FLOWERS GAY SCHOOLS BUILD CAPACITY OF PRESCHOOL AND CLASS 1 TEACHERS IN THE MONTESSORI METHODOLOGY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

The dynamic nature of teaching and learning today demands that educational institutions keep up with modern trends and best practices to achieve excellence. Accordingly Flowers Gay Schools has chosen to introduced the Montessori Methodology of teaching at the Preschool level.

There are several different methods and opinions on how to educate children.  However, one methodology that is gaining popularity is the Montessori Method of educating children or the Montessori approach to learning which has been scientifically proven to offer children unlimited access to knowledge and help guide them to realize their full potential.

With the Montessori approach Children begin to realize that they have the intelligence and ability to do things for themselves – a concept which not only empowers children, but also affords them a boost in confidence which comes in handy in the future.

Today most parents when choosing a school for their children choose schools that will not just prepare their children for the next grade or level, but schools that focus on preparing them towards becoming global citizens, able to think on their feet and to confidently articulate their knowledge.

Flowers Gay Schools knowing that parents hanker for the preparedness of the Schools to go the extra mile to teach responsibility, compassion and self-motivation and not just core subjects, and in keeping with our promise to provide quality and uncompromising standards in education, has decided to engage the Montessori Methodology of teaching to achieve the mainstream Ghana Education Service (GES) curriculum targets.  The advantage of this hybrid approach is that children achieve more and quicker than they ordinarily would using alternative methodologies, thereby achieving the Schools primary objective of providing a holistic educational system to best serve our clients.

To be able to fully implement this new hybrid system of education there was the obvious need for extensive and systematic capacity building and reorientation deliberately targeted at the Schools’ Pre- School classes (Mainly Nursery 1 – KG2) and Class 1.

In this regard, a five (5) day intensive training workshop for teachers and teaching assistants of the Pre- School classes (Mainly Nursery 1 – KG2) and Class 1 has been held at the Schools’ premises where participants were introduced to the Montessori Methodology with the main focus on language and number work.

The Schools was privileged to host Mrs. Ema Anamuah-Mensah (Proprietress and founder of Marigold Montessori in Accra, Ghana). A trained Montessori instructor par excellence.

Ema who holds a certificate in Montessori founded Marigold Montessori School in 2015 which currently boasts of over fifty children ranging from creche to kindergarten.

To the admiration of participants, Ema facilitated the workshop with profound command over the chosen subject areas, emphasizing pertinent areas such as:

• Montessori Overview.
• Montessori Language
• Montessori Number Work
• Number work activities

Teachers and teaching assistants who participated in this workshop thoroughly enjoyed every bit of the training sessions and learnt a great deal which in most cases was a departure from other obsolete teaching methodologies.

Participants were encouraged to implement what they had learnt via the building of relevant Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs), presentations and demonstrations to prove the actual transfer of knowledge.

Participants were awarded Certificates of participation and encouraged to put to full use the knowledge they had acquired over the 5 days.

We anticipate further training sessions in the near future to build the teachers’ capacity further in the Montessori Methodology of teaching.