We understand education as a tool to prepare for life, as a means of personal and social transformation, something that promotes dignity and only makes sense when it is a source of fulfillment. At MA, children work because they enjoy doing so; they are intrinsically motivated to learn and take on meaningful, tangible challenges where there is space for emotions. They also have the independence to choose whether to face those challenges alone or with others.

Motivation is the fuel for learning, and it must come from within, not the other way around. At MA, we provide time and space for these interests to emerge, always respecting each child’s rhythm.

Maria Montessori named the 3-to-6-year-old group ¨Casa dei Bambini” (Children’s House) The term “casa” refers to creating an environment that feels like a home, where children can feel safe and free to explore their surroundings autonomously.

At MA, we embrace the essence of Montessori and place it in service of the children. We like to think of ourselves as a home where everyone is essential to its balance and functioning. We communicate the established boundaries with care, consistency, and coherence. We offer freedom to choose between play or work during autonomous and expansive moments.

We also share moments of togetherness where the whole group gathers to sing, tell stories, recite rhymes and poems, share experiences, and lay the foundations for what will later become group assemblies in primary.

Up to age 6, safety and trust in the world are essential for healthy child development and are an essential condition for learning.

Our team has experience in supporting the emotions that arise from children’s interactions with their environment and peers. To accompany them with care and dedication, the ratio for this age group is 10 children per guide.

This stage often requires that some children go through a period of adaptation and familiarization with the school. At MA, we tailor this time to each child and family’s needs, in order for the transition to be smooth and enjoyable for everyone.

Casa Mimosa
Casa Mimosa is for children aged 3 to 4 years and includes three educators: one Catalan, one English, and one Spanish. At MA, we believe it is important to offer children at this age a consistent reference space where they can follow their own rhythm. If they wish, they may interact with older children in both indoor and outdoor spaces and they always have the option to return to their space of reference, the pink room.

Casa Olivella
This group includes children aged 4 to 6 years, guided by two Catalan speaking educators, two English speaking educators, and one Spanish speaking educator. These children are often already familiar with daily life at MA. Their confidence in the spaces and in their relationships has grown over the years, and so, with each new year, they feel the need to go a little further in their exploration of materials and social connections.

Montessori refers to the “prepared environment” as the set of space-related elements that form the child’s learning ecosystem. She explained how that didactic and sensory materials should always be within reach for the child, allowing free choice of activity and autonomous circulation throughout the classroom, understood as both the indoor and outdoor environment.

The adult’s role is to guide and support each child’s development. The adult must be well-trained and, through observation, capable of identifying the child’s developmental stage, especially during sensitive growth periods.

At MA, learning is an individual and asynchronous process. We respect each child’s rhythm and use his/her sensitive periods to offer academic content when the child is receptive and ready to absorb it.

“Children must have the necessary tools within reach, and we must encourage them to use them but without unnecessary pressure. What I propose may conflict with curricular compliance. Well, curricula can be slightly adjusted. The natural maturation of the brain cannot.”
Bueno i Torrens, D. Neurociència per educadors

At MA, children have access to materials from the different areas of the Montessori method: Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Mathematics, and the Cultural Areas. We also offer opportunities for artistic and creative expression.

Montessori designed her pedagogy by creating structured materials to help children conceptualize the world around them, allowing them to classify and understand it more clearly. These materials are still relevant today and support in-depth development across many areas of child growth.

At MA, we believe it is important to consider the historical context in which Montessori developed her pedagogy and to contrast it with the current context of today’s children. As their daily lives are already highly structured, with full schedules and many obligations, we also choose to offer unstructured, versatile materials that nourish their imaginative and creative potential.

At MA, we are convinced that play, especially free play, is one of the most powerful tools for learning in childhood. It may seem surprising for a Montessori school to include moments of free play within its environments but we are convinced that it is an important element that adds to the already rich Montessori methodology. These elements complement each other.

Children’s lives today are very different from those of 100 years ago. Free playtime in the street or with close family has been gradually reduced, and today’s children lead lives that are so structured that it can be hard to make space for these moments of free, spontaneous play, so necessary for development.

For this reason, guided by current scientific evidence, we provide time and space at MA for free play to happen naturally.

Free play is essential to the emotional, social, and cognitive development of children. It is key for developing creativity and independent thinking. It helps children absorb and adapt the information they receive from the world around them. Play invites exploration, experimentation, and deep understanding. It also allows children to practice social roles and develop conflict resolution skills in a safe and pressure-free environment.

At MA, we see art as an essential language of childhood, a way for children to express thoughts, emotions, and ideas. It allows them to explore and understand the world in a creative way. Art is a space for experimentation, through which children access their inner world and learn to communicate visually with others.

At Casa, the approach to artistic language is through free exploration and experimentation,fostering creativity, supporting the development of each child’s personal style, and laying the foundations for the later introduction of techniques appropriate to their developmental stage. We introduce children to different techniques, materials and activities, to broaden the range of creative expression possibilities.

Contact with nature is essential for children’s development. It offers a rich environment for sensory exploration, especially vital during early childhood. Through direct contact with the natural world, children develop their senses and learn to observe and relate to their surroundings in a deep and meaningful way.

Nature also nurtures environmental awareness and a strong emotional bond with the planet,encouraging respect for the environment from an early age.

The school garden is an oasis in the heart of Barcelona. We care for a protected garden with a surface area of 3,000 m² and trees over 100 years old. This allows us to establish a close relationship with nature and to notice everything that each seasonal change brings, even while living in the city. We enjoy fresher air, clearer views, and above all, we enjoy taking care of and getting to know each plant,tree and bug in the garden.

We have a vegetable patch and we work the soil. Outside we play, but we also work. In the end, for us, it’s all the same.

Music is a language that runs through everyday life at MA. To make this possible, we have created our own music program in collaboration with SONA, a project we have admired since our very beginnings.