Montessori Community School

Don't take your child to this place. I went on a tour of the school and the children were in the gym playing when a toddler stuck something into an outlet! Sparks were flying everywhere for a good 10 seconds before a teacher finally grabbed the kid. I know accidents happen but this is completely unacceptable and avoidable, he could have been seriously injured or killed. Why are there no outlet covers in a gym that toddlers play in. Everyone just shrugged it off like it wasn't a big deal not even addressing the issue with me. When I was leaving I saw them putting ice on the burn, you should never put ice on an electrical burn! Also, while in the gym there were toddlers slamming a door that doesn't close all the way (why are there doors that keep gym equipment in that don't close a child could wander in there and who knows what could happen) and no one did anything, I was worried another kid would lose a finger during this. The teachers were just talking not paying much attention to the children, keep in mind this all happened while on a TOUR of the school. I can't imagine what happens when only the staff is around.

I'm so excited to take our daughter to this school! All the teachers are loving and attentive and the whole feeling in the school is positive!

Best school in the world. Especially the early childhood department!

This is a school that fundamentally, through its methods, philosophy, and culture, develops the “soft” skills that are associated with adult happiness and success: self-motivation, decision making, conflict management, ability to articulate their own needs and recognize the needs of others, leadership, project management, work-life balance, and team work. Overall I have been pleased with my children’s academic progress and the teachers have been responsive when I have had a concern in a particular area. The learning is largely self-paced, and this may not be a good fit for you if you want to push your kids at a fast pace. There are no standardized tests but the progress reports from the teachers each semester give quite a bit of detail on the children’s mastery of specific skills typical for their grade level. There is very little homework but my children have met all typical grade level expectations (and way beyond in some areas) despite this. I appreciate the small homework load so we have more time for outdoor play, family activities, friends, music lessons, and just being a kid. Our family has been enrolled since 2008, when my older child (now in the lower elementary program) joined the toddler program. Our younger child is in one of the dual immersion Spanish early childhood classes and also started in the toddler program. The teachers that we have worked with through the years have been tuned in to the emotional, social, and academic needs of my children and responsive to my concerns. The facility is very special and there is more space per child in the classrooms for the preschool and toddler ages than is typical in a daycare, leading to less stress for the children. There are excellent specialty teachers for art, music, dance, outdoor education, and even yoga. They have two dual immersion Spanish early childhood classes. The school has a very welcoming culture and prides itself on tolerance and diversity.

Our two daughters started attending MCS in 2012 when they were entering second grade and sixth grade. They had previously attended a Sudbury-model school that was focused on student-directed learning and had no set curriculum. They enjoyed their time there and learned, particularly when they were in a larger school with a well-established culture of learning, but when they were 7 and 11 years old, we were becoming concerned that they were missing a lot of knowledge that would become harder to catch up on as they got older. After researching virtually every private school in the Salt Lake City area, we settled on MCS. I had previously been under the mistaken impression that the Montessori model was primarily geared toward toddlers and preschoolers, and was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of data supporting the model for our daughters’ ages (and older). There were a couple of months of adjustment for our daughters when they started at MCS given their prior educational model, but their teachers were patient and supportive as the girls adapted to a totally different academic environment and new social interactions. Once they adjusted, they thrived. MCS provides a fairly structured learning environment but still has a built-in structure of cultivating independence. In the lower and upper elementary classes, students are expected to plan parts of their days to complete their daily work and long-term projects, which helps build confidence and skill in effective planning and systematic accomplishment of goals. Learning how to plan out her work effectively was more difficult for our younger daughter, but she steadily became more comfortable and skilled due in huge part to the unending support of her teachers. Our girls’ teachers at MCS maintained a perfect balance between supporting and challenging their students. Even when mistakes were made or students were having trouble completing required work, the teachers always treated students with respect, while making clear what their expectations were. Our daughters were motivated to do good work, and they maintained their love of learning for its own sake. They almost never had homework, as MCS focuses more on in-school and hands-on learning, which we appreciate. After two years at MCS, our older daughter decided that she wanted to enter West High School as a 9th grader. Due to uncertainty about her knowledge base, we had enrolled her at MCS in a grade behind what she would normally have been in based on her age, and several of her friends from other schools were then entering 9th grade. MCS staff generously put in a tremendous amount of time to build an 8th grade curriculum for our daughter to complete over the summer, with the oversight and support of her teacher. After completing this curriculum, she entered the International Baccalaureate program at West—a very academically challenging program--in the Fall of 2015 and ended up getting straight A’s that year. We attribute her ability to adjust to and succeed in this challenging environment to her time at MCS and the planning and organizational skills she learned there, as well as the emotional support she received. Our younger daughter is still at MCS and is now in 5th grade. She adores going to school and we actually have to talk her into staying home when she’s sick, because she doesn’t want to miss anything in her class. As a final point, the administrative staff are all fantastic. They, along with every teacher with whom we have interacted, genuinely care about each student and their families, and they try to support families in their educational journey any way they can. They keep parents well informed about upcoming events and students’ progress, and they are proactive about addressing concerns about students’ well-being. We are absolutely thrilled that we found MCS. If we had it to do over, we would have had our kids there since they were preschoolers.