Montessori elementary and adolescent, in Boone, North Carolina
Octavo has three mixed-age rooms for ages 6 to 14, a garden and woods behind the building, and nine guides for about 48 students.
Three rooms
Each room mixes three ages. A child spends several years with the same guides and the same shelves, and then walks down the hall to the next room.
A long morning work cycle, with children choosing from the shelf
Number, place value and fractions worked out with beads and wooden materials
Reading and writing, from moveable letters to first reports
A child moves to the upper room when the guides and the family agree it is time. Visits to the upper room come first.
Research that starts with a question and ends in a written report
Fractions, geometry and the first steps of algebra, with materials and then on paper
Trips out into the town and the mountains, planned and booked by the children
In its last stretch, children begin spending a morning at a time in the adolescent program.
Mornings of reading, writing, math and science around a long project
Afternoons on the land and in the workshop, with the garden's harvest at a market stand
A written proposal and a presentation to families for each long project
The program ends with a presentation to families at the close of eighth grade, and the guides help each family think through what comes next.
Sample levels.
Classes
Every room keeps the same core day. Early arrival and extended days are there for the families who need them, and each is billed apart.
Grades 1 to 3
Mornings are the work cycle. Afternoons turn to art, music and the garden.
Grades 4 to 6
Going-out trips are planned by the children and fall on core days.
Grades 7 and 8
Wednesday is a land day, in the garden and the workshop.
Sample programs.
The land
The back door opens onto raised beds and a gravel path. Every room tends a bed, the greenhouse carries seedlings through the cold months, and the adolescents run the garden and a harvest stand.
Raised beds for each room, planted in spring and put to bed in fall
A greenhouse bench for seedlings while snow is still on the ground
A woodland trail for nature journals and long walks
A harvest stand run by the adolescent program
A day at school
The rhythm is the same in every room, so children know what comes next.
A guide greets each child at the door, and coats and boots go on the hooks.
A long, quiet morning of chosen work, with small lessons from a guide.
Lunch at the table, then time outdoors in all but the worst weather.
Art, music, the garden and the workshop, then a closing meeting.
The school year
Families apply a school year ahead. Open houses begin in the fall, and decisions go out in March.
October and again in January
Walk the building and the land, and meet the head of school and the guides.
Most Wednesdays, October to March
Sit at the edge of a room while the children work, then talk with the head of school.
Book a visitNovember
For the fall, about nine months away.
Early February
Families who apply by then hear together.
Mid-March
By letter and by phone, in the same week.
Early April
Signed to hold a place.
June
Plant a bed, walk the trail and meet next year's room.
Late August
Sample dates.
From families
4.9
31 reviews
“We sat at the edge of the lower room on an observation morning and nobody noticed us. Every child was busy with something different, and the guide moved quietly between them.”
“Our daughter started in first grade and will finish in eighth. We like that we will not have to find a new school when she is twelve.”
“The garden is part of the week, not a field trip. Our son comes home with dirt on his knees and a question about worms.”
Sample reviews.
Questions
It is the long stretch of the morning, about three hours, when children choose their work from the shelf and a guide gives small lessons. Nobody rings a bell in the middle of it.
The guides and the family talk first, and the child spends mornings in the next room before the move. The same materials are on the shelves, a little further along.
Yes. An observation morning does not require an application. You sit at the edge of a room, see the children at work, and talk with the head of school afterward. Children are welcome to come along.
Families visit, apply, hear from the school in March and sign an enrollment agreement in April. A child meets a guide in the room for a short visit before the school decides. The steps are on the admissions page, with the months they fall in.
Early arrival is open from 7:45 a.m., and extended days run until 5:15 p.m. on Monday to Thursday. Each is billed apart, for the days a family uses.
Book an observation morning, or come to an open house in the fall.