Our classes – ages 3 to 12
The classes
The Montessori 3 12 school is organised into bilingual and multi-age classes, divided into three cycles: 3–6 years, 6–9 years and 9–12 years
Each class is co-taught by two teachers, one French-speaking and the other English-speaking, both AMI Montessori graduates and present full-time. German is introduced from age 6. Montessori assistants complete the teaching team and provide after-school care.
Why choose Montessori from age 3?
Starting school at age 3
A key moment for entering the learning process at Montessori school 3 12
Your child is 3 years old, or will soon be, and you are wondering: should you put him/her in school now, or leave him/her in daycare a little longer? It is an important decision, because these first years are crucial for his/her development.
Starting at a Montessori school from age 3 is a unique opportunity to provide your child with an environment that supports their natural curiosity and nurtures their potential. Discover why starting at this age is a beneficial decision for their future development.
Developing early foundational skills
From the age of three, children are naturally curious and eager to explore. They need an environment adapted to their needs. The Montessori method channels this curiosity by offering age-appropriate activities that strengthen concentration, fine motor skills, visual discrimination, and physical coordination.
Take advantage of the child’s absorbent mind
Maria Montessori identified that young children possess an “absorbent mind,” allowing them to naturally and effortlessly assimilate their environment. Between the ages of 3 and 6, this capacity is at its peak, facilitating the acquisition of skills such as language, motor coordination, and concentration. A carefully prepared Montessori environment harnesses this sensitive period to foster optimal development.
- Practical life activities that structure thought and develop concentration.
- Fine motor skills and pre-writing activities (hand work, hand-eye coordination)
- Language development (vocabulary enrichment)
- Introduction to written language (sounds, letters)
- Pre-mathematical work (order, classification, quantities)
Benefit from a multi-age and bilingual environment
Montessori classes group children aged 3 to 6, fostering a dynamic of mutual support. Younger children learn from older ones, while the older children build their confidence by guiding the younger ones. This structure encourages the development of social skills, independence, and leadership. Furthermore, our school offers a bilingual environment with a full-time French-speaking teacher and an English-speaking teacher, allowing your child to learn and thrive in both languages from a very young age.
To rely on evidence-based research
Studies have shown that children who follow a Montessori program from a young age develop particularly strong social and academic skills. The benefits include improved concentration, greater independence, and increased self-confidence. This educational model fosters holistic development, preparing children for success in various fields from their earliest school years.
By choosing to offer your child the Montessori experience from the age of 3, you are giving them a precious gift: that of growing up in an environment that recognizes, nurtures and respects their immense potential.
We invite you to discover our Montessori school for 3-12 year olds in Geneva:
Contact us for more information or to arrange a visit! infos@montessori312.ch
3-6 years
The children’s house
« Help me to do it myself »
“Our school is a children’s home rather than a true school; that is to say, a place specially prepared for the child, in which he assimilates the pervasive culture of this environment…education…it is a natural process that develops spontaneously in human beings, which is not acquired by listening to words, but through experiences carried out in the environment.”
At Montessori School 3 12 Geneva, we design the Children’s House (ages 3-6) as a true living space, both structured and welcoming. More than a classroom in the traditional sense, it is a carefully prepared environment designed to meet the deep needs of children at this age. Between the ages of 3 and 6, children actively develop their personalities. After an initial phase where their abilities are established, they enter a period of refining their skills: they develop their language, coordinate their movements, structure their thinking, and begin to find their place within the group.
The Montessori environment acts as a bridge between home and the outside world. Everything is organized to allow the child to understand, explore, and make their own what surrounds them. Through the materials and activities offered, the child learns independently by manipulating, experimenting, and repeating. These concrete experiences nourish both their academic learning and the development of their motor, language, and social skills.
Guided by trained educators, each child progresses at their own pace in an environment where French and English are naturally present in daily life. This immersion occurs organically through interactions and activities. We ensure a solid foundation, both academically and personally, to support each child’s harmonious development, respecting their individual rhythm.
