Montessori Assistant

cookie6969

Hi I was just wondering if anyone can help, my child just started in a creche and montessori school, she is in a montessori class of 16 children with one teacher who is qualified through St.Nicholas and an assistant who has no Montessori experience at all, she has a childcare level 4 I think though I'm not 100% sure on that one.
Anyway, I was just wondering does an assistant in a Montessori class not have to be MOntessori trained? It seems a bit stuppid if you ask me to have an assistant whos supposed to be introducing exercises to my child who needs to be shown the stuff herself?

Also I was told that the class my child is in is only for the children who qualify and who are taking part in the free scheme starting in January, any other children no matter there age are being put into the pre-montessori class for ages 2 1/2- 3years. I'm still unsure whether or not i will be sending my child to school next year or the following year, but if i decide to wait my child is going to be put into the pre-montessori, which I do not want as I feel she is well capable for the Montessori class. My question is Is the creche allowed to do this?

Gabsdot

It's not ideal that the assistant has no Montessori qualifications but regulations state that it is 'allowed' . Her child care qualification is sufficient for the HSE inspectors. You'll probably find that the assistant does the donkey work, with the actual Montessori teacher doing the teaching.
As for the other point. You will have to make up your mind soon about whether or not your child will avail of the free year from January or whether you want to wait until September. The school will be applying for the grant for the January children next month so you'll have to decided before then. I'm assuming that she falls into the age bracket that qualifies her for either Jan or Sept 10. (born between 1/3/06 and 1/6/06.
It makes sense that the class would be split that way into a junior and senior class. that way all the children in the senior class will leave to go to school together. Also they may have a one year program which your daughter would repeat if she was in the senior class for 2 years.

overmantle

I wonder if this free scheme will be chopped in the budget?? Not sure how it's meant to work though it seems like a good idea. Wish it had been there for my kids.

Gabsdot

It hasn't even started yet so I doubt if it'll be chopped also it's being funded by the chopping of the early childcare allowance so it's probably saving money in the long run.

wommer

Creches in Ireland in my opinion are allowed to do what they like. The HSE visit once a year after that there is not sight nor sound of them. I am a trained Montessori teacher and work for a well known childcare group. I have at the moment in my class 14 children the majority of the group aged under 3. Alot of the children are not yet ready to be moved up but because it frees up spaces in the other rooms they are moved to my room. There is no regard for the childrens needs. Basically once there is more money coming in that is all that matters. Childcare in Ireland should be regulated properly and should not be about profit it should be centered on the child. It is very frustrating because you want to do the best for the children but being treated unfairly you start to think why am I bothering. Instead of being able to teach you have to concentrate more on crowd control. Recently an assistant has been taken on. She is also montessori trained and is being paid minimum wage. After studying for two years to be paid minimum wage is disgusting. All of our wages have been cut. There has been no reduction in the fees the parents pay. They pay huge amounts of money every month and should be getting the best for their children. Its not fair on anyone only the owner who's wallet is getting thicker by the day!

emma82

OP you may not have the luxury of allowing you child to wait until next year for the free pre school scheme. Qualifying ages for Jan to June 2010 child born 2nd Feb 2005 to 30 June 2006- next year for Sept to 2010 to Aug 2011 qualifying DOB is 2nd Feb 2006 to 30 june 2007. If there is a waiting list in your local school you may be able to hold your child off- if this is approved by OMC.

In relation to the qualifications other posters are correct. The Childcare regulations state, ' suitable and competent adults' Perhaps the ECCE scheme will change this now- services that have staff with higher level qualifications will recieve higher money from government.

unklerosco

wommer wrote: »

Creches in Ireland in my opinion are allowed to do what they like. The HSE visit once a year after that there is not sight nor sound of them. I am a trained Montessori teacher and work for a well known childcare group. I have at the moment in my class 14 children the majority of the group aged under 3. Alot of the children are not yet ready to be moved up but because it frees up spaces in the other rooms they are moved to my room. There is no regard for the childrens needs. Basically once there is more money coming in that is all that matters. Childcare in Ireland should be regulated properly and should not be about profit it should be centered on the child. It is very frustrating because you want to do the best for the children but being treated unfairly you start to think why am I bothering. Instead of being able to teach you have to concentrate more on crowd control. Recently an assistant has been taken on. She is also montessori trained and is being paid minimum wage. After studying for two years to be paid minimum wage is disgusting. All of our wages have been cut. There has been no reduction in the fees the parents pay. They pay huge amounts of money every month and should be getting the best for their children. Its not fair on anyone only the owner who's wallet is getting thicker by the day!

