About Us
New Horizons Montessori opened in Rivervalley Swords in September 2002 with our owner/ Montessori teacher Linda Rock accompanied by our Montessori teacher Eileen Condon. During that first year, we welcomed a class of 6 children. Due to overwhelming demand, we expanded our service to cater for 22 children by 2005. During 2005 Ann O’Flynn joined our team. Eileen now manages New Horizons on a daily basis along with heading up the teaching team while Ann continues to be a valuable member of our team.
Here at New Horizons we provide a Montessori based approach to child development covering all aspects of the Montessori curriculum. We achieve this through the use of a fully equipped Montessori classroom complete with all appropriate Montessori materials and teaching aids.
We recognise the need for each child to reach their full potential at a rate suitable for their own ability. This is the cornerstone on which our service is based. We work with parents in providing this via a play-based and caring environment communicating with them at very regular intervals.
New Horizons strives to offer an exceptional service to the children and parents of our school. This is achieved in a number of ways including:
Highly Professional and Caring Staff
We consider that the people you entrust your child to is the most important factor in deciding which Pre-school is appropriate for your child. We firmly believe that it has been the quality, passion and enthusiasm of our dedicated and highly experienced staff that has helped us achieve our success and our reputation for being such a high quality Montessori School. We also have an excellent teacher to child ratio of 1 to 7 at all times.
Montessori Curriculum
This programme provides a stimulating, nurturing and happy environment, which allows each child to fulfil his/her own potential in a non-competitive manner. We offer a vast Montessori curriculum to each child from Practical Life exercises through Sensorial, Language, Maths and Culture. In addition to the Montessori curriculum we cover Irish and the ‘Primary Movements’ Programme (see below). More details can be found in the “Montessori Curriculum” section of our website.
Primary Movements
Unique to New Horizons is the ‘Primary Movements’ programme. This programme recognises that children may retain basic reflexes from their babyhood e.g. sucking or rooting reflex. Our programme which involves simple exercises completed through music can provide benefits in balance, coordination, organisational skills and bed-wetting along with reading, writing and problem-solving skills. To learn more about ‘Primary Movements’ and the benefits it offers click here
Detailed Reports
A detailed written report is provided in December and June each year outlining each child’s progress. At any stage during the year, we are available to discuss any issues which may be of concern in relation to each child.
Fully Equipped Classrooms
We provide our services from two specially designed and fully equipped Montessori rooms in Swords. Our second room allows children to enjoy the benefits of the Montessori curriculum with no more than 6 children at any one time. This particularly benefits quieter children while allowing them to integrate more easily.