Learning areas
The Children’s House environment is organized around several areas, each addressing an essential aspect of child development. The materials provided allow for precise and tailored progression, supporting concentration, autonomy, and the joy of learning.
Practical life
The first area explored by the child, practical life, is based on everyday actions: pouring, buttoning, cleaning, taking care of their environment. These activities develop autonomy, coordination of movements and, above all, the ability to concentrate, essential to all learning.
Mathematics
Mathematics emerges naturally from sensory work. Having refined their sense of observation, children become interested in quantities and relationships. The materials make abstract concepts concrete and allow for a first approach to numbers and calculation in a progressive and intuitive way.
Sensory
At this age, children discover the world through their senses. Sensory materials allow them to refine their perceptions: distinguishing, comparing, classifying, and ordering. By structuring their sensory experiences, children organize their thinking and build a more nuanced understanding of their environment.
Language
The environment is rich in spoken language: conversations, stories, rhymes, and precise vocabulary. Gradually, the child gains access to written language through indirect preparation of movement and with adapted materials, such as sandpaper letters. Reading and writing then emerge naturally, based on a phonetic approach.
Culture & Arts
Children are introduced to the world through geography, botany, zoology, and other cultural fields. These discoveries, always grounded in concrete experiences, nurture their curiosity and understanding of reality.
Artistic activities — drawing, painting, modeling, music — are integrated into daily life and offer the child varied means of expression, contributing to their sensitive and creative development.
6-9 years
Elementary level
« Help me to think for myself »
“In this intellectual phase, a child’s questions are countless. He wants to know everything. His thirst for knowledge is so insatiable that people generally don’t know what to do; that’s why they mainly choose the easiest way and force the child to be silent and learn only what adults consider useful for him. But by doing so, we also destroy his spontaneous interest. Learning then becomes a tedious task.”
At Montessori School 3 12 Geneva, the 6-9 year old class supports children through a pivotal stage of their development. After the foundations laid in the Children’s House, they enter an age where their need to understand the world becomes immense. They are no longer content with simply observing or manipulating objects: they want to connect, question, reason, and discover what lies behind things.
The prepared environment responds to this new dynamic. It opens the child to a wider field of exploration, where learning takes on meaning through grand narratives, experiments, research, and projects. The materials then become a concrete support to nurture the imagination, support reflection, and accompany the gradual access to abstraction.
In the 6-9 class, children also learn with others. Working in small groups, sharing, helping each other, and discussing are an integral part of their daily routine. They gradually discover how to cooperate, listen to different points of view, defend an idea, and build together.
This period is a true bridge between childhood, centered on immediate experience, and a wider, more social and intellectual world. During this time, the child develops their curiosity, autonomy, moral sense, and ability to think for themselves.
Learning is organized around different areas that allow the child to explore the world, structure their thinking, and make sense of what they discover. The curriculum places the child at the center of a network of knowledge where the different areas are not presented as independent disciplines but as interconnected subjects.
The curriculum (see diagram) places the child at the center of a network of knowledge where different areas are not presented as independent disciplines but as interconnected subjects. A core of grand narratives, spanning time and space, paves the way for the exploration of the details presented in the lessons, each offering a “key” to the different areas of study. The Montessori materials presented in the lessons provide a concrete way to explore abstract concepts , thus encouraging the development of the child’s imagination and abstract reasoning skills.
The educator’s task is to “plant seeds” in order to invite this formidable intellect to explore and understand many concepts, to give it the freedom to engage in great works and to achieve personal satisfaction.
The big lessons
At the beginning of the 6-12 cycle, learning is organized around five major foundational lessons. These stories, given at the beginning of the year, offer the child a comprehensive and coherent view of the world.
Through lively stories, enriched with experiments, demonstrations and visual aids, the educator introduces the major areas of knowledge: the universe, life, human beings, language, mathematics and science.
These five “big stories” each open up a new field of exploration: geography, history, language, mathematics, geometry, and biology. The educator ensures that each child addresses all points of the curriculum through research, activities, and personal or group projects.
Each major lesson acts as a gateway. It sparks wonder, awakens curiosity, and inspires a desire to explore further. Children find avenues for exploration within these lessons, which they then develop at their own pace.
