Exceptional educators, professional service, lovely environment. 

Katherine - parent

Headland is more than a child-minding centre. The educators are completely dedicated to provide a safe learning environment for children. They know our daughter as well as we do, and have helped us immensely through many family changes – going back to work, toileting, and more recently, having a new baby. Our daughter always has this safe constant space where she can be her happy, confident self. The staffing is consistent and as a result she has built strong healthy relationships with the educators. We not only receive daily updates, but also send learning summaries personalised to our child and what they will be working on. As we are still learning how to implement Montessori at home, we found it invaluable for the centre to conduct workshops for parents and provide support through phone discussions. 

The centre itself is calming, very clean with engaging materials that are appropriate for the little ones. We also receive weekly updates which often contain valuable information about what’s happening in the centre. 

We believe that Headland has played a huge role in helping our child grow into this gentle, respectful toddler she is now. I honestly cannot fault Headland, and would recommend it to any parents who are looking for a place that not only cares for your child from 9-5, but also lays a beautiful foundation for their child’s future!

Vivi - parent

The world is a patchwork quilt of cultures, personalities, and new things to learn. If it is important to parents that their kids know that and get to experience it first-hand, Headland Montessori on Alma Rd. is THE place to be. On top of that, there are few educators in Melbourne that care for the kids and their individual growth more genuinely than the folks at Headland. I would definitely send our boy again if given the chance.

Chuck - parent

To inspire and empower children to become confident, creative, resilient and independent life-long-learners who will share responsibility for making our world better.

At Headland Montessori Alma Road St Kilda, the program is based around the Australian Montessori Curriculum and the Early Learning Years Framework and is developed to reflect the individual needs and interests of the children.  

The rich Montessori curriculum provides the children with opportunities to engage in Practical Life work that builds the children’s independence and agency as they learn self-care skills, engaging in tasks such as cooking, food preparation, dressing skills and social skills as well as a broad range of creative art experiences.  

The Sensorial area of the curriculum sees the children working with specific Montessori materials that focus the children’s attention on using their senses for exploration and building their vocabulary as they explore.  

Culture is the aspect of the curriculum where the children explore and build their awareness of the world around them, this may see them engaging in experiences reflecting their own culture or that of others as well as exploring their surrounding natural world of plants and animals through experiences such as gardening and investigating the outdoors.  

Language and Mathematics are key areas of the curriculum.  In the early years this may be seen by exploring aspects of shape, pattern, colour and number in the world around them and then building their vocabulary as they label their explorations and engage in conversation throughout the day with their educators and peers.  

In the over three’s environment, as their interest is drawn, they work with more specific math and language materials to further build on their skills and interest, engaging in tasks that are essential pre reading and writing work before moving on to more formal letter and number exploration.  Interwoven are experiences of music, literature, mindfulness, self-help and gross motor to create a well-rounded program.  

The team looks to our educator’s own skill sets as well as skills and experiences of the families to further add to the program, this may be around experiences such as work in different languages, cultural or music experiences.  Excursions and incursions are chosen based on their complementary nature to the program and their ability to enhance the program.

The children in this room are interested in exploring and are doing things for themselves.  The children engage in activities that help them build their independence around their self help skills such as getting things ready for eating, independently eating, cleaning up after they’ve eaten, self care skills such as washing hands, wiping their nose and face, and dressing themselves.  

Gross motor development is also a major focus in this room. Some children may only be fairly new to walking so they are learning about maintaining their balance, running, climbing, co-ordinating their bodies – activities such as sensory stepping stones, tunnels, foam and wooden climbing structures, and trikes encourage this development.  

Activities such as digging in the sand pit, lifting and carrying things are supporting other muscle development.  Tasks in the classroom such as puzzles, sorting/posting, threading, pegging, transferring objects from one bowl to another using fingers or tongs, playdough, mark making with pencils, crayons, chalk or paint all work to support the children’s fine motor development, eye hand coordination, problem solving skills and concentration/focus.  

As they increasingly become aware of those around them, they are supported further in their emotional development, helping them to navigate social situations with their peers.  This age group is also a major developmental period for language and building vocabulary, enabling the children to be developing words and conversations that can be understood by those around them. 

