Questions to Ask Montessori School
Questions for visiting a Montessori school, covering accreditation and guide training, the length of the uninterrupted work period, mixed-age grouping, how progress is recorded without grades, staff turnover, and what a year actually costs.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Which age groups do you serve, and how are the classrooms grouped?
Why ask it
Montessori grouping is deliberately mixed-age, usually in three-year spans, so a school with single-grade classrooms is running something else under the same name. Ask which spans exist and whether any have been split.
Is the school accredited or affiliated with AMI or AMS, and where did your guides train?
Why ask it
The word Montessori is not protected, so anyone may use it. Accreditation and the guides' training route are the only checkable signals available, and a school that hedges on this question has told you something.
How long is the uninterrupted work period, and what breaks into it?
Why ask it
The long work period is the center of the method and the first thing to erode under scheduling pressure. If specials, snack, and transitions cut it into half-hour pieces, the model is not really running.
Can I observe a classroom for an hour on an ordinary morning?
Why ask it
Observation is standard practice in Montessori settings, so resistance to it is unusual and worth noting. An hour tells you more than any tour, particularly the noise level and whether adults hover.
How many children are in a class, and how many adults?
Why ask it
These classes are often larger than parents expect, by design, with one trained guide and an assistant. A school that apologizes for its class size may not understand the reasoning behind it.
What happens when a child chooses the same work every day for weeks?
Why ask it
Repetition is expected rather than a problem to correct, but there is a point where it turns into avoidance. Listen for how the guide tells the difference, and what they do next.
What do you do with a child who won't work at all?
Why ask it
Every classroom has a child who does nothing for a stretch. Answers range from patient observation to a system of consequences, and the gap between those tells you how orthodox the practice really is.
How do you handle a child who disrupts other children's concentration?
Why ask it
Protecting concentration is what the whole environment exists to do, which makes this the most revealing discipline question. Look for a described sequence of steps rather than a statement about respect.
How much of the day does a child choose, and how much does an adult direct?
Why ask it
Nearly every school says it follows the child, and the proportion is where the claim meets the timetable. Ask for a real morning, hour by hour, rather than a principle.
Which materials do you have, and what happens when a child finishes a sequence early?
Why ask it
Complete material sets are expensive and thin shelves are common at the upper levels. A guide who can describe what a child does after running ahead is describing an actual classroom.
How do you record what a child has covered, and what will I see at a conference?
Why ask it
Grades are usually absent, so ask what replaces them: observation notes, work journals, a scope and sequence with dates. Vagueness here turns into frustration at the first parent meeting.
How would you tell me if my child were behind?
Why ask it
This is the question these schools answer least well, because the framework avoids comparison. You want the trigger for that conversation, who starts it, and how early it happens.
How do you decide when a child moves up to the next group?
Why ask it
Transitions are made on readiness rather than birthday in most Montessori settings, which is appealing in principle and applied unevenly in practice. Ask who decides and what happens if you disagree.
What place do screens have in the classroom, and from what age?
Why ask it
Practice ranges from no screens at all to laptops in upper elementary. The reasoning matters more than the position, and a school that has not thought it through will say something about balance.
What happens outdoors, and how much time is spent there each day?
Why ask it
Outdoor work, gardening, and care of the environment are part of the method rather than a break from it. Ask what changes in bad weather, which is when the commitment gets tested.
How do you support a child with a diagnosed learning difference, and where are your limits?
Why ask it
Individual pacing suits some differences well and others poorly, and small independent schools often have no specialist staff. Ask what support exists, what it costs, and at what point they would say they cannot continue.
How long have your current guides been here, and who covers a class if one leaves mid-year?
Why ask it
Trained guides are hard to recruit and a mid-year departure disrupts a mixed-age classroom badly. Ask for the tenure of the people currently teaching rather than a statement about how much they are valued.
What do you expect from us at home, and what if we do things differently?
Why ask it
Homework tends to be minimal, and schools often ask for changes at home instead: earlier bedtimes, fewer screens, doing less for the child. Better to hear it now than to work it out from disapproval later.
Where do your children go afterwards, and what do those schools say about them?
Why ask it
The move out is what worries families most. Ask which schools children actually went to in the last two years, and what came back about handwriting, timed tests, and working in a group.
What kind of child is this school not the right place for?
Why ask it
A school with a real answer has watched a placement fail and learned from it. One that says every child thrives here has either not been paying attention or is selling.
Choosing a Montessori school
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
How to evaluate a school
Observe before you interview
An hour in a working classroom answers more than the head of school can. Watch whether children are absorbed or drifting, and whether adults teach from the front or move between individuals.
Look at the shelves
Materials should be complete, in order, and within reach of the children who use them. Gaps and locked cupboards say more about the budget and the practice than any brochure.
Ask two different guides the same question
Consistency between classrooms is the best available signal of how well a school is trained and led. Divergent answers about discipline or the work period are worth following up with the head.
Count the interruptions
Take the daily schedule home and mark every point where the long work period is broken. That number is a fair summary of how seriously the method is being applied.
Easy mistakes to make on a tour
Assuming the name guarantees the method
The term is unprotected, so two schools with identical signage can run very different classrooms. Training, accreditation, and the shape of the morning are what distinguish them.
Reading calm as engagement
A quiet room can mean deep concentration or careful compliance. Watch individual children for a few minutes each and see whether they chose the work in front of them.
Judging by how the room looks
Wooden materials and natural light photograph well. What matters is whether children select work, stay with it, and return it without being told.
Leaving the money questions until the end
Tuition, materials fees, after-care, and annual increases compound, and small schools also depend on parent volunteering. Ask for the total cost of a full year, including the parts that are not tuition.
What to watch for during an observation
- How long the youngest children stay with one piece of work
- Whether an adult interrupts a child who is concentrating
- Who tidies up, and whether it needs to be asked for
- How an older child treats a younger one who is struggling
- What happens when two children want the same material
- Whether the work period runs as long as the schedule claims