When you say you had 14 kids in your class, was that just you with the 14 kids or did you have an assistant??

I run a Montessori with my Fiancee, we believe in cutting our profits to benifit the children. We run two classes to keep our numbers down in each room. We don't need to but we believe by doing it the children get a better education. We also pay our staff decent wages depending on their qualifactions/experience... There's no benifit to trying to squeeze every last penny out of the school to fit in your pocket. Near all our children have come from word of mouth, we get great recommendations parents etc..

I believe the HSE should do more visits and that all their reports should be made public and viewable online. Its crazy that its not easily accessible...
Sure we've had a number of parents come to us after signing up to another local Montessori only to find out that it was run in a bar.. Montessori by day, bar by night... They said the smell of drink as soon as u walked in the door was overwhealming... Now, I'm 99.9% sure that school has no planning permission and has never had a HSE visit yet still its up n running... Madness

burber

I agree that creches seem to be allow do whatever they like.
I too am a fully qualified Mont teach ( level 8) and this year I have up to 20 chi ldren my class! I have a fetac level 5 assistant. This is not against the rules. If the creche can get 10 more children when the scheme kicks in Jan they will leave me and the assistant with the 20 and will set up another fetac level 5 worker with the balance in another room and this is not against the rules either!

IMO Montessori teachers are selling themselves too short. We are not appreciated for our skills. We should be standing up and demanding better salaries for the phenomenally important work we do.

AutumnComission

emma82 wrote: »

OP you may not have the luxury of allowing you child to wait until next year for the free pre school scheme. Qualifying ages for Jan to June 2010 child born 2nd Feb 2005 to 30 June 2006- next year for Sept to 2010 to Aug 2011 qualifying DOB is 2nd Feb 2006 to 30 june 2007. If there is a waiting list in your local school you may be able to hold your child off- if this is approved by OMC.

In relation to the qualifications other posters are correct. The Childcare regulations state, ' suitable and competent adults' Perhaps the ECCE scheme will change this now- services that have staff with higher level qualifications will recieve higher money from government.

In order for a facility to qualify as one of the places the government approve for the 'free childcare year' at least one of the attending childcare workers, at the moment have to have a minimum of FETAC level 6 training but from 2012 onwards it will be compulsory that all childcare staff in a qualifying facility have this qualification. It appears that they are trying to allow childcare workers to become more graduate led in line with other European countries such as Sweden and Poland. Fingers crossed eh?! Ireland came last when it came to studies within Europe into childcare regulations being established and enforced.

dogbert27

AutumnCommission:

Due to protests from the sector the government went back on FETAC level 6. The terms and conditions were revised as follows:

Pre-school years Leaders must hold a certification for a major award in childcare/eary education at a minimum of level 5 on the National Framework of Qualifications of Ireland (NFQ) or an equivalent nationally recognised qualification or a higer award in the childcare/early education field.

This whole sector needs a major revamp and it should follow the Nordic model where all pre-school teachers are fully qualified to third level (i.e. the Early Years Education courses such as Early Childhood Studies in UCC) and not to just a level of FETAC level 5 where the majority of the workforce have gotten to and then stopped.

friskycat

Hi

I hold an International Montessori Diploma which I obtained almost 15 years ago. I studied with The London Montessori College in Galway. I am qualified to teach up to six years and have been running a school for the past 12 years. I have an assistant who is qualified up to FETAC level 5. Unfortunately, the LMC does not exist any more in Ireland although I have come accross them on a site in London as a Montessori Teacher Training College. My problem is with this new ECCE scheme coming in January will I have to upskill to Fetac level 6 or higher? I am forever going on courses and siolta workshops and now Aistear is coming up so that means more nights out !! I run a small school form my home in rural Galway we only take in 10 children so is it worth my while doing a FETAC course when I am perfectly qualified to do my job?? I have applied for the ECCE and so far they havent mentioned that I need to upskill I am aware that I may need to do this before 2012. Any thoughts? There must be more people in my situation... Thanks

unklerosco

friskycat wrote: »