Educators support language development through ongoing verbal engagement through the day, putting words to the actions they see, involving the children in rich literature experiences, songs, rhymes and movement as well as other specific language jobs that support vocabulary development. 

In a Montessori setting, the children are encouraged to make their own choices as to ‘work’ they wish to engage in, moving freely between the indoor and outdoor settings as they do so.

Headland Montessori Alma Road St Kilda strives for authenticity in Montessori education through a commitment to place highly qualified Montessori teachers in every classroom, using quality educational resources and carefully prepared learning environments that are beautiful, connected to nature and inspires children with a love of learning.

The educators work closely with families, offering special where families are able to spend time learning about the Montessori philosophies and methods, building trust and providing parental support.

The educators embrace love and passion for each other, their work and environment; respect for each other and the environment; empathy and contribution as an education for world peace; collaboration with each other, families and communities to share the centre philosophy and to transfer it into their everyday lives; authenticity towards the Montessori philosophy; innovation with operational services and products; and sustainability and to be connected to nature.

Families have commented that our centre has a homely feel that can be attributed as much to the small niche environment as well as to the warm, caring natures of our educators.  All of our Lead Educators are Montessori trained, Early Childhood Teachers with supporting educators holding either Diploma or Certificate III in Early Childhood.  

We pride ourselves on our consistent staffing that allows the children opportunity to develop connections with educators, contributing to their sense of belonging and security.  Our aim is to provide an authentic Montessori program within an extended day setting.  Our light filled classrooms are filled with beautiful Montessori materials and jobs that reflect the interests and developmental needs of the children, promoting children’s agency and voice in being able to make independent choices in the work they engage in throughout the day.  

Outdoors our environment is equally engaging with large, shaded areas with climbing equipment, gardens and sand pits. As with the indoor environment, the children have access to a variety of additional outdoor materials from which they can choose to work – allowing them control over their play choices rather than having these predetermined for them.

Each day I just love to see how engaged the children are in their surroundings.  Listening to our under three’s as they go through an explosion of language, increasingly using their new found words to communicate in new ways with those around them and our 3 – 6 year olds as they increase their independence and embrace making their choices throughout the day.  How quickly the children grow and change in these early years continues to amaze me and underscores just how important these years are to their future learning.

Belinda, Centre Director, Headland Montessori Alma Road St Kilda

To me, being a Montessori teacher means everyday brings opportunities to guide children as they discover themselves and their world. I also love to see the effectiveness the Montessori philosophy has in empowering the child and the amazement parents have when they realise how very capable their little ones are.

Katrina, Lead Educator 18mth – 3 years environment

As a Montessori Teacher at Headland, my role is to be a gentle guide as the children develop their independence and concentration as they make decisions about their learning.  We recognise that each child is unique and learns at their own pace and provide the children opportunities to follow their personal interests as they work towards their individual learning goals. Grace and Courtesy lessons are embedded within our program, empowering children to learn the skills needed to grow to be independent, responsible and thoughtful individuals.  I am passionate about the Montessori philosophy and supporting the growth and wellbeing of the children at Headland.

Chelsea, Lead Educator 3 – 6 years environment

Headland Montessori Alma Road St Kilda uses a children’s catering company called Kids Gourmet Food to provide morning and afternoon tea as well as lunch for the children, with breakfast also available from the centre each morning. 

Kids Gourmet Food works with nutritionists and dieticians and consult with national advisory groups to ensure the highest nutritional standards. In their six-week rotating menu, the children’s meals contain food from the five food groups recommended by the .  

The menus work to reflect foods from different cultural backgrounds and through dedicated allergy kitchens they are able to prepare meals to meet individual meals that might be associated with food allergy or dietary preference.  

Fresh fruit and vegetables are delivered to the centre at the beginning of each week with the day's morning tea, afternoon tea and lunch delivered early each morning.  A trained kitchen staff member at the centre then works to finish preparing and serving the children’s meals.

Food preparation is part of the Montessori curriculum, as such the children engage in different food preparation activities in their rooms such as juicing and fruit cutting as well as other food experiences with their educators as part of their program.