What should I look for when I visit Allegro or another Montessori School?

How do parents evaluate whether or not a particular Montessori school is the right fit for their family, aligned in both philosophy and practice? Angeline Stoll Lillard (2005) suggests that parents observe the school to which they wish to send their children to answer the following questions:

• Is the physical environment beautiful?
• Is there a feeling of peace?
• Is there a variety of work being done by students?
• Is there an absence of worksheets/books?
• Do children appear relaxed and happy?
• Do children appear to have a sense of purpose?
• Are children kind and courteous?
• Are primary children concentrating hard on their work?
• Are elementary children working seriously even though they are conversing?
• Are the educators constantly aware of the whole environment but intervening only when children are aimless, not constructively working or bothering others?

Allegro Montessori School affirms daily that in our practice of the Montessori Method, we continually make adjustments to align more closely with the philosophy of education which was developed by Dr. Montessori in 1907. The commitment of Allegro to align its practice of the Montessori Method to the Montessori philosophy is demonstrated in the structure of the multi-age learning environment and the full three-hour uninterrupted work cycle each day. It is the policy of the school to hire Montessori educators who are fully trained by internationally accredited Montessori training centres. Allegro regularly provides its educators with professional development opportunities to improve understanding of Montessori philosophy as well as Montessori practices within curriculum areas. Materials within the learning environments are regularly evaluated and updated, particularly in Elementary, when new scientific discoveries are made. Allegro focuses on Peace Education and social learning at each developmental level. While we do not push the academic, most Allegro students, in both Casa and Elementary, exceed the Saskatchewan Curriculum standards.