interest, as well as subjects in our prescribed curriculum.

Concrete materials, similar to those used in the Lower Elementary classrooms, are used to teach math and grammar, but other materials are drawn from real life to teach geography, world cultures, science, and human experience. Students are trained to give oral and visual presentations that highlight work done during these years, and they take numerous field trips to support their studies of science, geography, and history.
Math is taught with a focus on understanding concepts through concrete explorations. Once the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are familiar, the child is ready to work with fractions, elements of geometry and algebra, and problem solving.

Music, visual art, foreign language, and physical education are part of the integrated cultural curriculum. Children also experience the basics in geography, history, and life sciences.

Middle School Program – 12 – 14 yrs

Our community is exuberant, nourishing, and empowering, due, in large part, to the differences among us. Differences among the students, families, and faculty enrich our human experience in untold ways. Celebrating differences in the classroom allows the students to express and eventually define their whole self.

Our Middle School students are given a challenging and rigorous academic curriculum that emphasizes consistent, responsible study habits. Content builds on the rich curriculum in Upper Elementary and extends beyond what might be typically taught in these grades. Genetics, Physics, World History to name a few. Middle School Mathematics can adapt to all needs including traditional Algebra, Honors Algebra and Honors Geometry.

The school’s small size is an advantage for helping each child to develop the ability to interpret information, formulate questions, and express ideas. To help students prepare for the next stage in their education, organizational skills are stressed, including, tracking and prioritizing multiple assignments, managing time, taking notes, writing short answers and essays, and editing, correcting and evaluating one’s work. Students are trained to develop their abstract reasoning skills, and to synthesize information and apply it to different circumstances and situations.

Each year, our Middle School students star in the leading roles of our school-wide annual musical and attend performances of Broadway shows in Cincinnati. They also go on a five-day trip to a large city each Spring. These trips rotate between Washington, DC, Chicago, and St. Louis. In addition to getting many cultural experiences, students help plan these trips and learn how to navigate public transportation and a new city environment.
Our Middle School program prepares students for success in any high school environment they choose, with us or somewhere else.

High School Program – 14 – 17 yrs

We will be piloting Grade 9 in 2019-20 and expect to add one additional high school grade each year. We are looking forward to offering an alternative to traditional public high school in our community. Our program will allow students to build on their strengths and interests and will help prepare students for whatever post-secondary dreams they have. Look for more details soon!