Collaboration
We believe in collaboration with you about your child's education. We work hard to communicate the projects we are studying at Trefoil with you through termly timetables and emails, this is so that you can discuss these topics at home. Your child's Home Education will be greatly enhanced if you are able to complete the Parent Pack we send home weekly. We include weekly Spellings, English and Maths, sometimes we will include project research. If possible try to visit museums and places of interest which we can suggest to you.
Since the invention of satalite navigation and digital technologies children have been having less real life experience with money, maps and clocks. We encourage the extra practise of these skills at home as much as possible. Practising times tables is also very important as this skill can take years for children to develop. We also encourage daily reading to improve your child's fluency and expression. In our experience, with a collaboration of teachers and parents working together children can really thrive.
Upon registration you will be asked to complete a Home Educators Declaration which tells us and OFSTED the types of activities that you will be doing outside of our workshops. OFSTED ask us to keep records of our attendees and in accordance with them we complete safeguarding courses and paediatric first aid certification and termly fire drills. We are also asked to mark when children are late or do not attend, we do not administer fines to parents for non attendance, however we encourage regular attendance so that your child can complete projects. As we serve and cook food on site our kitchen has also been inspected and have been given a hygiene rating of 5 stars.
In line with the Montessori ideas of independence we encourage the children to care for themselves as much as is possible within their age group. We encourage them tidying up after themselves, picking up their own belongings and helping in group activities. We encourage good teamwork and communication with parents and with children.
If there are disagreements between children we will often host Peace Ceremonies. This is a Montessori idea of helping children to express their emotions in a non judgemental environment and with gentle guidance from the teacher. We encourage parents to practise similar communication. We are happy to have conversations about your child's progress and needs as we care deeply about your child's wellbeing and education. We have 30 years of experience in education and we have made good observations on behaviours, learning methods and ways to guide children. We may at times make suggestions and ideas which may help your child in a multitude of areas educationally, but also at times emotionally too, we hope that you accept our feedback in the spirit which it is intended, which is to always help your child grow and develop and become a citizen of the world.
We are non denominational and have no religious bias, what we do have is a dedicated passion to serve the world and the natural environment. Many of the lessons we teach have this central message at their core.
“Peace is what every human being is craving for, and it can be brought about by humanity through the child.”
— Maria Montessori