Over the years, these stories take on a new depth: the child returns to them with a different perspective, enriched by their experience and maturity.
Research outings
The Montessori classroom extends beyond the classroom walls into society and nature: the field trip is the cornerstone of Montessori primary education. These field trips differ from class outings initiated by adults: they are planned, organized, and sometimes funded by a child or a small group of children, based on a specific interest.
A research trip offers not only opportunities for intellectual stimulation, but also opportunities for critical thinking and decision-making, as well as the development of grace and courtesy skills in society at large.
Creativity
The Montessori educator consciously works to create an environment where all areas of the curriculum are valued equally. The insights provided during the presentations lay the foundation for the development of creativity and give children the tools and context to nurture their developing imaginations.
Free from a schedule set by others, from worksheets or homework, the child can explore their new skills at any time of day and integrate them into their work: creating art, writing a story, or staging a play. Art and music are expressed within the prepared Montessori environment and constitute natural extensions that enrich and broaden classroom work.
Come and discover our Montessori school for 3-12 year olds!
Contact us for more information or to arrange a visit: infos@montessori312.ch
9-12 years
Building the moral man
« Help me discover the world »
“Education between the ages of 6 and 12 is not merely a continuation of previous work, but a preparation for social life. Children of this age are eager to explore the universe, to understand the causes of things and the relationships that unite them.”
At Montessori School 3 12 Geneva, the 9-12 year old class constitutes the final stage of the elementary cycle (6-12 years). Over these three years, the child consolidates, structures, and deepens all of their learning. It is a period in which their thinking gains depth and maturity. They no longer simply seek to understand the world; they also begin to connect it to their own ideas, values, and place in society.
In this progression, the child gradually moves from a general understanding of the world to more abstract and structured thinking. They connect different pieces of knowledge, organize them, and begin to build a more coherent and reasoned vision. Learning then becomes a genuine process of reflection, in-depth exploration, and engagement.
The prepared environment supports this development. It encourages children to organize their work, conduct longer research projects, both individually and in groups, plan their activities, collaborate with others, and present the results of their discoveries. Knowledge is not isolated: it interacts, intersects, and illuminates one another.
The curriculum (see diagram) places the child at the center of a network of knowledge where different areas are not presented as independent disciplines but as interconnected subjects. A core of grand narratives, spanning time and space, paves the way for the exploration of the details presented in the lessons, each offering a “key” to the different areas of study. The Montessori materials presented in the lessons provide a concrete way to explore abstract concepts , thus encouraging the development of the child’s imagination and abstract reasoning skills.
The educator’s task is to “plant seeds” in order to invite this formidable intellect to explore and understand many concepts, to give it the freedom to engage in great works and to achieve personal satisfaction.
Thinking about the world
The child thus learns to compare, analyze, contrast points of view and refine their judgment. They gradually become able to take a step back from their learning and connect it to the world around them.
This stage prepares the child to gradually enter into more academic learning, while respecting their need for exploration, freedom, and responsibility. They thus develop the attitude of a researcher, a thinker, and an active member of the group.
The different areas of work allow him to deepen his knowledge, to connect ideas together and to evolve in a framework that is demanding, dynamic and structured.
Openness to the world and concrete experiences
Children aged 9–12 spend a significant portion of their time outside the classroom. Regular outings, explorations, observations, and experiments allow them to learn through direct contact with their environment.
These outdoor experiences enrich the work done in the classroom. They offer children concrete opportunities to experiment, question, and better understand the world around them. This alternation between indoors and outdoors nurtures their curiosity and builds a more vibrant and engaged relationship with the world around them.
Preparing for the next stage of the journey
Over these years, the child becomes familiar with forms of work more expected later in their schooling. They learn to structure their writing, organize their ideas, respond to specific instructions, and present their work clearly.
These experiences allow him to better understand academic expectations and to mobilize his acquired knowledge in varied situations, gaining in efficiency and confidence.
Come and discover our Montessori school for 3-12 year olds!
Contact us for more information or to arrange a visit: infos@montessori312.ch