Hi

I hold an International Montessori Diploma which I obtained almost 15 years ago. I studied with The London Montessori College in Galway. I am qualified to teach up to six years and have been running a school for the past 12 years. I have an assistant who is qualified up to FETAC level 5. Unfortunately, the LMC does not exist any more in Ireland although I have come accross them on a site in London as a Montessori Teacher Training College. My problem is with this new ECCE scheme coming in January will I have to upskill to Fetac level 6 or higher? I am forever going on courses and siolta workshops and now Aistear is coming up so that means more nights out !! I run a small school form my home in rural Galway we only take in 10 children so is it worth my while doing a FETAC course when I am perfectly qualified to do my job?? I have applied for the ECCE and so far they havent mentioned that I need to upskill I am aware that I may need to do this before 2012. Any thoughts? There must be more people in my situation... Thanks

Ur best bet is to check the posts over here http://rollercoaster.ie/boards/forum.asp?GroupID=16&forumdb=8 and contact the ECCE directly or your apointed CCC... Its the only way you'd get a definite answer... Maybe. Its gotten quite messy really.

friskycat

Hi

Thanks a mil.... Will do that...... Its going to be losts of fun in January .. I can hear them ringing into Joe Duffy already!!

reggae

Hi,
most of the county childcare committeess are now running the fetac6 advanced supervision in childcare course free of this - so is worth doing

angie26

In response to the original poster, I trained as a Montessori teacher and there's no way an unqualified person should be using the materials with children. That's the responsiblity of the directress. Oddly enough it was Dr Montessori herself who specified that assistants should be untrained. At that time there were very few Montessori teachers and it would have meant using a mainstream trained teacher who might challenge the directress or try to introduce conventional methods into what was then a very new and radical approach in education. Since then most early childhood education programmes have borrowed heavily from Montessori but they are still a very pale imitation and a true Montessori class will never for example use an incentive or reward system. I wouldn't want another Montessori teacher in my class as I prefer to run my class myself and not team teach, it really is a case of too many chiefs. On the other hand childcare workers tend to have a very different approach, with way too much intervention in what the children are doing and a very play based approach and I wouldn't want to work with them either! Fortunately I now teach in primary school so I don't have to worry about it.

reggae

Angie, I am also montessori trained with St. Nicholas but am working in community sector at present. Totally agree its a completely different approach plus we do not have the materials. Also have to think about which offers the best employment opportunities and salary, so am happy to work in community sector. Younger children may be happier in an environment that is not as structured as the montessori method?

angie26

reggae wrote: »

Angie, I am also montessori trained with St. Nicholas but am working in community sector at present. Totally agree its a completely different approach plus we do not have the materials. Also have to think about which offers the best employment opportunities and salary, so am happy to work in community sector. Younger children may be happier in an environment that is not as structured as the montessori method?

Hi Reggae. I've never taught in a school that had the Montessori materials either! However I've always used the basic philosophy eg child doesn't use unfamiliar material until shown how by teacher, individual work, working on a mat, freedom of choice of activities, self-directed learning, minimal intervention by me, writing and phonics with children who show readiness. I never allowed any fantasy play or had toys in the classroom. Had loads of practical life and as much maths stuff based on Montessori approach as I could manage. Also there was a painting and art area where they could go any time they wanted as long as they set it up and cleaned up after. I also had all the cultural friezes, continent folders etc and the nature table, the plants for the kids to care for and so on. The youngest kids I've taught were just turned three and were very happy with this structure. It was exhausting in the beginning because they had to be shown absolutely everything but it's great when you see them being so independent. I taught them how to help each other to get in and out of painting smocks, you know how the fasten around the back, it's really cute watching them help each other and it's so fantastic for them not having to ask an adult for help. It takes a lot of confidence to stick with the Montessori philosophy and it 's very easy to end up going down the road of the dressing up corner and the star charts etc but I'm happy teaching this way. The funny thing is when you go into a mainstream primary school you can always tell when the Junior Infant teacher is Montessori trained. Their classrooms always look different!

HELEN HOGAN

THERE IS A MONTESSORI COURSE STARTING AT NIGHT WITH COLAISTE DHULAIGH VEC IN 2012. THEY MAY HAVE A WAITING LIST THOUGH.