Waterdown Montessori School

We will gladly accept children with special needs / learning difficulties if we feel we can serve them well. Each child is considered on a case-by-case basis. With a few exceptions, our staff is not specially trained for working in these areas, and we make this very clear to any parent considering enrolling their child.

We have had very good success with children who have speech delays; the Montessori programme lends itself to this need. We are open to working with specialists, and have sometimes had a speech therapist work with a child in the school.

We have also had children in the school with global developmental delays, and in general we have found that they thrive, particularly in our Casa programme. Whenever possible, we work with the CCAC (Community Care Access Centre), to access resources. We had one student who was entitled to both a speech therapist and an occupational therapist who was able to come into the school to work with this child.

Sadly, resources have become scarcer, and the criteria for eligibility have become much stricter.

In the Elementary class, we accommodate children with a wide range of abilities and temperaments. Without extra support, however, we find the Elementary programme less suitable than the Casa programme to children with severe delays or specific needs beyond our capabilities.