Physical Environment

Indoor and Outdoor Play Spaces

 

Education is a natural process carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment.

Maria Montessori

 

The Prepared Environment

At IMCH we have nine beautifully prepared classrooms catering for children 6 weeks to pre-prep (school entry age).
The whole environment provides children with the freedom to follow their natural tendencies towards independence, exploration, co-operation, order, repetition, imagination and communication.

Our learning spaces are carefully planned and prepared to take full advantage of the self-motivation and unique learning abilities of all children. The building design, both indoors and outdoors, all the equipment and materials suit the needs of the children at each stage of their development. All our rooms are beautiful, ordering enticing and accessible to children.

Our physical environments have been planned with appropriate levels of challenge to encourage children to explore, experiment and take appropriate risks in their learning. Children are provided with many open-ended opportunities to engage and explore natural and man-made materials and educators carefully plan the environment and equipment to provide flexibility when responding to children's self-initiated play.




We recognise the value of providing for risky play in the Early Childhood setting and have led change by providing our children with a wild play-space where they have multiple opportunities to play and take risks, have a natural inherent connection with nature and be able to care for and develop a deep respect for the environment.