We are very lucky at The Earth School that as a team we resume work two weeks before the children start school in order to plan, prepare and get everything ready and just so. During this time, we meet as a whole team and in small groups, have new trainings, refresher trainings and have time to arrange and organise the classrooms.
Of course, it is lovely to have this time to get ready but it is also very intentional. Maria Montessori talks a lot about the prepared environment and the prepared adult.
The prepared environment refers to a learning space that has been purposely designed to nurture freedom of choice, independence and the natural development of children. The materials that the children work with are real, made from wood, glass and metal to help the children connect with the world around them. Each material has a specific place and they are ordered on shelves from top to bottom, left to right, from the easiest to the most complicated. The classrooms are uncluttered with natural light and lots of plants which helps to create a calm and inviting atmosphere.
There are three main aspects to the prepared adult, physical preparation, intellectual preparation and spiritual or internal preparation. Taking time to feel truly ready to welcome the children back to school and then to school each day enables the teachers to be a quiet guide and observer rather than an instructor of facts.
We are very proud of the time we have taken to prepare ourselves and the school environment ahead of the start of the new school year and we are very excited to welcome the children and to see them interacting with their classrooms, outdoor spaces, friends and teachers.
